
Particularly for those of you who don’t see snow, you may wonder why the weather people go on and on about it. Well, this is why. Even for a very average snow, the amount of cleanup can be amazing–and I live in a neighborhood without sidewalks.

Not only do driveways and mailboxes have to be cleared, but spots have to be dug out–or snow blowed–for the trash barrels and recycling bins.
Notice the orange snow stakes. Those have to be set in the ground before it freezes. Again, because we have no curbs or sidewalk, those guide the town plows. Otherwise, you might wind up with 5 feet of your lawn plowed up as they come barreling down the street!
Most of us use stakes that are 5′ tall. That usually gets us through an average winter of snow.

You can see how even this average snow has almost buried my “thank you ” sign.

And you can see how quickly plowed snow piles up. To the right of the photo is our split rail fence. It quickly disappears to the left under the snow. This becomes very dangerous at intersections and in parking lots if it is at the entrances because no one can see to pull out. As winter goes on and these piles get higher, body shops start reaping rewards.
Melting from these piles freezes into sheets of ice as well. It’s quite dangerous.
So you can see why the meteorologists make a big deal about snow. It really does affect our lives in a lot of ways.