According to the city, it’s been a bi-polar winter in Montreal. A mix of rain, freezing rain and snow dominated most of February, making it a very busy season for snow-removal operations.
So far, 150 cm of snow have fallen across the island, which, according to city spokesperson Phillipe Sabourin, is about 10 cm below average for this time of the year.
“We usually do between five and six snow-removal operations for an average winter,” says Sabourin. “There is enough room in our budget to make sure we are dealing properly with the winter until the end.”
The latest snow-removal operation that started last Friday was number five for the city. But, according to Environment Canada’s short-term forecast, the next week or so could be messy. Montreal could see up to five cm of snow on Sunday followed by freezing rain.
Although it appears the city has been stuck in a snow globe this winter, Sabourin says there is still plenty of room for it.
“Of course there is limitation of capacity in each of our snow dumps,” says Sabourin. “But at this point, they’re not full. There is plenty of room for another snow storm,” he adds.
On average the city has to find room to dump 12 million cubic meters of snow every year. That’s about 10 times the volume of the Olympic stadium, all while being environmentally friendly.
The city uses 16 sewers, 12 snow dump sites and a quarry that can hold between 5-6 million cubic meters. And there will be plenty of more snow to dump in March.
Environment Canada says on average Montreal sees between 35-40 centimeters in March and another 12-13 centimeters in April.
- What is a halal mortgage? How interest-free home financing works in Canada
- Capital gains changes are ‘really fair,’ Freeland says, as doctors cry foul
- Budget 2024 failed to spark ‘political reboot’ for Liberals, polling suggests
- Peel police chief met Sri Lankan officer a court says ‘participated’ in torture
Comments