Snow stories

Before I moved to Montreal, people told me about how cold and snowy it would be. It actually hasn't been too bad so far...

One things that's impressed me has been Montreal's ability to deal with the snow. I mean, people just deal with it. And the city deals with it too.

During/after a big snowfall, the plows are out and about. At all hours. I hear them doing their thing in the middle of the night. I don't think there's been a big snowfall here that I've had to venture out and something wasn't already taken care of. That's not to say that everything's clearer away, but I've realized that there's a very set procedure with all of it.

First, they clean the sidewalks and roads. This often results in big mounds of snow by the curbs and cars (lots of street parking in the city) getting absolutely boxed in. I've been keen to see how cars dig themselves out. It's interesting and entertaining. So that's what I perceive to be Part 1 to immediately deal with the situation to help pedestrians and vehicles.

Part 2 can make it a little bit more difficult for pedestrians and vehicles. All of that snow that's piled up by the curb get plowed around to make mounds on the side of the roads or at corners of sidewalks or other places that you'd usually want to walk on. But that's just in preparation for Part 3.

Part 3 is my favorite. They have these tag-team trucks/plows/blowers/vehicles that come by to remove everything. A vehicle that's a plow/snowblower hybrid picks up all of the snow in inconvenient piles and snow at the side of the road and by the curb. And blows it into a massive dumptruck-ish vehicle that's drive just beside it. The day prior, there are signs on the street telling cars not to park on the street so that the magic can happen. And magic it is! I'm so curious though to see where they take all of this snow. There must be mountains of it!

And seriously, after Part 3, the roads and sidewalks are so clean. I mean, sometimes there's layer of ice on the sidewalks but the temperature has fluctuated enough so that it's not completely treacherous. The streets are so clean. It's crazy cool.

...until the next snowfall.