Originally posted by Serkevan "Spain is a warm country"
Meanwhile, the storm front "Filomena", deciding that -35ºC is a nice temperature:
This is the closest to Canada they are going to be I think. Hundreds of cars stranded in the highway, massive snowfall in half the country, army deployed to rescue drivers. I've never enjoyed the brunch coffee this much in a while
As you say Spain is a warm country. As a result there would be no need to have a lot of snow cleaning equipment. Where I am in Canada, we have a lot of snow, which because of our generally very cold winter temps, becomes compacted and very hard...on the roads. We clear the roads with large front end loaders and motor graders....because of the these conditions.
A couple of nights ago, our city roads were cleared. I usually don't get to sleep much before 3 am or so, and from many years of experience know that the plows usually get to my street by 2:30-3 AM. They are wonderful to behold....the way they plow, side by side in unison at a fair speed...it is as if they are choreographed.
To watch the heavy equipment drivers pilot their large machines , closely together in a marvelously coordinated fashion is something to behold. But then, they have had a lot of experience over the years out here. Usually on our streets, there are 3-4 front end loaders and two motor graders operating. The city issues notice that no parking on streets on a snow clearing night, will be allowed, streets are clear and work begins usually starting at 7 pm to 7 am. It usually just takes a couple of nights for streets, to be cleared for the entire city...population somewhere around 850,000 +, I think is the latest estimate and this city is spread over a lot of area as we're on the prairies and a fair amount of space was available as it developed.
A number of years ago staff at the city of London (England) contacted snow clearing people at Winterpeg for advice on how to clear an unseasonable large dump of snow in that city. The advice was in London's case to let it melt, as London, as many cities that don't experience much snow, doesn't have adequate heavy snow clearing equipment numbers in proportion to their size, and the temps would rise to a melting point soon. They would have no need for a lot of snow clearing equipment, as rarely do they get a huge snow dump.
Here, normally, this year is an aberration...our temps remain very cold from early November till March or later, requiring snow/ice to be removed from streets.