Buried in snow or stung by bitter cold — which December was better, Winnipeg?
Darren Bernhardt | CBC News | Posted: December 28, 2017 5:00 PM | Last Updated: December 28, 2017
Three storms within a month last winter left Winnipeggers buried in snow and bickering with each other
Sure, it's cold but at least we're not buried in snow, right?
Right?
There's got to be something that makes our Siberian situation slightly more tolerable.
For the city, it must be all the money saved by not needing to send out the army of snow-clearing equipment, which costs $6 million to $7 million each time a full sweep through the city is done.
In December 2016, Winnipeggers had to shovel out from under 80 cm centimetres of snow — 68.8 cm of which fell in that month alone.
Much of that came through two major storms, one on Dec. 6 and the second on Boxing Day, thwarting some bargain hunters from getting to the sales.
CBC meteorologist John Sauder said about 20-25 cm of snow was dropped on the city in that second storm. And a third one arrived shortly after the New Year began.
In all, Winnipeg received about 90 cm of snow by the time the third storm had wrapped up. The average snowfall in the city for an entire winter is 114 cm.
There was so much volume during Snowmageddon 2016/17 that it led to neighbours bickering over where to put the piles.
The city's Mediation Services fielded calls as people inquired about help to settle the snow disputes, a large number of which involved people piling snow onto a neighbour's property with a snow blower.
"We've had an event that we haven't seen for about 107 years in Winnipeg," St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard, who sits on the public works committee, said in January 2017, as complaints rolled into the city.
Many were from people angry about the uncleared sidewalks, preventing them from leaving their homes if they couldn't walk the meandering deer-like trails.
"We've had almost a whole year's worth of snow in one month and our public works and private contractors have been doing everything they can to catch up," Allard said.
Many were from people angry about the uncleared sidewalks, preventing them from leaving their homes if they couldn't walk the meandering deer-like trails.
In comparison, total snowfall in December 2017, so far, is a measly 14.6 cm.
However, that could spike by another centimetre or two on Thursday, Sauder warns.
The city wouldn't provide figures on how much it has saved on snow removal this month, saying it is too premature, since there is still time for that to change.
"Final costs for snow clearing and ice control, once calculated, will be available by the end of February 2018," an email from spokesman David Driedger.
In the meantime, while Winnipeg — and most of the province — shivers in deeply cold temperatures with wind chills that make it feel like –40 or –50, at least the sidewalks are clear so those stiff legs can shuffle freely.