• Menu

My Weird Canadian Life – Did You Know Snow is “Vacuumed”?

We had a lot of snow this winter—each winter storm brought 30 centimetres of the white stuff and we were literally snowed under every time. Fortunately, we had signed up for a snow shovelling service to clear the driveway and they did an okay job every time—I don’t mind shovelling ten or even fifteen centimetres of snow, but when it’s wet and heavy, clearing the driveway is almost impossible.

One of the questions my family asks me most often is: “But where do you put all that snow?”

Well, anywhere we can—on the lawn, on the side of the road, at the end of the driveway… The result is massive snow piles scattered in every neighbourhood. They can get pretty high and it’s dangerous when they block part of the street since you can’t see the traffic when you back off your driveway. They also block the drains and create floods everywhere.

So, once in a while, the city “vacuums” snow.

Huge trucks and machines are dispatched in every neighbourhood. Large snow blowers “cut” the snow banks, and “vacuum” the snow, which is loaded into a large truck. The snow is then hauled to one of the many “snow dumps”—yes, there are such things in Canada.

No wonder the snow removal budget for Ottawa amounts to millions of dollars every year!

Just Came Back From The Supermarket... Walking in the Blizzard!
Just Came Back From The Supermarket… Walking in the Blizzard!
Massive Pile of Snow in Front of the House
Massive Pile of Snow in Front of the House
Vacuuming The Snow
Vacuuming The Snow
Hauling Winter Away
Hauling Winter Away
Share this article!
Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

View stories

Leave a Reply to Estefania Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

17 comments