how does canada cope with the snow?
 

hiya,

says it all in the title really but the uk has ground to a halt so was wondering how canada copes as you get much, much more snow than us?

thanks in advance

esther
x

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

Many of the more populated areas are flat. Most of the roads are straight. This makes driving in snow much easier. And snow ploughs are usually out in force on highways/main roads fairly sharpish.

Doesn't mean there aren't problems though:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/windsor/sto...scue-snow.html

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

Different parts of Canada have varying quantities of snow, and so differ in how they can cope with it!

If you are talking about roads/travel; Generally highways get cleared pretty quickly, but anywhere can get tricky if there is a big dump. Some people have 4 wheel drive cars ... many get snow tires, but then again many seem to manage without them, even in snowy parts. Lots of people carry a small shovel in the car, and we have some old bits of carpet that work well under the tires to get a grip if we get stuck.

Regarding the cold: houses are warm, cars are warm, underground parking is warm. Lots of cars have block-heaters and there are car parks with plug-in points for those to stop the engine freezing (I have never used mine)

It's wise to have some warm clothing with you in the car just in case, and if you are out and about, a windproof coat over layers of other clothes, a good hat and gloves, and insulated boots are a pretty good idea. With a high wind-chill, frost-bite is a very real possibility eg here in Alberta on some days, though it's rare for us to get very deep snow.

If you read other threads, some people are equipped to stay over in case of not being able to get home at the end of their working day!

The country doesn't grind to a halt, but it does go a little (or a lot) slower in places at times! :p

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

We get more practice, so we have no choice, "innit"?

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

We spend a lot of money on it. Or we'd shut down for five months of the year.

The City of Ottawa has an army of various snow removing devices of all shapes and sizes for our roads and sidewalks. The snow is put into large trucks and dumped out of town. We shovel our own sidewalks or risk a fine, shovel our driveways, get winter tires put on (mostly), buy salt for our steps and so on.

I own four shovels of various sizes and types - pushing the snow, shoveling, metal pick-thing to break up ice.

A lot of people work in snow removal in the winter and work construction, driving trucks etc the rest of the year. Its a viable career option.

This all gets paid for by your local property taxes of course. When I arrived in 2007, there was so much snow that year that an additional levy was put on the tax to deal with the extra cost. I pay $5K a year in property taxes.

I'm mystified by the UK media on this issue. Why all the hand-wringing?

Councils rightly haven't spent millions for unusual weather events. If you only have two snow plows and one gritting truck of course you'll have problems.

Do you really want your taxes wasted for snow that only comes once in thirty years? For the sake of a couple of days of inconvenience?

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

Hi there,
Couldn't agree with you more. If you listen to the British media and all the talk radio shows right now, it's full of people bleating about how we can't cope like the Scandinavians and Canadians do.
If we had invested the equivalent amount of money in the technology required to cope with this a couple of years ago the very same people would probably bleating about the scandalous waste of taxpayers money
Regards Derren

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

Note also that, for all the money spent, Canada isn't immune to weather related problems, last week 300 vehicles got stuck on a motorway near Sarnia ON during an exceptional snowstorm. Schools close a few days a year due to weather and, more commonly, the school buses don't run, incidentally stranding at home the parents of the passengers.

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

Yeah, there's usually one day a year when we can't realistically get to work; at least not without spending an hour shoveling snow away from the garage and then fighting our way through the traffic and car crashes. Otherwise there's rarely a problem.

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

Yet we used to have plenty of snow when I was a kid and it didn't seem to cause the same problems; while these two winters seem to have been particularly bad, clearly the country could manage to cope with significant amounts of snow not so long ago.

Snow-clearing capabilities have been being run down for at least the last fifteen years or so, I remember complaints about my local council in the mid-90s not having done enough to deal with the smaller amounts of snow we were getting back then.

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

and then there's vancouver which is as bad as the UK. I imagine it will always be worse in the UK as the roads are so narrow and no where for the snow to go?

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

Although this may have coincided with warmer temperatures over that period and less snow, so less need to spend on these?

I also remember more snow in London as a kid than there was in my twenties.

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

I think we can be pretty sure that the last two winters have cost the British economy far more than the amount saved by cutting back on snow-clearing capabilities.

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

hi there,
Don't think it would have made much difference in my opinion. When such a large amount of snow is dumped in such a small amount of time it doesn't matter how much grit you put on the road.
Also, you can have a ploughing vehicle on every road but where's the snow going to go. It's going to block the pavements , so pedestrians won't be able to walk about or enter the shops that badly need the business.
Admittedly, the motorways and rail networks could probably have been better served.
Regards Derren

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

My neighbour this afternoon was complaining about the snow and asked how I coped when I lived in Canada and why we can not cope in the UK. I told him that I paid a lot more in property taxes (nearly double what I currently do). I do think most Brits would wan to pay an extra £500+ to have load of snow removal equipment that would only be used for a few days a year.

I have also now changed my tyres on my car for all seasons( Mud & Snow), as before my car would not get up the steep hill to my house. I am changing my wife car to all season tomorrow as it has sports tyre on a 4X4 and has zero grip in the snow.

I have two Canadian Tire shovels which have been useful for clearing our hill down to the main road the road.

hudd

Re: how does canada cope with the snow?
 

Even though they may claim otherwise, all-season tires are not ideally designed to grip in cold weather or snow, you'd be better off spending your money on dedicated winter tires. The compound and tread in snow tires are very different from all seasons.