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Technology

So, How Do Canadians Get Rid of All That Snow?

Jan. 1, 2013 9:00am Liz Klimas

There are times when snowfall is so great there is really no where for it to go. You can only pile snow so high on the side of the road and along sidewalks and driveways. So what’s to be done with the powdery precipitation when there’s a massive dumping? Do like the Canadians do.

Similar to how farmers would harvest corn with a combine shooting their bounty into a nearby truck for transport, this too is how some in more frigid climates deal with their snow.

A tractor with an attachment sucks up the snow and spews it into a dump truck, which will transport it to a more remote area where workers are allowed to pile the snow as high as a two-story house.

Video Shows How Canadians Get Rid of Snow

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

Notice the similarities with harvesting corn. (Photo: Shutterstock.com.)

Watch for yourself to see how it’s done:

Did you notice how about 18 seconds into the clip a second truck pulls forward to take the full one’s place. They’ve got this system down to a science.

You can see the trucks switching here. (Image: YouTube screenshot)

The YouTube user who uploaded the video describes herself as an Armenian girl living in Canada and deemed it evidence of “our joyful lifestyle.”

Here’s another interesting method of snow disposal when there’s nowhere else for it to go: melt it. See how that would work:

(H/T: NeatORama)

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Comments (51)

judyaz
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 3:02pm
“Oh, what fun it is to ride….”

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- VerySeniorCitizen
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 4:03pm
  Lets just change the geography.
  
  This is what they do in New York City, Na Newark, and Chicago, and Minneapolis, and Denver after a blizzard – AND it is what they do at most airports around teh country in order to clear the runways.
  
  So the point of this story is————-??
  
  Report this comment
- Ditto Head
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 4:39pm
  Thank you, Blaze, for this important information.
  
  Report this comment
- SweetDoug
  Posted on January 2, 2013 at 12:36pm
  ‘
  ‘
  ‘
  ‘
  Canadian snow, is valued around the world as some of the highest grade snow in the world.
  
  Don’t be the last to own some!
  
  Send your cheque or money order for a 1 cubic meter, (This is a true cubic meter, not a the phoney, lesser, American cubic yard!) to the address below before it’s gone!…
  
  •∆•
  V-V
  
  Report this comment
Arbroath7
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 2:08pm
This is what the Air Force was doing at the northern Michigan base and also at the central Alaska base I was stationed at in the early 1970s.

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LoVoltage
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 1:16pm
I’ve seen those snow melting machines before… those are Snow Dragons! Those things rock!

http://www.snowdragonmelters.com/home.asp?ID=2

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garbagecanlogic
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 12:52pm
And all this time, I thot they were selling it to Americans on the internet. I can’t believe this report, this is the way we have been doing it for years in Nebraska.

Praise Be To Obama. Psalm 109:8

The U.S. Out Of The U.N.
The U.N. Out Of The U.S.

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SmellyDog
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 12:51pm
Just mail it to the fricken polar bears!

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banjarmon
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 12:13pm
Send that snow to DC to be melted in a few seconds from the HOT AIR coming from the dems and libs!!

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Robert Hawk
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 10:46am
Don’t worry global warming will melt the snow for them

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Chromo200
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 10:45am
Big deal they do the same in many midwest snow laden cities.

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- stumpy68
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 11:20am
  Im from Maine and was thinking the same thing
  
  Report this comment
- starman70
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 12:31pm
  Load it up on trucks and railcars and then spread it across the drought laden areas of Nebraska, Indiana, illinois and Ohio.
  
  Report this comment
- SovereignSoul
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 1:24pm
  Just leave it where God put it.
  
  Report this comment
- Schteveo
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 5:50pm
  You’d think the maroons who wrote this had never seen snow at airports in the U.S.!
  
  I’ve seen these things at O’Hare, Stapleton, Newark, Cleveland, blah, blah, blah….
  
  Report this comment
TJexcite
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 10:45am
When they do that where I live the pile last year got well over 4 stories and has a 2 Excavator/trackhoes on top pulling that the snow even higher. I was shocked after it melted as it looked like a giant dirt pile gone to nothing. It was built right beside a water overflow reservoir to melt and where they take water to the water treatment plant if needed when the river source is to low or to dirt with spring runoff to clean.

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chucksue351
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 10:32am
i remember one year the snow was so high in Sault st Marie Michigan that the city pushed it in to the st marys river, the army corp of engineers stopped them because it would pollute the river, where do they think the snow was going to go on its own anyway

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- Salamander
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 11:04am
  I’m surprised the Army Corp of Engineers doesn’t require a wastewater permit of the fish who live there!
  
  Report this comment
jakartaman
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 10:17am
God put it there and HE will take it away – Its called nature.

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- Sol Invictus
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 1:07pm
  As snow clearance schemes go I detect some flaws in your plan. You can wait some time for God to clear your driveway.
  
  Report this comment
- roscoe569
  Posted on January 2, 2013 at 9:52pm
  No……that would be called. Unsafe to drive….
  
  Report this comment
gbgreta
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 10:07am
Hate to tell ya, but that’s just a larger version of the same snowblower we all have in our garages up north. It’s mounted on a front-end loader – some folks mount them on their tractors and garden tractors at home.

A common sight – guess you kids don’t get out much.

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- Salamander
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 11:04am
  You should see the ones they use on their trains!
  
  Report this comment
RamonPreston
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 10:06am
Converts all that snow into… ICE! What do you think all that water is going to do?

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louzyana
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:43am
So… they are using these gas guzzling, carbon emitting heavy machineries to get rid of the results of “global warming”?? That’s interesting…

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- OldSurfRat
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:56am
  Good point!
  
  Report this comment
Doug_Huffman
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:42am
How to be rid of snow? Pray for glow bull warming.

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- stopprintn
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 10:30am
  They could sell it to them dumb Saudi folks, and throw in some sleds.
  
  Report this comment
SavvyCowboy
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:39am
“A tractor with an attachment sucks up the snow and spews it into a dump truck….” REALLY?!?!?? Are you “city folks” that ignorant?? Try – “A front end loader retrofitted with a SNOW BLOWER blows the snow directly into a waiting dump truck….” OMG no WONDER we have another obummer term if people in “the cities” are this dumb. I live 30 miles from the nearest “tractor with an attachment” and I use a John Deere tractor with a front end loader and a snow blower (on the PTO) to move snow. HELLOOOO!!!!
Sheesh……

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- jd9215
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:49am
  @SAVVYCOWBOY : The correct term is “CITIDIOTS”. @1776FREEDOMOFSPEECH: Thanks. I like it too.
  
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- NORTHBRO
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 10:06am
  Nevermind that, How does this compare to a combine, its like a forage harvester that chops a standing green crop and sprays it in the truck. A combine seperates grain, stores it in a hopper, then augers (conveys) into a truck. City folk are ignorant. If your going to do a story, at least know what your talking about. ps. I’ve seen this done state-side too.
  
  Report this comment
- Snidely
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 6:57pm
  Citidiots. I like that term. Very accurate. I’ve seen this done with snow in Iowa. I’m sure there are many other places in the US blowing snow into a dump truck. For anyone wondering, here’s a video of a forage harvester. (It’s nothing like a combine.) http://youtu.be/mbWPgxjuzPM
  
  Report this comment
righthanddrive
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:37am
Some say that the Canadians save the snow in bunkers or their iceboxes for when global waring hits and then will use it to cool down the land…They are also known to lend it out to Southern Latituders who feel too hot in April for cost plus 10%.

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randy
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:34am
Typical sight in the north east…… Oswego, NY

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chips1
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:31am
I’ve got a better idea. What if we could find a way to warm the planet, we could…………

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TROONORTH
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:29am
That clip must be from Toronto. Out here in rural Canada we just push it aside, throw water on it and play hockey until the next snow fall! VIVE LES CANADIENS!! BOO LEAFS!!

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soybomb315_II
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:17am
if you are not interested in today’s selection of articles such as snow removal, slashing tires with an ice pick, or pastor wife shooting herself – here are two interesting articles from The American Conservative

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/surviving-war-falling-to-suicide/

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-depardieu-revolution/

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jd9215
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:13am
One of the piles of snow I saw in Edmonton, Alberta last year was a heck of a lot higher than a two storey house. Bulldozers just keep pushing it higher. The pile was done melting around the beginning of June.

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- 1776freedomofspeech
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:35am
  You guys make good beer up there.
  
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piper60
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:12am
The question isn’t how do they get it out of the city. The question is where does it go?

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- HotFixIt
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 11:22am
  Leave it up to the EPA,, they will find an excuse to make sure that melter is a problem… waste water run off is a polutant.. didn’t you know that!
  
  Report this comment
- dinadp
  Posted on January 1, 2013 at 4:59pm
  In Montreal, there are huge snow dumping depots (city-owned land) where the trucks dump their snow. Depending on the amount of snow we get in a season, I’ve seen snow as late as May & early June. By then, though, it’s covered in black gunk.
  
  BTW, the trucks in YT clip are singles. We also have double-longs. Those are way more cool. What the video didn’t show was the prep work before the snow blower shows up. There are sidewalk plows that work with the street plows to remove the snow from the sidewalks and line it up for the blowers. It’s especially impressive in the urban areas. No parking signs are posted (usually 7h-19h or 19h-7h) and before the start time, city workers drive down the streets to check for parked cars. When they find one, they sound an alram (of sorts) to get the owners to move their vehicles. If no one comes out to move them, they tow them.
  
  I figured that US cities that get a lot of snow would use the same snow removal techniques. Guess not…….
  
  Report this comment
123456beatriz
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:04am
Smart People

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123456beatriz
Posted on January 1, 2013 at 9:03am
Smat!

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