Snow

[newguy]

Thought this might be interesting. From the local paper (Sept 12, 2011):

Cold comfort: Edmontons snow has finally melted
Citys snow storage facilities hit bare pavement this weekend

It took almost the entire summer including a week of above-average September heat but the last remnants of snow in Edmonton have finally melted.

A pile of snow at the citys west end storage facility finally officially melted to the ground at 4 p.m. Saturday, after months of cooler-than-usual temperatures, the City of Edmonton announced Monday on its Twitter account.

And with snow in Edmonton all but guaranteed by November, and perhaps earlier, it will likely be only weeks before the site is visited by the wet stuff again.

Across Edmonton there are five snow storage facilities, where the city stores snow collected from major routes throughout the winter.

This year the facilities held more than the average amount of snow, thanks to the long, snowy winter that Edmonton endured.

In a typical winter season, the city moves about 800,000 cubic metres of snow. By January this year, crews had already moved more than 900,000 cubic metres.

As recently as the beginning of September, the pile at the west-end storage facility was still about three metres high.

The piles typically melt down by July.

 

[Wolfy]

Thought this might be interesting. From the local paper (Sept 12, 2011):

Interesting that you have 'snow storage facilities' and monitor the snow in them and when it melts.

 

[thelastspud]

Over here they had/have snow storage up in the mountains, big stone lined pits where
they stored the winter's snow so they could sell it in the towns to keep food from spoiling.
but it never lasted that long, pretty impressive.

 

[newguy]

Over here they had/have snow storage up in the mountains, big stone lined pits where
they stored the winter's snow so they could sell it in the towns to keep food from spoiling.
but it never lasted that long, pretty impressive.

My mom remembers ice houses when she was a child - this was before electricity was common. In winter, ice would be cut from rivers & lakes and stored in huge warehouses. These warehouses were the sources of ice during the summer for primitive refrigerators. The ice would be covered with straw or sawdust and would last all summer and into the next winter. Same sort of idea with the snow storage facilities only without the warehouse.

To give you an idea of the winter we had, click here. The piles of snow in the back yard ended up being about 8' tall and about 25' across at their base at the end of the winter. I have a feeling that this winter will be worse. Geese started flocking in the middle of August (about a month too early). I'm seriously considering a snowblower....

 

[raven19]

Surely you can utilise the chilling effect of that snow on the boiled wort prior to pitching!

Polar opposites to the oppressive heat we cop here in Oz during summer.