There’s snow place like Richmond
29 January 2020
The recent snow fall across Metro Vancouver saw the City of Richmond receive as much snow in a week as it normally would across an entire winter.
According to data from Vancouver International Airport’s weather monitoring station, Richmond received 34.6 centimetres of snow from January 10 to 18. That’s more than the annual snowfall received each winter since 2008 (with the exception of 2017, when the city saw 43.4 centimetres).
Despite the extensive snow dump over such a short period, City of Richmond crews worked around the clock in back-to-back 12 hour shifts to keep up with evolving weather conditions.
Between January 10 and 18, City crews:
- covered 22,818 kilometres clearing and treating Richmond’s roads
- dispersed 1,434 tonnes of salt – the weight of almost three Airbus A380 aircraft
- used 746,000 litres of salt brine – equal to over 4,950 average bath tubs
“While the January 2020 snow event saw long hours and a seemingly endless war against Mother Nature, the City of Richmond is aware of the challenges winter weather brings to residents, their daily activities and safety,” said Mayor Malcolm Brodie. “That’s why the City has a snow strategy in place to focus on keeping main roads and major transit routes open as a priority, with arterial roads and residential streets to follow.”
The City appreciates and thanks residents for doing their part to shovel sidewalks and keep street storm drains clear. They also recognize the patience many showed while snow clearing occurred, and for following and providing input on the regular weather updates and safety information posted through the City’s Twitter and Facebook feeds.
The snow has been replaced with a lot of rain recently and hopefully it is gone for another year…but winter is still not over.