Don Tai (Canada) Blog

A +4C snowfall followed by a -4C overnight freeze turns heavy, wet snow into ice that has the consistency of concrete.

We are from Toronto, Canada, and most of Canada regularly gets snow during the winter. As the snow falls from the sky it accumulates. This accumulation must be removed from the streets, sidewalks and private driveways in order for cars to safely drive on the street and for people to be able to safely walk on the sidewalk. There are times when you can leave the snow on your driveway and clear it away some time later, but in some specific conditions, waiting even 6 hours can make the job multiple times more difficult. These conditions include above freezing temperatures while the snow falls, followed by a quick below 0C freeze overnight, turning wet, heavy snow into a large block of ice.

This morning the sun arose just a little bit earlier. It was brighter outside than usual. The kids were just a little happier, and walk with a little more skip in their step. They are more eager to go to school and play with their friends. In fact we are all a little brighter than usual. It snowed last night.

___It’s magical that a sprinkling of 5 cm of new snow can transform our landscape, and with it the spirits of our neighborhood. New snow is pristine, covering everything with a whitewash of, well, white. It’s as if some gigantic bottle of baby powder was evenly sprinkled on everything. A landscape of white greets your senses, with only a hint of green showing from our evergreens, who have the ability to partially shed their coat of snow.

Driveway, sidewalk and snowbank, on S's side

In true Canadian spirit, we must talk about snow and winter. This winter is unique in that while it has snowed a little more than an average year, there has been very little melt. This means that, not surprisingly, the snow accumulates. In downtown Toronto, snow may be carted off in trucks to a local park and dumped, but in most residential areas, it is simply too expensive.

As usual the little one was bored. The boring list includes: full internet and computer games, more Lego than you can shake a stick at, robots, Hotwheels, books, the list goes on and on.

I suggest tobogganing. What could be more Canadian than tobogganing? At -10C the weather is not too cold nor too windy. ‘Bogganing is healthy and relatively safe. We head off to the local large and medium hills, side by side. The sun is shining and we climb and make one on the medium and four on the large, all great runs.

Gonggong's bicycle snowed in

A whole lot of snow has fallen in Toronto, and I’ve been shoveling once last night and twice today. While the temperatures are -4C and the snow is fluffy, it looks like around 20cm, which builds up and becomes heavy. It is not cold outside.

Crabapple tree in winter

The trees have snow but not ice.

Icicles by security light

We have some icicles growing from various parts of the eavestrough that are melting, so there’s a constant drip, drip onto the snow outside. They will freeze solid tonight. The kids want them to eat, but they’re too high up and when you crack them off you don’t want to be underneath when they fall.