Snow has arrived again in Richmond and this time around it could put residents and city snow removal crews to the test more so than in past weeks.
Environment Canada is predicting up to 20 centimetres in the Lower Mainland through to Saturday, when the snow is expected to turn to rain.
There remains the potential for the snow to turn to rain Friday afternoon before turning back to snow Friday night, especially at low-level areas, such as Richmond.
“It’s going to be messy,” said GlobalBC meteorologist Mark Madryga.
Snow may return Monday, he said.
Whereas in late December and early January most Metro Vancouver cities were challenged to remove snow and ice on roads, as the region received repeated dumps of snow, Richmond escaped most of the mayhem as much of its snowfall (27 centimetres in all of December) was promptly washed away by rain.
Ice did remain on many sidewalks, however, causing challenges for pedestrians.
The icy sidewalks prompted complaints to the city, and council responded in January with a referral to staff to amend bylaws to require single-family home owners to clear their sidewalks, as is required by businesses and strata complexes, by 10 a.m. each day.
Meanwhile, the city stated on Twitter that it had commenced de-icing major and secondary roads, as of 3 a.m. Friday.
After nearly running out of salt in January and needing to ration it, city staff’s most recent update to council was that the works yard had 500 tonnes of salt.
Snow removal by the numbers:
500
- metric tonnes of salt secured by the city.
217
-kilometres of main ("first priority") roads in need of plowing
6
-Road temperature sensors used by the city to determine de-icing strategies
10
-Dump trucks with ploughs
5
-F550S's with snow ploughs
5
-Backhoes
4
-Mobile walk-behind snow blowers
