September in Edmonton: Last Pile of Snow Melts

Tuesday, 13 September 2011 | by Pat's Picks

I was in Alberta a month ago and the only snow I saw was high in the mountains. But I got a funny tweet today from a friend in Edmonton that the last pile of snow there from Winter 2010/2011 just melted. I didn’t quite believe it until I saw the video.

The tweet came from Kerry Powell, an old friend (and a reliable source as a journalist at the Edmonton Journal.) Apparently the city of Edmonton had so much snow to deal with last year that they started trucking it over to an empty field and building it into a mountain. (It’s called “snow storage” in the road maintenance industry.)

But honestly, would it really take four or five months of summer temperatures for the snow to melt? How much snow was there?

And then Simon Ostler tweeted me a link to this video clip, from CTV reporter David Ewasuk, another old friend. Once you see the 170-foot snow mountain you’ll understand why it barely melted in time for winter to start again.