Reader: You Know Nothing, Denver Snow

While many Denverites stayed safe at home on Tuesday to avoid the snow, reader Mara Grace compiled this commentary on "Denver snow from the perspective of a 'transplant' (btw, I got my CO plates now!)":

YOU KNOW NOTHING, Denver Snow!!

...Until you've opened up your door to eight feet of snow blocking your doorway/path to your vehicle/commute to work (like Buffalo, NY, relatively recently; heck, even Massachusetts is exporting/selling snow now...).

In the Northeast, I've seen plows...stuck in the snow, mannn! "Lake Effect Snow" is not to be taken lightly — not fluffy like your "native" snow here, at least in the Denver metro area. (Aww, I feel like I'm driving on bunnies — oh, and yes, I've pushed and had to be pushed from a parking spot here; I'm not completely unaware.) Please believe me when I say I have complete respect. But then again, you don't salt/plow (much), especially side roads. Which is counterintuitive: How am I supposed to get to the main roads?!

I guess I'll just lose my job, root for the Broncos, and hope "God" shines down some blazing hot heavenly light to melt it. Or I could just pick up a shovel....

The northeast is not unknown for running out of salt and having to collaborate with neighboring counties/states. (And, yes, I'm aware "salt" is bad, "magnesium chloride "good" among other alternatives — beet juice, salt, etc.— that are not so detrimental to the environment and our cars.) Besides, most of the snow here melts by late morning or within the next day or few. In the northeast, it freezes both above and below ground to several feet. And stays that way for three to four months (arguably longer than a "season").

Be humbled and be proud, Denver! You have snow-melting machines here, though I tend to think allocation of funds for old-fashioned plowing of side streets might, in the end, be more efficient? So long as trailers, 4WD trucks/SUVs, etc., can get on the main roads, the heat friction of tires/traffic tends to do...about the same job as a plow.

Maybe plow *just* the side roads? Then we can all get out to the main ones and melt the rest ourselves. — Mara Grace