[Snoworks]

Well, I hate to be the bringer of bad news. I think we are not going to get much snow this year, due to the amount of rain we have seen this fall. Every time we have had alot of rain, prior to the winter season, the snow totals have been low. As of today we have seen over 4 1/2" of rain in Nov. alone!

Chuck B.

 

[4evergreenlawns]

Well lets hope we get some abount of snowfall. This is really making it hard in some cases to bid work. In other cases at the winters become light other contractor are pulling out of the snow business. For business sake it is nice to have a 1-3 fall in November just to keep people honest. But there is always the chance for a big 20"+ to fall this time of the year is the direction changes as it get later with the Lake staying warm late into the winter.

The totals were only like 28" last year if I remember right. Need more than that to keep the clients even interested in having a snow plow contractor.


Chuck, how far do you travel? how many trucks? I might be looking for some help in your area as I expand. Let me know if you are interested and what you can handle.

Ron

 

[Snoworks]

We had a whopping 32.5" over here!

I have 7 of my own vehicals! Just give me a ring, if you want to talk.

Chuck B.

 

[Snoworks]

Looks like my forcast is right on the money so far!

Chuck B.

 

[Snoworks]

We have had about 4 to 6" of snow out of 6 storm systems. One was a 3 inch event the others were just dustings. We are only half through the season, so anything could still happen.

Chuck B.

 

[T-Zab]

Hey Chuck
Hope your wrong about your prediction. Anyway the last couple years have produced march pushes so lets keep our fingers crossed. Also did you get out for the slop from friday night? I noticed most commercials were done here Pushed and salted(Beach Park). I work for the big dog in town and was NOT called out. Vernan Hills route(Lake Forest, Lincolnshire, Vernan Hills) Im not sure if they just salted the lots?? Im sure there a mess now if that was all they did. Every drive on my street here not shoveled or plowed is a sheet of ice now. I cant imagine them leaving them just salted, unless they just kept laying it on to burn it off.
Todd

 

[Lawn Lad]

Chuck... and other IL brethern... sorry to hear your woes of no snow! Your region was definetly the "no snow" region last winter. Hope that won't be a repeat this winter.

What's your average snow fall during the winter? How many events do you normally get? How many so far this year?

 

[Snoworks]

T-Zab - I hit all my commercials twice with salt, no plowing. We got no snow out of the Friday storm, like the 2" expected/predicted. We did however recieve 1/4" of sleet/freezing rain.

Lawn Lad - Funny you asked about snow averages and total pushes, because I was going to post last year vs. this year to date. So here it is:

-Our average annual snow total for a season is around 44" to 46".

-Last year I recorded between 29" and 33" inches of snow depending on loacation. We plowed commercials 15 times and residentials 8 times. We salted 30 times.

-The year before had even lower totals, I think we had a whopping 26" and one storm was 14". Three other storms accounted for the rest of the total. We went out a total of 4 times plowing residential and commercial. We salted 12 times.

-To date I have plowed residentials and commercials once each. I have salted 8 times, so far. Last year at this time we had plowed commercials 8 times and residentials 4 times. Last year we had salted 15 times up to Jan 18th.

Chuck B.

 

[Snoworks]

On a side note - I have been keeping track of storms that have fizzeled out or just did not produce enough moisture when it got to our region. Prior to these systems getting over our area, these storms were producing snowfall amounts between 2"- 6".

This year 5 storms.
Last year 10 storms.
Previous year 5 storms.

Have been experiencing a lot of storms that look powerfull on the radar, but are weak when they come through. Example: This past storm was showing heavy precip. to be falling according to the radar(I dont care what kind - for this example). But it was just lightly sleeting out at the time.


Chuck B.

 

[4evergreenlawns]

Well my salt numbers were up last year and Jan, Feb, March 03 yeilded some $$$$$ in salt application. This year I have am into the just into the double digits in salt applications.

My per push accounts are starting to pay off. After the last snow fall that was very wet and left alot of ice pack on my per push customer that only want salt if they call all called begging for salt after it did not melt off by the end of the second day. Travel time added to billing due to late calls.

This last ice storm the phone was ringing mid afternoon before anything even started saying, "Please put salt down if YOU think we are going to needed it. Do not wait for us to call, OK?" Good thing too, it was over 35 air temps day of the storm by the evening drop to like 12. If we did not salt all the slop would be ice and I would have been out again this morning salting abd bulling for travel time. Finally making some money on those accounts.

Lets see how the next two months pan out and lets not forget we plowed in April 03 too. 5 or 6 more salt event would be just fine with me. I am sure we will plow a few more time too.