How UFS keeps up with Old Man Winter

When it comes to snow, we got it. January in Rochester saw Old Man Winter at his fiercest in years. And while most of us were probably cursing the snow drifts we had to contend with at home, imagine having to plow a football field piled high with the white stuff.

Schied

That's similar to what University Facilities and Services had to contend with last month--and more, says Dan Schied, manager, horticulture and grounds.

The month's weather woes were kicked off with an icy mix, which required leasing special equipment to clear the campuses. It was a premonitory sign for the rough weather that would soon hit the campus.

"It seemed as soon as we were finishing the ice scraping, the snow began to fly on Friday the 8th, and continued consistently through January 16," says Schied. "Snow often came at the rate of 1 inch an hour, which may not sound like much, but when put over 6 million-plus square feet of area to be cleaned, it amounts to quite a bit."

To help visualize this amount of snow, Schied offers some calculations. The immediate University properties--including the River Campus, the Medical Center, and the South Campus through Whipple Park, but not including the parking garage or satellite properties--comprise in excess of 6,080,000 square feet of roads, parking lots, and sidewalks. One inch of snow would equal 506,667 cubic feet or 18,765 cubic yards of snow over these areas.

Here's another illustration: One inch of snow over the mentioned areas would fill the football-field area of Fauver Stadium with a solid cube 11.26 feet tall, or fill 10-cubic-yard dump trucks parked bumper to bumper stretching 9.25 miles.

Schied adds that the January snowfall proved to be particularly challenging.

"The snows of early January had one thing in common, and that is the snowfall was often at the rate of 1 inch per hour after midnight! As you can imagine, this provides an incredible challenge in having each campus plowed and clear at 7 a.m. when it just keeps filling in behind your plow."

If you can't imagine that, try imaging this: Eight inches of snow between midnight and 8 a.m. would correspond to a football-field-size cube 90-plus feet tall, or fill 10-cubic-yard dump trucks parked bumper to bumper stretching 74 miles. Schied offers a further case in point: The 42 inches of snow we received during the first two weeks of January would create a football-field-size cube 473 feet tall (67 feet taller than Xerox Tower) and fill 10-cubic-yard dump trucks parked bumper to bumper stretching 388.5 miles.

Knowing where the areas of concern are for snow removal is helpful, says Schied, and he expresses his thanks to those who report them to the dispatch center (x3-4567). Last, but certainly not least, Schied also expresses his thanks to the people who work to keep up with Old Man Winter. "I would like to thank those individuals who work long shifts, at all hours of the day and night, to keep our campuses open throughout the winter season."