What a difference a year makes. By early March of 2021, outdoor rinks had shut down in the southeast, thin ice warnings were being issued for lakes and rivers, and local fire departments were gearing up for what was expected to be a busy grass fire season. Fast forward 12 months and municipalities are still trying to make room for all the snow as the seven-day forecast shows no signs of climbing above the freezing mark.

Wes Fehr is Manager of Public Works and Operations for the Rural Municipality of Hanover. He says these days his crew is knocking down snowbanks along roadways to either widen driving lanes or make room along the sides of roads for more snow storage.

Fehr says this has become the trend for 2022. He notes since the start of the new year, snow clearing has been steady work for their crews.

"Normally we would have multiple shop days to do maintenance and get things ready for the coming year," he points out. "I believe this year we have just a handful of shop days where we have not been on the roads."

Fehr says normally by early February they are starting to watch the forecast in order to prepare for snow ditching and the water runoff. Then by March, they have begun the task of opening up some drains and ditches in some areas, giving them a jumpstart on the spring melt. But, this year has been different.

"We have not done any snow ditching preparations yet," admits Fehr.

In fact, Fehr says based on the forecast, it could be two or three weeks before they start that work. But, he says that is not yet cause for concern.

"As long as we have cooler temperatures during the day and decent freezing temperatures at night we're not really concerned about the melt as of just yet," he adds.

However, Fehr says once we start seeing those overnight temperatures stay above zero, that is usually the sign of a quick melt and a lot of work.

According to Fehr, the area around Mitchell tends to be one of their hotspots for spring flooding. He notes from south of Mitchell to Provincial Road 205, there are often concerns for localized flooding.

Should the need arise, Fehr says they also have two steaming units in order to thaw culverts.

The story is very much the same in the city of Steinbach. Randy Reimer is Head of Public Works for the city. He notes by the end of last week they had tackled the task of cleaning up from the most recent dumping of snow. Since then, crews have been removing piles of snow off city parking lots and also some collector streets.

"But, it's just been pretty slow going," says Reimer. "We've got a lot of snow to haul in a very, very short period of time."

Similar to Hanover, Reimer says normally by this time of year they have started to open up drains and ditches in Steinbach in preparation for the spring melt. But, this year they have not been able to commence that work. And, just like what Fehr says, Reimer notes that is not concerning.

"Because once the melt starts happening, we'll have to then shift and start opening up areas to make way for the water to move," he says. "So I don't think that's a real big concern."

Reimer admits that sometimes it is nice to stay ahead of the game and have everything open by the time the melt hits, but this year they will just have to be more reactive in their approach.

It is still too early to predict how much flooding, if any, there will be in Steinbach this spring. Reimer says thankfully Steinbach does not have the same flooding concerns as communities living along a river, but that does not mean there will not be some localized flooding where spring runoff might back into peoples' homes or through window wells.

One of the jobs that his crew will be tasked with yet this spring will be the steaming of culverts and pipes. But, Reimer says with all of the snow cover, unless there was water sitting in the culverts and pipes prior to the snowfall, they should be open and not frozen.

Meanwhile, Reimer says his office has been receiving calls from Steinbach residents who say it is difficult to safely back off their driveway because of the large mounds of snow on street edges. He notes this is a problem throughout Steinbach and crews are trying to tackle some of the more critical areas. However, Reimer says there simply is not enough time to remove all the snow.

"So people will just have to realize that they have to slow down, they have to be much more careful than normal," he adds.

Reimer notes there is also the concern of some streets that still have a lot of vehicles parked on them. This makes it very difficult for crews to come in and widen those streets by removing all of the snow that has built up on the sides.