The Washington Post

It’s late May and Boston has trash-infested snow piles three stories high

Forget the fact Memorial Day has come and gone.  Forget the fact Boston is having its 5th straight day in the 80s.  Towering snow piles still linger – a crusty, nasty reminder of its miserable winter, the snowiest in recorded history.

[Top 10 snowiest U.S. cities this winter]

The Boston Globe reports a snow pile in Beantown’s Seaport District, which at one time soared to 75 feet, remains. It has melted down and compacted into a three story concoction of “dirt and discarded household items…encrusted in solid ice.”

“It’s vile,” Michael Dennehy, commissioner of the city’s Department of Public Works, told the Globe. “We’re finding crazy stuff; bicycles, orange cones that people used as space savers — the funniest thing they found was half of a $5 bill. They’re looking for the other half still.”

Dennehy added the pile is “weeks away” from melting.  Maybe Bostonians can celebrate snow pile independence on July 4?

Boston’s snow piles have long outlived any in the D.C. area.   Capital Weather Gang’s Kevin Ambrose reported the last known snow pile in the region, at the Plaza America in Reston, disintegrated April 22.


A collage showing the evolution of the 2015 Reston snow pile (Kevin Ambrose)

[Rest in peace Reston snow pile (Photos)]

During Washington, D.C.’s record-setting Snowmageddon winter of 2009-2010, a snow pile outside a BWI airport parking garage, which reached 6 stories at its peak, endured until  early May.

The evolution of the BWI snow pile in 2010 (BWI Airport)
The evolution of the BWI snow pile in 2010 (BWI Airport)

[Unbelievable: Still snow at BWI… (from 2010)]

Boston clearly has D.C. beat in snow pile size and duration, and it is welcome to that distinction.

Jason is the Washington Post’s weather editor and Capital Weather Gang's chief meteorologist. He earned a master's degree in atmospheric science, and spent 10 years as a climate change science analyst for the U.S. government. He holds the Digital Seal of Approval from the National Weather Association.
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At a Glance

Fri.

37° /48°

Sat.

32° /43°

Sun.

30° /48°

Mon.

29° /40°

Tue.

23° /38°

Wed.

25° /44°
National Airport
Dulles
BWI

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Washington, D.C., Snow Tracker

Current Snow Total
0"
Record Most Snow
(2009-10)
56.1"
Record Least Snow
(1997-98, 1972-73)
0.1"
Last Winter's Snow Total
18.3"

D.C. Area Almanac

 
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Mackenzie Williams · May 28, 2015

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