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I live in Michigan and the crews are clearing the roads and are using salt it doesn't work all that well and i was wondering if the crews use Salt in ND.
I know in Upper Michigan they do use sand but the lower parts don't. I feel the sand is more effective in cold weather. After a certain pt. salt melts the snow and it refreezes automatically.
In the local Grand Forks area a sand and salt mix is used....more sand than salt due to the cold temperatures. They are more apt to use the sand/salt mix on highways and mostly all sand on city streets because as you mentioned most time of the year salt is not effective.
Last few years in South east Michigan they have been using sand to try and conserve the salt. A light sprinle of sand doesn't really do anything except make mud once they do put the salt down. I guess its better to have mud now instead of rust later.
My memory of ND is almost exclusively Sand, I don't remember salt being used at all.
For reference, salt does not "melt" snow. Salt simply lowers the melting point of snow. The problem is the temps in ND are generally sufficiently low that even the lowered melting point isn't achieved. At that point the salt simply becomes another friction agent in the snow which can be achieved just as effectively at a far lower cost with sand.
My memory of ND is almost exclusively Sand, I don't remember salt being used at all.
For reference, salt does not "melt" snow. Salt simply lowers the melting point of snow. The problem is the temps in ND are generally sufficiently low that even the lowered melting point isn't achieved. At that point the salt simply becomes another friction agent in the snow which can be achieved just as effectively at a far lower cost with sand.
Living in the north central part of North Dakota, I've never seen salt used. I've always remembered that the salt belt is from the Mississippi river to the east. Lots more salt was used in Minnesota and east. Not sure if that has changed much over the years.
I don't think they use salt in Minot...this year I haven't really seen anything. I think I remember a red sand last winter? Whatever it was, it makes everything look gross. We used ice melt and it stained everything blue. Salt doesn't do anything after a certain temp...I think like 20 degrees, so yeah would be pretty useless in ND.
If you are from Michigan coming to ND, keep in mind, they don't plow the roads down to the asphalt. You will have various degrees of snow covered roads all winter long. The interstates are usually clean, but the city streets won't be.
If you are from Michigan coming to ND, keep in mind, they don't plow the roads down to the asphalt. You will have various degrees of snow covered roads all winter long. The interstates are usually clean, but the city streets won't be.
Thanks that's good to know. Coming from Michigan I am use to driving on snow covered roads most of the winter since the crews here cant comprehend how to plow it took 3-4 days for them to get the accumulation (oh accumulation of 6 inches) off the roads. In ND it is to be expected since the snowfall there is so much greater.
Last edited by patty3047; 12-21-2010 at 09:11 AM..
Reason: forgot something, spelling erro
Thanks that's good to know. Coming from Michigan I am use to driving on snow covered roads most of the winter since the crews here cant comprehend how to plow it took 3-4 days for them to get the accumulation (oh accumulation of 6 inches) off the roads. In ND it is to be expected since the snowfall there is so much greater.
Depending on where in MI you're writing about, that may not be completely accurate. For Grand Rapids, 75" of snow is an average winter. For Fargo, 75" is about twice the annual snowfall; 121" from 1996-1997 was a record for the Red River Valley (which also led to record flooding). That is nothing compared to Houghton/Hancock which in the late '70's had something like 390 inches of snow in one season.
My husband said compared to Michigan, the UP and upper lower, Western North Dakota don't get the astronomical amount you would think they do. The problem is the blowing. Here in Michigan we have trees that block the wind, out there barely any trees. Plus the snow is more fluffy light and powdery so it blows around. Here in Michigan we get heavy wet snow.
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