The heat wave didn’t melt this massive pile of snow in North York
The densely packed snow at a city storage site will likely take until August to thaw
There’s a massive pile of snow in North York that not even the record-breaking heat wave has been able to entirely melt.
Before you ask, no, this is not an extended Iceman promotional activation. During the winter, the city maintains five snow-storage sites where snow is taken after being cleared. But even after several consecutive days of heat that felt like 40-degrees, the densely-packed pile near Downsview Park persists.
Related: After record snowfall didn’t destroy the Science Centre, some question whether it needed to close
A city spokesperson told Toronto Life that around 40 per cent of the entire volume of snow remains at the Downsview storage site. “As the snow melts, runoff passes through an oil-grit separator, which captures sediment, debris and garbage before the water enters the city’s stormwater system,” they said by email. “We expect most of the remaining snow to melt within the next four to five weeks, likely by mid-August, although timing will depend on the weather. Once the snow has fully melted, the site will undergo a thorough clean-up to prepare for the next winter season.”
Based on aerial images captured by CP24, the snow doesn’t appear nearly as majestic as when it had freshly fallen, having since turned brown. But it’s still there, and that’s kind of neat. (Our collective awe over this resilient albeit debris-ridden heap of snow really shows you how badly we need the Science Centre back, doesn’t it?)
Related: Renegotiating Toronto’s snow removal contracts could cost up to $130 million
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
