Contest Update: Has the Big Brown Mountain Melted Yet?

Posted by Jerrold
Filed in Environment
May 17, 2008

toronto snow removal 2008Today turned out to be a windy, but beautiful day. While snow is mostly out of sight and out of mind at this time of year, this past winter we endured relentless dumpings and in total saw the most snow in a winter since 1939. City snow removal crews collected massive amounts from city streets and deposited it in a few locations, one being in a lot near Toronto Police 22 Division, not far from Kipling Station.

Back on April 1st, I posted a for-fun contest to see who could come closest to (without going over) guessing the date that the massive snow mountain would reach complete melt. My May 8th guess was dead wrong, and a large number of readers guesses have already been surpassed as well. It looks like whoever guessed complete melt to occur in June or July appears to have the right idea.

Have a look at photos of it today, on May 17th, in comparison to those taken back on April 1st.

snow mountain toronto

As it melts, it becomes an attractive place for birds to bathe, but it also spits out plenty of garbage. Most of it is household waste like food packaging and plastic bottles (but also a bathtub?!) that was scooped up in the snow removal process. It appears that city workers are put to the task of cleaning up the mess periodically, hence the nearby of scrap metal and litter & debris collection bins.

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I would say that the mountain is about half what it was 6 weeks ago. The contest continues with many readers still in contention. I'll post another update when we see more melt.

David Toronto on May 17, 2008 at 9:34 PM

How much of this is actually melting rather than compressing into a higher density mound?
Glaciers are like that. The snow compresses over time and
I wonder how much has actually melted and run off into the
drainage system rather than just compress.

It'd be interesting to hear from someone about this.

Anon on May 17, 2008 at 10:31 PM

I told you it would take a long time, but no one listens to Anon, oh no.... Mid-June I say!

mike on May 18, 2008 at 1:08 AM

OMG, that's snow? I thought it was a big pile of dirt and debris. It's quite hideous actually.

Sean on May 18, 2008 at 5:10 PM

Quick, call al gore & let him know global warming is over!

Sam on May 18, 2008 at 9:21 PM

There's also one at Downsview that's still going strong. It looks like it might not melt until July.

Jonathan Palma on May 27, 2008 at 2:00 AM

That's disgusting! LOL :-D ... Interesting idea about the compressing thing and also, yess, let's call Al Gore and let him know to sell all his clean energy stocks! Global Warming is a myth :-P
Man, that really is a nasty pile of trash man! I wander if they'll find a human body in there?

Rob on June 5, 2008 at 2:59 PM

Anyone know the current state? Has it completely melted yet? Sounds weird but we have a question on our site about it!

Jenni on August 1, 2008 at 11:24 PM

So.. what happened? Who won? Inquiring minds want to know!

Jerrold on August 1, 2008 at 11:28 PM

UPDATE: It's still alive and melting. Not much left now.

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