How to shovel light and fluffy snow.

My morning began today around 9am, with the sound of the neighbor's snowblower. We're having a small blizzard right now, enough for Buffalo to end up on the news and the weather channel. It's falling at a rate of over 1 inch an hour, and it's bloody cold out(for Buffalo), 14F, according to The Weather Channel. As per usual, my hometown of Syracuse is getting four times what we are. We've had something like four inches in Riverside, and we're supposed to get more...

Unlike our big, fat, wet, It's a Wonderful Life lake effect flakes that we see when the weather is in the 20s, this is lake-effect fluffy, fluffy, powder. It's great for downhill skiing (I actually like stuff with more grit to it for Xcountry,) and it's total shit for snowblowers.

A snowblower is, essentially, a snow thrower. Without getting inside baseball about it, a snowblower picks up the snow and moves it from place one to place two, and when the snow has the weight, consistency and texture of glitter, and it's windy out, all your snowblower is doing is making you, the snowblower wielder, look like a guy inside a snowglobe.

I shoveled over an hour ago. There are a couple of [<1ft in diameter spots] on my sidewalk and driveway that need touch up, and I'll probably go out in the next hour and touch up those spots, but, unlike snowthrower dude, my sidewalk is down to the concrete, and likely to stay that way, because while this snow is deep, it is almost devoid of water..it's OVER 90% air. This is snow that will vanish, miraculously, the moment it's over freezing.

The first thing you need to do in this weather is not wait for the snow to stop falling. Go out and shovel *now,* because as pedestrians, dogs, raccoons, elephants or whatever walk on your snow they are going to compress it to ice, and it will be harder to shovel. Right now, with only light foot traffic on your fluffy snow, it will lift up really quickly, it took me, an out of shape person, less than 15 minutes to do an entire driveway, porch, sidewalk and the rest...

The moment you've got the snow up, and there is less than a sugar cookie-top dusting, sprinkle liberally with an ice melter (I use a higher-end pet-friendly stuff, but you could use cheap rock salt, as long as it's above about 5F.) Remember, even if you have a snow blower, you're going to need to do this...but a snow blower is going to make the snow blow around you and the weight of the machine will compress some of the snow that lands behind you. The act of shoveling is compressing the snow before you throw it on the lawn, not adding more air to make it fly further only to have it land on top of you... Imagine yourself as a big snowplow and salt truck.... going vroom vroom, wearing a flashing light and burying neighbors is optional...

This ice-melter is going to mix with your sprinkle of snow to form a protective saline barrier that melts the new snow as it comes down. If you wait an hour, you should be able to tell where you've missed with your ice-melter, and go shovel those spots and resprinkle....

What you will have is a miraculous-looking sidewalk-through the snow that, unlike the snowthrower's walk, seems to repel snow magically...

Remember, this fluffy stuff is almost completely air. It melts quickly when it encounters your lightly-brined sidewalk, without washing away the salt. If the snow should turn to something more substantial, you'll need to shovel again, but you'll find it's not sticking to your sidewalk, coming up easily, and, if you need a snowblower, it will remove the snow, not just fluff it.

Now, as snowblower guy gets back to work, for a total of 3 hours I've watched him, I'm off to shovel and sprinkle my spots. It should take under 3 minutes, with my second best shovel (we haven't brought the big one out of the basement yet this year.)