Operation deneigement with real data: comparing snow seasons using open datasets

Montreal's snow removal operation is one of the largest municipal winter operations in the world. The city deploys roughly 3,000 workers and 2,500 vehicles to clear 11,000 kilometres of streets and sidewalks after every major snowfall. But how do individual seasons actually compare? Rather than relying on anecdotes, we can look at the city's own open data.

The dataset behind the numbers

The City of Montreal publishes its snow removal contracts and transactions dataset on the open data portal. This dataset tracks two things:

1. Contracts: the agreements between the city (and its boroughs) and the private contractors who handle snow removal
2. Transactions: the individual truck loads of snow delivered to the city's snow disposal sites during loading operations

Each transaction represents one truck arriving at a disposal site with a load of snow. By counting transactions and tracking which disposal sites received how many loads, you can build a season-by-season picture of how much snow Montreal actually moved.

The data is available in CSV format and covers multiple recent seasons, including 2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 2025-2026. Additional related datasets include snow removal sectors (geographic boundaries) and snow disposal site locations.

How Montreal's snow removal works

Understanding the data requires understanding the process. The City of Montreal's snow removal hub describes a three-phase approach:

1. Spreading: salt and abrasives go down as soon as surfaces become slippery
2. Plowing: once accumulation reaches approximately 2.5 cm, plows clear streets and sidewalks
3. Loading: when accumulation hits 10 to 15 cm, the city launches a full loading operation, where snow blowers feed snow into trucks that haul it to disposal sites

Loading operations are the expensive, labour-intensive phase. They're also what generates the transaction data, because every truck that dumps a load at a disposal site gets logged.

Priority levels matter

Not all streets get cleared at the same time. Montreal uses a three-tier priority system:

• Priority 1: major thoroughfares, hospital and school access routes, express bus routes, primary commercial streets
• Priority 2: collector streets, regular bus routes, secondary commercial areas
• Priority 3: local residential streets, industrial zones

This means that in any given operation, Priority 1 routes get cleared first, and residential streets may not see a plow for hours after the operation begins. The open data doesn't break down transactions by priority level, but the timing patterns reflect this hierarchy.

What season comparisons reveal

When you compare the transaction counts across seasons, several patterns come through:

Storm frequency matters more than total snowfall

A winter with steady, moderate snowfalls spread across many events can generate more loading operations than a winter with one or two massive dumps. Each loading operation mobilizes the full fleet, regardless of whether the snowfall was 15 cm or 40 cm.

Mid-winter rain events complicate everything

Freezing rain followed by snow creates heavy, dense accumulation that's harder to move. These events show up in the data as operations with similar transaction counts but longer completion times, because the heavier snow takes more effort per load.

Early and late season operations are smaller

The first and last operations of the season tend to generate fewer transactions because the snowfall is lighter and ambient temperatures help with melting. Mid-January through mid-March is consistently the peak period for heavy loading operations.

Tracking operations in real time

During active snow removal, residents can monitor progress through the snow removal operations map and the 311 Montreal app. The map shows which streets have been cleared and which are still pending.

When forecasts predict 15 cm or more, the city posts parking ban signs on narrow streets, prohibiting parking on the right-hand side. The left side is reserved for narrow-street permit holders between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m.

What this means for homeowners

Plan around loading operations

Loading operations are loud and disruptive, but they're also predictable once triggered. When you see signs go up, move your car, clear your sidewalk, and expect overnight noise. The operations map tells you approximately when your street will be reached.

Protect your property edges

Snow plows and blowers don't distinguish between snowbanks and your garden border. The section on preventing snowplow damage covers this in detail, but the key takeaway from the operations data is straightforward: more operations per season means more passes by heavy equipment past your property line.

Understand the budget reality

Snow removal is one of Montreal's largest single operational expenses. Heavier winters cost more, which creates budget pressure on other municipal services. The open data on contracts shows how the city allocates resources across boroughs and contractors, providing transparency into where the money goes.

Explore the data yourself

All of Montreal's snow removal datasets are freely available:

• Snow removal contracts and transactions
• Snow removal sectors (geographic boundaries)
• Snow disposal site locations

You can download the CSVs and sort by season, borough, disposal site, or date range. For anyone interested in how their city manages winter, this is one of the most transparent datasets a Canadian municipality publishes.

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Montreal Paysagement Pro helps homeowners prepare their properties for winter and recover in spring. Call 514-900-3867 for a free phone or video estimate.