Greetings! Saint Paul has declared a Snow Emergency starting at 9:00 p.m. tonight (Sunday). All the Snow Emergency alert messages have been updated on our City channels and to our partners. 

Here’s some helpful reminders for you to share:

  • Please share, post, and retweet the Snow Emergency information from the City’s channels. Bottom line is getting cars off the streets on time so our great staff can do their work.
    • Snow Emergency updates, sign-up for alerts (English, Spanish, Hmong, Somali and Oromo), parking map, and FAQs can be found at www.stpaul.gov/snow.
    • To help people know when and where to park their cars, please promote our amazing new snow emergency parking map that works on every web/mobile platform.
  • As part of our standard operations, Saint Paul Public Works crews will be doing arterial streets today prior to the Snow Emergency work.
    • Starting tonight at 9 p.m. crews will be on Night Plow routes.
    • Day Plow routes start at 8 a.m. tomorrow.
  • Our crews will plow more than 1,800 miles (all streets) in Saint Paul in less than 24 hours.
    • To help our crews, please hold all clean up, pushback and salting requests until Tuesday.
    • For quickest service, please direct all requests to snowemergency@stpaul.gov or call 651-266-9700.
  • Snow Emergencies last 96 hours to allow for clean-up efforts. This one will go until January 28 at 9 p.m.
  • If people have complaints about parked cars not moving on streets, please know that our ticketers are out on the Night or Day routes.
    • After those are complete, they will be following up on complaints and areas where cars have not moved.
    • Vehicles that have not moved during the Night or Day phases, can be reported at 651-266-9800, option 2.

Why did we declare? I spent an hour this morning driving around the City with our Street Maintenance Engineer, and checking in directly with supervisors who have been working in all parts of the City overnight.

  • This snowfall met the ordinance threshold of 3” City-wide, with 4.5” in the southwest parts of the City. (MSP Airport reports over 5”.)
  • Plowing in the next two days will have a big impact as the snow is very plowable and won’t compact much.
    • The snow fell dry/light and cold. High water ratio of 15:1.
    • The temperatures in the next two days (staying cold) means we can get more snow off the streets.
    • With the declaration, the cars moving off residential streets allows our plows to get the center lane and to the curb parking lanes wherever possible.
  • Declaring early gives us time to get the word out, and to promote our new communication tools.
  • Minneapolis also plans to declare, which makes the messaging consistent.
  • It’s still early winter, and we can’t count on temperatures to improve the street conditions, yet.

Please note that each time we declare a Snow Emergency, Saint Paul Public Works seriously considers the cost of Snow Emergencies and importance of keeping our streets safe and passable. This is the second Snow Emergency of this winter season, and this is expected to be an efficient Snow Emergency (not on a holiday). We are sensitive that Snow Emergencies can impose additional financial burdens on people who are ticketed/towed.

Finally – don’t forget to get out and enjoy the beautiful winter weather on our incredible ski trails and ice rinks that are ready to go thanks to the amazing teams at Parks and Recreation! (Follow that link for more info.)

Thank you for your leadership and support. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.