With Spring upon us and the snow finally coming to an end, new annoying problems arise. Flooding. Not just flooding however, but the constant freezing and thawing of snow and ice. Southeastern Wisconsin has seen over eighty inches of snow this season, so far. Most of that snow that had been pushed up into tall piles is now slowly thawing out and running for the lowest ground. The problem is those warm days I mentioned - they are generally bookended by a few days of freezing temperatures. Therefore a lot of the low lying areas where water should run off into are still blocks of ice. Or rather, layers of ice. Like ice on ice action, only less of the action and more of the ice.
As we all know by now, one of my favorite hobbies is complaining. I complain a lot actually. As much I consciously try to avoid doing so, it just happens. Like when I go bowling; I focus my concentration on keeping my wrist straight, only to twist it anyway and launch my ball begrudgingly into the gutter. This year, instead of the ever soaring gas prices, I have chosen to focus 90% of my complaints on my parking lot and the idiot management who often times refuse to do anything until you are millimeters away from death threats. Why? Because after four full weeks, the lot is still covered in ice.
Back in February we received roughly thirty inches of snow. It was horrible, just awful in terms of snowplowing. There was so much snow to move around and out of the way after one storm dropped over ten inches of snow. About four days later, on a Saturday, the weather warmed a bit and the snow began to melt. This made everyone happy, including myself. I had been sick all that week so it was awesome to get out of the house and enjoy some sunshine. The following day it was supposed to snow again but instead chose to rain. It rained a fair bit more than it should have, and caused some more snow to melt. Water built up fairly quickly as the ground was already super-saturated by this point. Monday it ceased to be warm, and all that water that had built up started to freeze over. This is where all the problems started.
Let me break here to explain a little bit. The lot that I have to park in slopes to the east towards a sad attempt at a drainage ditch. It is not nearly as deep as it should be and actually just looks like a low spot in the ground where the parking lot meets an adjoining field. Said field slopes to the west, toward the lot for those not paying attention. As if it weren’t bad enough that both bits of land slope toward each other, there is a spectacular mound of dirt from recent construction that is in the field, which is also covered in the 50 inches of snow that had been collecting all winter. As all the snow in the field and on the mound melts, it runs down toward the parking lot. As all the snow around the perimeter of the lot melts, it joins the melt-water from the field and collects, essentially flooding the parking lot just something awful. This year has been worse than any of the past eight winters, as I’ve never seen flooding quite as bad as to force residents to park in the street overnight rather than the lot.
Instead of removing the ice straight away, the snowplowers just pushed snow up over the top and to the edge of the lot by the field. Every week thereafter just made the problem worse.
- Snow falls
- Plowers pile it up per usual
- Warm weather melts snow and some ice
- Cold weather moves in overnight freezing everything again
- Snow falls
By the third week of this nonsense warm weather had once again paid us a visit. Four days of low thirty degree weather days, one almost hit forty for a high. The ice and snow melted with a vengeance, and the parking lot became a lake. People had to park so far out from their assigned spots that it was becoming impossible to get my other car into and out of the garage. Even the sidewalk to the parking lot which is a good six inches higher than the lot itself, was in threat of drowning. Water couldn’t even flow into the “ditch” because of the snowbanks. I waited all weekend for someone to come out and take care of the mess, but help never came. By Monday I was taking matters into my own hands and chipping away any ice from my assigned spot that I could break up. But at over four inches thick, I didn’t remove much. And Tuesday brought freezing temperatures again.
I took some photos last week, and I think they will do the story a little justice as far as explainations go. Here is a shot of the parking lot from the walkway. Notice how the ice meets flush with the sidewalk. The blue car on the left is parked about six feet in front of my garage door. That little silver car is nearly frozen into the ice, and is parked roughly five or six feet back from where the end of the lot is(off to the right, where snow is piled up). All the way in the back, you can sort of make out the ice extending out beyond the trash bins. Apparently that area is quite low-lying as well.
I’m now inside my garage looking out. The red line indicates poorly where the rear of vehicles normally would extend to, which is no further back than that sidewalk to the right. The green line is where the ice was as of last week Monday, and the green block is where the little blue car is usually parked. The blue line is where water was just a few days prior.
Recall above where I mentioned that the parking lot slopes toward the field…this car’s front tires are sitting on four or so inches of ice, and still managed to be engulfed by two or three more inches or water.
If that doesn’t give an indication of depth well enough, let me show you my boots. When the man and I were out chopping up the glacier in our parking spot, the water rose to half an inch below the top of my boots(about the hemline up top there). I was so close to having soaked toesies!
On Wednesday of last week, the apartment manager finally, although a bit reluctantly, had someone come out and pump water from the parking lot. Not all of it was removed, but a good amount is gone now, leaving only sheets of ice that easily break apart on the warmer days. I can not wait for spring to get here. I want some warm weather (but not too warm!) and sunny days, and green grass.
