Question

how long does it take for a city to clear 10 inces of snow

Answer 1

I can give a useful answer, but I need one quick clarification: by “clear” do you mean
- make main arterials/priority routes passable (single plow pass and salted), or
- clear all residential streets to the curb, or
- remove snow completely (haul off piles and leave bare pavement)?

Commonly people mean the first two—I’ll give estimates for both plus a simple calculation you can use.

Short answers / rule of thumb
- Main arterials and high‑priority routes: typically 6–12 hours after the storm ends (often sooner for big cities that start during the storm).
- Residential streets (to a single passable lane): typically 12–36 hours.
- Full curb‑to‑curb clearing and snow hauling for a 10" storm: often 24–72+ hours, sometimes several days in very large or badly affected areas.

Why the range is large
Time depends on many variables:
- size of the city (lane miles to clear)
- number of plows and support equipment, and whether extra crews are called in
- plow width, speed, and crew efficiency (intersections, turns, traffic slow you down)
- whether snow is still falling and at what rate
- snow density (wet heavy snow takes longer to push and may require hauling)
- temperature (salt works less well in very cold conditions)
- priorities (cities clear arterials first)
- uptime for crews (shift lengths) and need to clear parking/obstructions

A simple calculation you can use
Time (hours) ≈ lane miles to clear ÷ (plow lane‑miles/hour × number of effective plows)

Where
- plow lane‑miles/hour ≈ speed (mph) × effective lane width (lanes cleared per pass) × efficiency factor
- example: a plow doing one lane at 6 mph with an efficiency factor of 0.6 → 6 × 1 × 0.6 = 3.6 lane‑miles/hour per plow.

Example
City has 500 lane‑miles, 50 plows, each clears 3.6 lane‑miles/hour (see above):
- Total clearing rate = 50 × 3.6 = 180 lane‑miles/hour
- Time = 500 ÷ 180 ≈ 2.8 hours for a single pass of every lane (arterials prioritized first in practice).
But: that single pass may not be curb‑to‑curb, may not clear intersections/turn lanes fully, and heavy 10" snow may require multiple passes or hauling—so realistic time to “fully cleared” would be much longer.

If you tell me:
- the size of the area (approx lane miles or city population),
- whether you mean arterials or all streets,
- whether snow is still falling,
I can give a tighter estimate or run a sample calculation for your case.