The easiest way to tell if a car hasn’t been driven for an extended period of time is in winter when it snows. Often, it is the case where I see cars sitting for days in driveways left buried under snow, or worse, buried in a foot or more of snow. While it may seem like unnecessary work, particularly if on isn’t planning on driving a car within several days following heavy snow, the affects of letting a car remain buried in inches of snow can be damaging.
Especially in here New England’s ever-fluctuating climate, where one day it could be snowy and 20 degrees and the following day it could be sunny and 50 degrees, the constant melting and re-freezing of snow can be especially harmful to the bodies, glass, and mechanical components to cars. And of course, there are even more people who just barely clean the snow off their cars, get in and drive, leaving significant amounts of snow and ice on top of their cars bound to blow off and become serious safety hazards. Still, many people do take on these risks for the sake of getting out of a little extra manual labor. Are you one of these people?
Nope, although I did leave about 2″ of ice on top of our minivan last week until it warmed up in the sun and I was able to slide it off at noon. Very fun. I even shovel our little pop-up trailer off. There is no shortage of snow this year.
However, in our neighborhood there is a Model A sedan outside, covered in snow. A couple of years ago it was a driver quality stock sedan, then it disappeared for a few months and surprise surprise returned with a hot rod frame and running gear under the body. Now this winter it’s sitting outside. 90 year old wood framed car with a fabric roof out in the snow. Gah!!!
I will confess that I am one of “those people”. Here is the dilemma – clean off the car (or cars) first thereby trampling and packing the snow all around them so that shoveling becomes a pain? Or shoveling clean, fluffy snow first and then cleaning off the car, requiring another round of shoveling. I also do not like scratching the paint with brooms or snow brushes.
My method is to shovel then either ignore the cars and let it melt, or brush just enough from the windshield to back out so that it will blow off as I drive the half mile up the street before the first stop sign.
Can you tell which one is NOT my Daily Driver anymore?
Now with that said, I ALWAYS clean off the car I am going to use, and get QUITE PISSED OFF at drivers who don’t do this. SUV and Bro-dozer drivers are the absolute worst… no scratch that… the honor goes to the semi drivers.
Commuting down 95 in the morning after an icy snow and watching ice fly off of these trucks and slam into the cars behind them angers me. It is a safety hazard.
If it’s a soft snow and above freezing and does not present this flying ice block hazard, then have at it… be as lazy as you want. Heck even after this rant, call me hypocritical… I was lazy myself with the Civic, but the snow was barley a slush and only made it a mile or so down the road this morning before gently sliding off… no harm done.
But the 80 MPH ice blocks… yeah, not a fan here.
The program ate my picture! – My bad… it was full size, let’s try this smaller version. It’s obvious which car is not my Daily Driver.
That said, when the snow slides off , it takes the dirt with it and keeps my Mustang clean with minimal effort during the winter.
I just have to avoid taking it out in the salt and rain and such.
Rick, how is it that your Mustang is covered in snow but the driveway underneath it is clean and dry? I’ve never seen anything quite like that before!
In Maryland, the weather is so fickle. We are on the Rain/Snow line all the time. This winter has been especially weird. This pic was taken back in January, when we were at 50 degrees one day then 6 degrees the next.
This snow was a really good one, but I am one of those fools who actually LIKES shoveling snow. This snow was actually caused by WARM air riding up over cold air already in place. As the snow was falling (while the warm front was happening providing moisture from the gulf), I was keeping the driveway shoveled so that I wouldn’t have a lot to do when it was time go to work the next day, AND not having the aforementioned ice blocks on my Civic when it was time to go.
As you can see by the bright blue sky, a strong cold front passed in the night and the temperatures plummeted, but the air got real dry. This froze the snow to the Mustang (after sliding a bit), but also dried the driveway after I had shoveled it, leaving it pristine. As the morning sun warmed the black car, that snow started melting a bit and if you look closely, there is a couple of icicles forming over the left rear tire.
The photographer in me could not resist the scene. I shot it right before leaving for work. We were allowed to come in late that day due to the storm. (Yes, we are all snow wimps here in Maryland.)
Sorry for the arm-chair meteorologist’s explanation, but that’s how it happened.
Here’s another cool shot from when my Mustang WAS my DD, in between the dual blizzards of triple storm “Snowmageddon” in 2010.
(My driveway was not yet repaved in that shot… that happened in 2015.)
Oh, and Snow is NO EXCUSE for not keeping your car clean. ;o)
Very impressive, I find it difficult to get all of the snow out from underneath/around a car without moving it and then clearing the spot where it was sitting. This year has made it even more challenging due to lots of freezing rain.
The photo in your reply was one heck of a snowfall for Maryland!
The snow in RI yesterday was the super wet, heavy kind that just slides off. The car was so clean after I pushed it all off! That said, I’m guilty of leaving some of the ‘stuck’ ice to the roof and hood (especially with partial melt and refreeze); I mean what are you going to do, scrape it?
True, you can’t really scrape it, that’s for sure. All you can do is let the car warm up and hope the heat from the engine and heater rise enough to allow you to push it off before you roll out.
But if you are in a REALLY cold area, that may just simply take too long to be practical.
I like to catch it when it’s still soft (before that hard freeze) and brush it off with my arm (no tools that scratch). Ice can scratch too, which is why I try to catch it when it’s a) dry and fluffy; b) still wet and snowy; c) BEFORE any refreeze action happens.
I get it that sometimes this is unavoidable depending on when the temperature drop occurs (like when you’re sleeping).
Again like I mentioned above, Maryland is often on the Rain/Ice/Snow line, so watching the weather is key here.
I live in California. What snow? 🙂
Yup. Guilty.
I never really thought of snow blowing off a roof a “serious safety hazard”, but then out here snow is a rare occurrence. I always thought it kind of amusing to see a big chunk of roof snow get blown off a roof. A quick stab of the wipers if it hits your car takes care of it. I guess I’m a kid at heart.
But I can see how ice could be a danger.
Just cleaned 6 to 8 inches of the stuff off my truck and two neighbor’s cars and then cleared a snow plow ice dam so Debbie could make the delayed opening of her school.
I think of karma whenever a driver with 12 inches on the roof hits the brakes and all of the white stuff slides down onto the windshield rendering him or her totally blind.
Well, maybe karma, but someone could be seriously hurt in the following moments.
Anyway, it’s the law in NJ: https://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/2013/12/clearing_the_top_of_a_vehicle_of_snow_and_ice_is_a_law_but_is_it_enforced.html.
Oh wow, I live in Gloucester County, New Jersey. We didn’t get any snow where I live though.
Ha, I saw that exact thing happen Monday morning to an SUV driver behind me. Came to the stop sign I had just gone through and whee, ALL the wet slippery snow on the roof slid forward onto his/her windshield.
My SS and RAM are both parked in my 55’x76′ machine shed (industrial roll-up door with remotes makes it just like having my own garage). My wife prefers her Routan parked in the drive next to the house, but when snow or ice are forecast, it goes in the machine shed, too.
If we do get caught out with accumulation, I brush the roof, then hood/trunk, then front grille & headlights, taillights and side windows if needed.
You know Ed, I think in that photo the back wheel has to be throwing up a rooster tail of snow while you drift past the house with a big grin.
After all you are one of the few of us with a RWD daily driver.
My friend and I (back when we were a lot younger and nearly ALL cars were RWD) used to call it “going on donut patrol”.
It was really special if you stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts for actual doughnuts after carrying on like kids on Big Wheels in a vacant parking lot somewhere. ;o)
The hay field makes for a fun 20 minutes, but usually in the truck (with stability control turned off, natch). I’m too scared I’ll put the SS in the ditch to do much hooning in the SSnow.
Never thought about the freezing and refreezing snow damaging vehicles over several days, so that is food for thought. When the Upper Willamette Valley got snow last week I just left it on my Camry for a few days and drove the vehicle with snow tires instead. sure there was some ice to chisel off the windshield not as bad as I have dealt with in New York.
Back when I had a 1995 Plymouth Voyager in Tompkins County it would take forever to warm up and my folk’s road lead directly to a 55 MPH zone. So I would clean the snow off of every part of the vehicle as it warmed up except the roof and drive off. the Plymouth was sluggish to accelerate even after the engine warmed up and did not seem happy going over 45 which might be when Overdrive kicks in. So I would use the snow blowing off the roof to keep tailgaters at bay until the Plymouth felt comfortable enough going 55. Unless of course the roads were too treacherous to go 55.
Here in NH it is the law to clear your vehicle of snow and ice due to a child being being killed by ice flying off a box truck as she was riding behind in the family car.
Needless to say, the terminally lazy ignore it. My girlfriend got her windshield smashed by such a chunk of flying ice as well. How she managed not to get in an accident I will never know.
Whether the vehicle is in use or not, I clear everything off and shovel out all in the instance that I might need to use it, and want to be able to get in and go.
I witnessed a Michigan State Police trooper pull a pickup over immediately after the officer witnessed some chunks of ice/snow let loose from the roof of said pickup.
I’m mostly OK with folks leaving snow to blow off their roof, but for God’s sake clear the snow off your headlights, turn signals and tail lights!
+100
Absolutely! And I don’t clear my driveway either. I just drive over it. It melts eventually.
I used to do that. But the Canadian prairie winter does a number on concrete when the packed snow turns to ice, then gradually thaws.
I’m one of those people who clears my glass and lets the rest fall off as I drive. 90% of it’s usually gone after a few hard stops. I don’t see it as a safety hazard, I’ve rationalized the opposite – it encourages people behind to slow back to a safe distance lest they get pelted.
I agree with what JPC said as well, if it’s in my driveway I’m not clearing off the car only to have to shovel even more snow. Let it blow off in the street and let the plow trucks deal with it.
I have 5 cars that sit outside. I only clear off the two that get driven during the winter before I drive them, the others sit until spring. Beyond the challenge of clearing cars that aren’t used during the winter (along with everything else that needs to be cleared), there’s the problem of clearing a path to get to them to clear them, then finding a place to put the snow. One of these has obstructions on all four sides, so clearing becomes a real challenge.
Even when all sides are clear, it can still become an issue when the object being cleared doesn’t move. I have an outbuilding that I clear the snow off from after every snow due to a light duty roof, and the snow piles around it are about 3 feet high now!
I’ll clear the glass, lights, wiper and heater air intake, and trunk lid. Guilty on roof and hood, but 2 or 3 inches of soft snow blowing off has never caused any issues. Don’t really get heavy buildup around here.
It doesn’t usually snow that much here in southwestern Indiana and, in any case, my cars are always parked in the garage, so not an issue for me. One of the (many) advantages of retirement is that one no longer has to get out in the cold weather unless you want to. I think that people should definitely clear the snow from their lights and off their windshields but I can see why some don’t/won’t. I don’t think I could tolerate living somewhere that gets frequent snow.
100%. When we used to live in Michigan, my wife would get mad at me for not shoveling the driveway. I would argue there was no point in moving something that eventually melts. I mean, there’s never been a snow that didn’t eventually melt come spring time, right? We ended up moving to San Diego. Problem solved.
I had a buddy who left Canada and moved to Tucson to solve his snow problem. Oops it snowed there this year too.
I clean all the snow off my cars if they are outside. I especially prefer to keep them both garaged during the winter. It amazes me how the younger generation (’80s kids) can’t be bothered to even garage their cars though. Garages full of junk and 2 cars sitting outdoors.
We have had 120+ cm of the white stuff this year, and in between storms there have been melting phases, but what we still have here needs a good week of above freezing temps to melt.
Yep, it snowed here, just a week ago last Friday. It was the perfect sort of snow: it snowed most of the day, and hardly any of it stuck. No worries about cleaning the snow off the car! Now, the people who live east and south of Tucson at higher elevations did have to deal with a bit more snow.
Not having to shovel sunshine is a delightful problem. The downside is that, if you have to park outside all the time, the sun does a number on whatever it hits.
I have a friend who is from Vancouver. Apparently there, they just push the snow to the middle of the street and let it melt overnight. I like the sounds of that. As far as cleaning off their cars, I believe that is just a rumour.
I recall travelling to places like VA and GA and getting in a rent a car in say February, and noticing there was no scraper. I wondered what I would do if snow hit, and sure enough an ice storm came in one night. It took some time for the car to heat up to defrost the windshield on its own. Now as far as the tires on those rentals? I don’t think they even put winter tires on rentals up here.
It’s situational but rare as hen’s teeth.
If it snows while I’m at work, odds are I’ll be there quite late. At that point there is no traffic and what doesn’t blow off on the way home will melt in the garage and go down the drain. My trip is all in town and my speeds don’t exceed 25 to 30 mph in these situations.
When we had a wet 14″ snow recently I did take a push broom and cleared off the van as it’s parked outside. The bigger worry was all the tree branches that fell around it.
If it snows while I’m at home, there’s no point in clearing it as the primary use vehicles (the VW and F-150) are parked in the garage and come out clean.
Rarely do I travel when the forecast is bad (for non-obvious reasons) so removing snow when away and parked outside is a non-issue.
The Jeep is currently in the driveway with half a foot of snow on it from Saturday. I did clear the windshield and will run a broom over the roof to clear that and let it heat up a bit inside but am driving one of the other cars right now, too cold outside to start the Jeep.
Usually I always clear the majority of the snow and let the dregs just float away or melt though before driving off.
Where I am more OCD is the driveway and sidewalks, I’m usually one of the first ones out there and then when/if it snows all day like Saturday am out there multiple times a day so it doesn’t get too big to move in one go (and then turns from decent exercise into a potential cardiac event…) I like to just get it done so when the sun or just the light of day hits it gets rid of the rest. The worst is when someone drives over it on the driveway, it just turns to ice and then it can take days or up to a week to melt if like this week it doesn’t warm up and it’s in the shade or the north facing driveway (great for washing the car, horrible for snow.)
Leaving snow on the roof when driving off is hazardous for your wallet too here in Germany. In places where police are bored out of their minds (e.g. Bavaria) you risk being fined when not wiping it off.
No snow this winter, so snow clearing required on the Alfa. But I’m not keen on sweeping snow off anything other than windows and lights, as I suspect unseen ice may cause scratches.
Best let it blow off naturally, though the only snow we ever get 2-3 inches at most
I am pretty diligent about cleaning of my entire vehicle. Even though my truck is over 6 feet tall, I clean the entire roof, as well as the tonneau cover. When winter sets in here, the likelihood of it just melting off or blowing off isn’t guaranteed. I don’t like the accumulation of hard ice building up on my vehicles, and keeping the snow brushed off prevents this from happening. My truck sits outside, and I will typically brush it off, while the snow blower warms up, then clean the driveway. I do this even if I am not using the truck that day. I am the opposite of Jim Klien above, I am more OCD about keeping my vehicles clean, not so much about the driveway (I need a snow pack, as its gravel).
I find that if you don’t clear your hood, the snow blows up on the windshield and sometimes can cause it to fog up as the cold snow hits it. I also find that with cars, especially the modern fastback like sedans, if you don’t clear off the roof, the rear window just gets covered in snow again quickly. I like having clear windows, as the visibility on modern cars is poor enough, so I take the extra 2 minutes and do a proper job.
This winter with the freezing rain, snow, and up and down temperatures has caused a few incidents were ice/snow falling off vehicle roofs has caused significant damage to other cars.
Back in 1999 I moved into my first house that had a large garage. I always kept it clear enough to house two cars. I was impressed how much longer my cars looked great when garage kept. Not only the paint, but interior components as well. They looked great years later, quite a difference from those who lived a life outdoors. I can’t understand why those with nice garages let them fill with crap, banishing thier vehicles to a life in the elements.
I admit that not only am I “one of those” people that does not clean the snow off his car but that I also become a two-faced swearing hypocrite when I’m behind someone who hasn’t cleaned their car off!
This winter has been different. I am someone who always puts everything in the trunk. The Acura I bought this fall is the first car I’ve owned where the trunk goes full vertical when opened. I very quickly learned that if you don’t clean the snow off before opening it very happily dumps the whole mess in the trunk! So if I know I’m going to be using the trunk I will clean the car. It’s a start. Whether I get in the habit of doing it all the time is debatable but it’s a start.
That maybe the first time someone has ever said a trunk lid is a safety feature on a car!😛
Every time.
I live in Western Michigan where our average snowfall (for the whole season) is 78 inches. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it usually comes in January, with a vengeance. I’m one of those who clears the car off first and then runs the snowblower.
Even though it’s state law in Michigan, folks still drive around with an “igloo” on top of their cars. I love the brave (meant sarcastically) souls who only clear a small hole in the snow on their windshield and rear windows. They must navigate by feel. That is, if they look up from their phones… I guess they figure if they get in an accident, they can blame the other guy somehow…
The only time I do the igloo thing is when a I am trying to avoid the “double shoveling” or “packed down situation” that JPC described above…. but the igloo driving is to carefully move the cars out on the street one at a time as I shovel out in front of them. Then, I avoid the packed down snow, and the snow that’s on top of my cars gets dumped into the freshly salted street.
Although we’re on a dead end culdesac, they seem to plow us almost immediately as the snow gets going, and then again when it stops. They use WAY too much salt in Maryland, but it usually melts whatever gets dumped into the street by the neighbors. Then after I perfectly shovel out the driveway (see my pictures above… I’m a little OCD about it), I back the cars back in. I usually only use this dump it in the street method on really big snows, which is over a foot here in Maryland. You all in Michigan probably call this flurries. 😉
When there is lots of powdery snow I have been known to use my backpack leaf blower to clear snow. On those occasions I clean the cars too.
I almost always clean the car off before driving, if for no other reason than to keep it from settling on the back window and rear lights. When I had a rear wiper, I admit I wasn’t as consistent with it, but almost always did it anyway. I’m pretty good at keeping the lights clean all the time no matter how salty and dirty the car is. I just like them clean. Even if we aren’t going out I keep the cars ready to go in case they are needed on a moment’s notice. Come to think of it, I’m a little neurotic about it.
I clean off my cars & Suburban…it’s the law in PA, and I would feel bad if it caused an accident.
But I am looking forward to getting a garage to save me the trouble of cleaning off ONE car….
Is that a Lincoln Continental buried under all that snow? Looks like the final gen from the late 90’s.
It’s funny that this came up today, for I was flagged down by the CT State Police just a few hours ago for this offense, ironically enough, on my way to go skiing. My windows, lights and and hood were clear, but the roof was not. I rather like the “bonnet” effect, the light snow blowing off, and the warmed chunks falling down the back window, to be moved aside by the rear wiper.
Because it seems such a common thing, and because I have never seen or heard of any enforcement activity, I was incredulous when the officer pulled me over. He claimed that the state has asked police to crack down on uncleared cars because of the crashes that occur after every snow storm (we had one last night), and that hundreds of tickets were expected to be issued today.
I have been hit by hunks of snow flying off of cars, and thought of it as more an inconvenience than a safety hazard, but the officer claimed that some drivers swerve to avoid the chunks and get into crashes. I have heard of injuries and vehicular damage by large ice chunks coming off of trucks. I wonder how they expect truckers to clean off the roofs of their trailers.
To add insult to injury, my “check engine” light came on, and the car started running rough, on the way home from skiing, so I got to spend some more time out in the cold replacing the coil pack. After, of course, cleaning off the roof of the car.
Urgh, don’t remind me. My poor Lincoln has been under the snow for several weeks now, and locked in by it. I put it in the deepest spot to free up room when my Daughter and her Finacee’s car were going to be here while they went on a trip and had stuff to do with my truck. Then the snow came and came hard and it was snow locked that would require a lot of shoveling. So I let it sit and the Snow came even harder completely covering it and some of the other vehicles. For more than a week only the 4wd and AWD vehicles were going to make it out the long driveway w/o chains.
As far as removing all the snow from the vehicle before driving it I usually don’t but, that is due to the fact that it is very unusual for us to see more than a light dusting that is not a hazard to other vehicles.
Im from Massachusetts . A tank like slit across windshield and off I go.
Hope you get a ticket!
Absolutely believe car should be cleaned off completely.
The ritual on the frozen prairie of western Canada is as follows
1 start engine, leave block heater plugged
in for faster warmup, turn on rear defrost
2 clean snow off completely using the time for warmup
3 unplug and drive away
Nope, I always clean it off. I get pretty upset when other drivers don’t clean their cars off too. It’s a ticketable offence here, and I have seen many cars pulled over for it. I’ve been cut off innumerable times on the highway by people who just can’t see out of their windows, but change lanes anyway.
This morning when I drove into the parking lot at work, I saw someone cleaning the snow off of their car AFTER arriving at work. If you’ve got the time to do it here, why not do it at home? Idiots.
A larger problem is people not turning their headlights on during snowy conditions. DRLs don’t turn your taillights on, people! I’m guessing a large portion of society doesn’t realize that.
I’ve always been diligent about clearing headlights, tail lights, windows etc. The first time I put on the brakes going downhill and 50 pounds of snow slid down the windshield just as my intermittent wipers were starting to sweep up, and broke a blade, I learned to clean the roof as well. In California’s snow country, where we can get a LOT of snow very quickly, locals are pretty diligent. Weekend skiers, not so much. A Suburban or minivan with 2’ of fresh powder on the roof can create quite a cloud when it gets up to highway speed.
but then again this was my daily driver, and always outside.
Better leave those headlights up, btw, the freeze shut……
We haven’t had any snow down here in Wichita Falls. Only one week of “real” cold so far. Sure am glad the jet stream has stayed up north. Sucks for you guys though.