An Inch of Snow Costs New York City $1.8 Million to Clear
Tuesday’s relatively paltry snow offering might not seem quite so slight when you consider the cost of the actual clean-up. Despite the widely cited official figure that it costs the city, what with snowplows and salt and traffic concerns, roughly $1 million every time an inch of snow falls on our fair city, a new study reveals that this estimate isn’t quite generous enough. In fact, the figure is closer to $2 million per inch, or $1.8 million to be exact. That means that the “Blizzard of 2015” cost taxpayers close to $18 million.
The report, according to the New York Post, also contains a fairly counterintuitive bit of information, courtesy of Comptroller Scott Stringer’s auditors: “Costs per inch of snow removal are significantly higher in light snow years than in heavier ones.” Why? Fixed costs like equipment and manpower come into play. So think about that when Friday’s adorable little clipper system sprinkles a couple of inches of snow on the already piled-high medians.