Snow in the summer? 18-metre-high snow pile still stands in Winnipeg

It's August. There is still snow in Winnipeg.

At the Kenaston snow dump site in the south end of the city sits an 18-metre-high snow pile. And it's not the only one. A number of smaller snow piles remain at the city's four snow-dumping sites, where the city dumps snow removed from city streets during the winter months.

Unfortunately, because the sites are closed to the public, summer tobogganing is not permitted.

Winnipeg doesn't use salt or heat to speed up the melting process. Instead, the city depends on summer temperatures to get rid of the piles.

Jim Berezowsky, Winnipeg's manager of streets maintenance, told CTV News that it isn't unusual for the snow piles at these dump sites to last until August, but this year's piles are larger than usual.

"It is significantly higher than in years past," Berezowsky told CTV's Canada AM on Friday. "We didn't receive the extreme heat that we usually do."

Dirt encrusted on the snow pile is helping it withstand warmer temperatures.

By the second or third week of August, bulldozers will crack through the snow piles to help air penetrate the icy crust and encourage melting. By the end of the month, crews hope to clean up any leftover debris and move it to the landfill.

The snow-dumping sites should all be clear by the end of September, ready for another winter.

Winnipeg isn't the only city still dealing with last winter's snow.

Crews in Calgary are currently spreading around its snow piles to encourage melting.

"If we didn't do that it likely wouldn’t have melted before the fall, or potentially before we got snow this year," Jessica Bell, a communications advisor with the city’s roads department, told Metro Thursday.

Unlike Winnipeg, a city accustomed to moving snow to storage sites, Calgary typically only plows snow. This last winter's massive snowfalls, however, dictated that the snow be removed from city streets and piled elsewhere.

"We had an extraordinary winter and removed an unprecedented amount of snow," Bell said. "There are still piles at the sites but a big part of it is the debris our crews pick up with the snow."

Bell said that the snow should be melted by the end of the month.