If on a winter’s night a snow plow

February 19, 2019 10:21 AM

What do you call the annoying pile of snow left at the end of the driveway after the plow drives by? You know, the kind that creates an extra hour of shoveling just when you thought you were done, and that’s twice as heavy on account of how densely packed and icy it is. I need something snarkier than “Ugh, I need to shovel the driveway again.”
posted by danceswithlight to Society & Culture (38 answers total)

"Plow pile". *glares at previously dug out mailbox that is buried again*
posted by jillithd at 10:22 AM on February 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

A berm, or a snow berm.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:24 AM on February 19, 2019 [15 favorites]

Snowpocalypse speed bump
posted by Jacen at 10:25 AM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Plow ridge. Not very snarky, but the tone one uses when uttering its name does the trick.
posted by Empidonax at 10:27 AM on February 19, 2019

I call it the plow drift but I’m not a native snow person, I just kind of made that up and everyone knows what I mean when I say it.
posted by padraigin at 10:29 AM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's called the 'windrow'. Where I live (East of Toronto) we have windrow plows that follow the big graders and with their 'wing', they plow all that stuff out of the way.
posted by HarrysDad at 10:40 AM on February 19, 2019 [12 favorites]

Cement, because it feels like that's what I'm shoveling it.
posted by theora55 at 10:42 AM on February 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

We called it a berm where I grew up but I haven’t heard people use the term here in the Midwest where I now live.
posted by annathea at 10:48 AM on February 19, 2019

I always called it a plow bank.
posted by aubilenon at 10:51 AM on February 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

We call it the snow berm in my house. It is possible for the plow drivers to not do it and generally they succeed except for at the very edges of the driveway in my town- but I live in Alaska so our city plow game is pretty on point. If the plow driver messes it up and you are elderly/disabled and call to complain I they will even (eventually) send a person back to fix it for you.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:07 AM on February 19, 2019

Windrow. Or as my boys call it "torture"


If they are out shoveling it, our plow guy will be nice and will angle the blade away so we don't have to do it again.
posted by Ftsqg at 11:11 AM on February 19, 2019

That part of the driveway is called the apron here (Cleveland, OH), so people just talk about "doing the apron."
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 11:14 AM on February 19, 2019

We call it "plow chud." Everyone knows immediately what you mean.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:15 AM on February 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

I don't have a word for that, but it always makes me think of glacial deposits. If you imagine the plow is your glacier, then the residual junk it leaves off to the side seems akin to a lateral moraine? (Yeah it's an imperfect analogy, IANAGeologist.)
posted by gueneverey at 11:25 AM on February 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Not snarky, but I just thought of “plow wake,” by analogy to a ship’s bow wake
posted by danceswithlight at 11:26 AM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's called plow wash.
posted by Sphinx at 11:32 AM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Snow berm.
posted by Autumnheart at 11:34 AM on February 19, 2019

We call ours Doug. After Doug Ford. 'Cos fuck that guy.
posted by scruss at 11:35 AM on February 19, 2019 [23 favorites]

I refer to it as either The Berlin Wall or The Great Wall of China. (This is less fun now with all the kerfluffle about the U.S./Mexico border.)
posted by JanetLand at 11:50 AM on February 19, 2019

twice as heavy on account of how densely packed and icy it is
You are right about that... mixing snow with road salt and then plowing it does make the the snow heavier and harder. It is a process that I think of as 'vulcanization'.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 12:01 PM on February 19, 2019

I call it being plowed in. Sorry, I haven't got a noun.
posted by bile and syntax at 12:19 PM on February 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

Yup, that’s a windrow here in Winnipeg. Feel free to prefix the term with profanity of your choice.
posted by pocams at 12:40 PM on February 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

I think berm is probably the proper term but I always just call it the cement, as in "the driveway is mostly done, I'm just resting before tackling the cement."
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:01 PM on February 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Back in the early '70s when I was doing my undergrad in St. Paul MN, I had a boss that called it "Schnazenpluzen," as in "Go clear the schnazenpluzen before you take your lunch break."
I've been using that term ever since here in Madison, WI, but I have failed to make it a thing.
I'm apparently not as much of an influencer as I'd hoped.
posted by Floydd at 1:01 PM on February 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

Berm. If it is really big, wall.
posted by fimbulvetr at 1:32 PM on February 19, 2019

I think we called it a berm in Wisconsin. My mom’s proudest day was when she had JUST finished shoveling the whole driveway and she saw the plow coming. She glared at him so hard he picked up his plow to go around her driveway.
posted by Weeping_angel at 1:58 PM on February 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

I call it, "Oh fuck you, Plow Guy!"

Or a snow berm if I'm being more polite.
posted by TwoStride at 3:06 PM on February 19, 2019

Plow droppings or Plowarrhea,
cause you know, shit you have to clean up after.
posted by forforf at 3:59 PM on February 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

You can just shovel out a section for it beforehand, example here.
posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 4:26 PM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Plow poop. It may help to sing the Mr. Plow song to yourself.
posted by pinochiette at 6:15 PM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

You can just shovel out a section for it beforehand, example here.

Somehow that never works no matter how hard I try. But I've recently been using a service, and rather than shoveling an empty spot, they create their own berm on the upstream side of the driveway. And it works, but I don't know why.
posted by Preserver at 6:30 PM on February 19, 2019

Judging by the fact that when I look out the window in the morning after we shoveled the night before and say "MotherFUCK" and my spouse knows exactly what happened, it is called the motherfuck.
posted by Etrigan at 7:15 PM on February 19, 2019 [3 favorites]

I call it a snow bank.

My kids all it Snow Mountain and live for the day the plows heap fresh snow onto their Snow Mountain.
posted by katypickle at 7:59 PM on February 19, 2019

Windrow where it crosses the drive way; berm where it doesn't (or sometimes windrow and having given it thought I can't really figure out what the difference is in my mind)
posted by Mitheral at 11:38 PM on February 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Another Canadian chiming in with windrow. Thank goodness I live in a condo now.
posted by furtive at 1:26 AM on February 20, 2019

We usually just call it "the goddamn plow pile."
posted by sarcasticah at 8:21 AM on February 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yeah snow windrow is the term that's used in Canada but generally I think most people call it by some variation of "Fuckin' plow". Though Scruss' suggestion of Doug works for me as well.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:32 PM on February 20, 2019

I swiped this question and posted on fb, with similar results; clearly this taps into some deep hatred.
posted by theora55 at 9:45 AM on February 21, 2019