Story first appeared in USA Today.
In the course of an average winter, the National Weather Service says Syracuse, N.Y., gets about 118 inches of snow.
Preparing for a similar onslaught this winter, the city set aside about $2 million for salt, equipment maintenance and overtime hours, says the first deputy commissioner of Syracuse's Department of Public Works. The 2011-12 snow season, however, delivered 50.5 inches, letting Syracuse accumulate what was called "very unusual" savings of about $1 million, roughly half its snow-removal budget for November through April.
Syracuse was one of many normally snow-burdened cities in the Northeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic that benefited from the unusually warm winter weather.
•Minneapolis, which got 22.3 inches compared with its average of 50.7, spent about $2.8 million less this year on snow and ice removal in January through March than it did last year, said the city's director of public works. The city has a $9 million snow and ice budget.
•Milwaukee spent about $2 million less than it does on average from January to the end of March this year, said the sanitation services manager for the city's Department of Public Works
•Louisville, through late February, spent about $3.5 million less on winter weather-related expenses than last year. The spokesman for the Mayor, said the savings played a large role in closing the $12 million city budget shortfall projected for this fiscal year.
•Cleveland's savings stem mostly from the $1.5 million left as of the end of March from a salt budget of $3.3 million for October 2011 through 2012, said the director of public works. The city was hit with 38.5 inches in the 2011-12 season compared with an average of 63.7.
National Weather Service spokesman, citing data from the Rutgers Global Snow Lab, said snow this winter covered about 237,000 fewer square miles in the U.S. than on average from 1981 to 2010, making the 2011-12 season the third-lowest of winter snow cover in 46 years of recorded satellite data.
For more national and worldwide business related news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
