AccuWeather speaks with Anne Meyer of the Minnesota Department of Transportation about the unique, annual contest of naming snowplows that clear the state's roadways of snow and ice.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We have seen plenty of snow plows in all parts of the country here and we're so thankful for a lot
00:04of the crews. Well no one doesn't like Minnesota, right? And the Department of Transportation of
00:09Minnesota just announced the winners of the fifth annual Name a Snowplow Contest. With single digit
00:16temperatures across much of the state, we thought we'd check in with Minnesota DOT spokesperson
00:21Ann Meyer. Thanks so much for joining us and hopefully you are staying warm with those
00:26temperatures into the single digits. How are your crews doing in those kind of temperatures?
00:31Honestly you know we've had a couple of months it seems like of colder weather. It is more
00:36challenging out there for crews so we're keeping them safe. We just had some snow over the weekend
00:42too so it's been a busy time here in Minnesota for our snowplow drivers. Now this is the fifth
00:47year of the Name a Snowplow Contest. Did you have a lot of entries? Yeah we really did. You know we
00:55started in December asking folks to give us their name submissions. 7,300 name submissions
01:02came in this season. That's an incredible amount. Many of them on our list of finalists were newer
01:10names to our contest this year which I think speaks volumes to the creativity that's out there.
01:15We really had a lot of fun with it so that's where we started. We narrowed it down to a list of 50
01:20finalists and then folks got to vote on their favorites and then the top eight vote getters
01:25become newly named snowplows in our fleet. Well can you share with us what are some of the winners
01:30this year and then as you mentioned they get to be voted on right? Who chooses those winners?
01:36Yes so the public votes and already did so we announced our winners last week. The big winner
01:41was we're off to see the blizzard which I think is a great theme for what we're doing. It's Notorious
01:47B.I.G., Plowabunga, Anthony Sludwards. So that's off of our Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team.
01:54Anthony Edwards is the name association there. You're welcome which I think is great for our
02:00snowplow drivers because I think they want to hear that every time they're out there working hard
02:04to clear roads. And then to finish us off, Don't You Snow, Skull Plow which is a big name up here
02:10in Minnesota for the Vikings and then I Came, I Thought, I Conquered. And every name does physically
02:16go on our plows here in Minnesota as you see Plowy McPlow facing the backdrop there. That was
02:21our first year winner five years ago. Here's our new plow Anthony Sludwards so we are able to get
02:27those names on. We had a great announcement last week and it's just really fun. We think a lot of
02:32folks really get into this contest every season and we see it as a great way to sort of support
02:37the safety of our snowplow drivers. If you're helping to name a plow hopefully you're also
02:41driving more safe around them when they're out there doing the work. Has the public
02:48surprised you on how much they liked this whole process? Yeah, it's really been fascinating to
02:56see over the last five years. We were one of the I think the first state in the nation to do the
03:01contest five years ago. We borrowed the idea from Scotland. That country's been naming snowplows for
03:06many many years and then we've just seen everybody else pick up on it. We see a lot of momentum
03:11around the nation. We do our contests a little bit differently. We have a lot of public participation
03:16and each year we really get a new round of fun names to add to our fleet and I think folks
03:21really like seeing the names out there when they're out driving. Sometimes they'll drive
03:25behind a plow that's named and we'll hear from them sometimes. I hear the drivers say that they
03:29get thumbs up a lot and different reactions when folks see them on the road. Well, I can hear the
03:34excitement in your voice as well Anne Meyer spokesperson with the Minnesota Department of
03:39Transportation. Thank you so much for joining us on AccuWeather Early. Thank you. Have a great day.
03:46Thanks you too. Stay warm.