Although regular snow plow trucks sometimes are used in Minamiuonuma in areas such as narrow roads, often they are not suitable for the heavy snowfall in Minamiuonuma.
When there is a lot of snow, the snow quickly piles up on the sides of the roads. There is no room to merely push the snow to the side of the road. Instead, snow removal trucks look like mammoth snow blowers. There are huge turnstiles at the front of the truck. The turnstiles sweep up the snow and use a high, angled spout to eject the snow away from the road and buildings. Some photos of roads cleared by these trucks can be seen ▷ at this link.
In some cases where there is not enough room on the side the road, the snow can be ejected into dump trucks that travel alongside. The dump trucks transport the snow to open areas, such as open fields and open land along riversides. These areas become mountains of snow until the spring thaw.
For highways and other multilane roads, multiple trucks run in tandem at staggered intervals to clear the roads as efficiently as possible.
