Minnesota's 'Name a Snowplow' contest

AccuWeather

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.

Transcript

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.

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