Inside Iowa State
December 21, 2000
Ask Inside
Send your questions about Iowa State sites, people, history, policies and "things" to Ask Inside, 2040 Communications, e-mail: inside@iastate.edu.
Q: We seem to use quite a few snow fences on this campus. What's the theory on how they work?
A: We use snow fences on campus to assist us in a number of ways. The primary uses are:
- Perimeter control for special events. For example, when former presidential candidate Al Gore visited campus the day before Election Day, we installed more than 3,000 feet of snow fence to assist with security.
- Traffic control, primarily to redirect pedestrian traffic to existing sidewalks (i.e. control "cow paths").
- Most common this time of year: control drifting snow and try to keep it off sidewalks and roads. For example, if a sidewalk or road has been cut through an elevation in the landscape, wind-blown snow tends to fill in the cut-out area. Placing a snow fence a distance away from the low area, on the upwind side and perpendicular to the direction of the wind, helps the snow accumulate at the fence instead of the cut-out area. You even can have multiple fences, set at different distances from the area of concern, to control drifting snow.
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