NOTE: Alert blog reader Justin pointed out that the video below was about Green Bay, not Madison, as I had originally said. My apologies to those in Madison :)

UPDATE: A number of you wrote in to say that you had flags, poles or other identifying items to help see your hydrants in snow...

Terry from Kitchener, Ontario Canada: Flags
Randy from Manchester Center, VT: Metal rods with numbers
Dave from Erie, PA: Flags with reflectors
Michael from Wisconsin Rapids, WI: Red/white rods
Paul from Waterford, CT: Flags
Andrea in Grayslake, IL: Flags
Evan at Frisco, CO: Flags
Kurt from Horsham, PA: Flags
Gary from River Edge, NJ: Metal poles
Dave from Morris County, NJ: Pole with reflector
Jay from Ottowa, Ontario Canada: Flags
Justin from Concord, NH: Poles with reflectors
Barbara & Aaron say that many Places in VT, NH, ME have flags.
Sam from Montreal & Kingston, Canada, Plus Willsboro, NY says they all have flags.
Ruth from Montana says even the roads have poles so you can find them out there!

A couple people suggested that the people in Madison should use metal detectors - I'm not sure whether or not that would work but it sounds like a good idea!

"Hello Wisconsin!"
--That 70's Show

In my fourth entry about places buried by unusually heavy snow this season, we visit Madison, Wisconsin, where they have already broken their seasonal snowfall record. It's causing unusual problems such as... not being able to find fire hydrants that are obscured under the snow. Raw video with partial audio below, courtesy WBAY:

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/video/video_inline_launchV3.asp?video=http://qt.accuweather.com/flashvideo/vblog_ferrell/1-VPID02222008wisnowhydrants&category=&thumb=http://qt.accuweather.com/flashvideo/vblog_ferrell/1-VPID02222008wisnowhydrants.jpg&hd=false

NOTE: THE VIDEO ABOVE MAY BE PRECEDED BY ADVERTISEMENTS

CAPTION: Often buried under those miniature mountains are fire hydrants. Now the fire department is trying to locate and dig out all of those hydrants. The problem is there is no accurate map detailing their exact location. Firefighters are asking people to dig out their own hydrants, figuring homeowners know exactly where they are. But the fire department is also going through neighborhoods, shoveling until they locate a buried hydrant and clearing access to it. It's a long, painstaking process, but very necessary for public safety. Fire officials say they can't use GPS technology to find the buried hydrants because their maps aren't detailed enough. It's something they hope can be rectified in the future.

NOTE: Clearly, they have not found the trick that we use here in Central Pennsylvania (a place where you rarely get enough snow to hid a hydrant): attaching flags that can be seen above the snow. Oddly enough, we seem to be the only people doing this - I couldn't find evidence of this outside of Alaska on Google. If you have flags on your hydrants, email me.

In regards to the record, the NWS said last week (also reported by the AP):

The AP article notes humorously: "The city is looking into having 'I plowed through the winter of 07-08' T-shirts made for workers in its streets, engineering and parks divisions and Metro Transit employees."

Previous "Buried by Snow" entries:

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