Mapping Snow Plow Activity in Washington, D.C.

Winter Storm Jonas (aka #Snowzilla) hit the East Coast hard this week, dumping 20 to 40 inches of snow in areas around the region. Cities came to a complete standstill: government and local businesses shut down, public transportation was suspended, and air travel was paralyzed (and is still struggling to recover). Wild deer traipsed across Washington, D.C.’s snow-covered streets, while the humans who ventured out during the blizzard took to skis, sleds, and snowboards.

But now that the storm is over, cities have rushed to reclaim their streets. Several local governments, including D.C., post snow-plow tracking systems online. After crunching District plow activity data, Mapbox’s Tom Lee has created this auto-updating map that shows where city snow plows have travelled, and how recently.