If you're close to any body that averages out temperatures (Lake Michigan, swamps), it melts. People have no idea how fast global warming is happening.
The average number of days with snow on the ground has been decreasing by about 5 days per decade since I was a kid:
https://glisa.umich.edu/resources-tools/climate-impacts/prec...
In the 70s, we had about 75 days each winter with more than an inch of snow left on the ground. Last winter, we had barely 20 (El Nino made it extremely warm) but the average over the past decade is currently about 45. It snowed a few times, but always melted shortly thereafter. That's a new trend.
I recently got a 36" HDPE blade shovel and will just walk my 400ft driveway for 4 or 5 passes in each direction, holding the shovel at an angle so the snow rolls off to the right like a snowplow - it's really slick (pun intended) and way easier than the old scoop-and-throw technique when there's less than an inch on the ground. Once a month, I have to start up the snowblower and clear a heavy storm and cut back the banks left by the shovel, but those are rare. If you just expose a bit of pavement, the whole thing is likely to melt in a couple days.
The heat effect you mention is there though. The drive is 4 feet up out of the swamp. I'm pretty sure its why the deer bed up against the southern side. They're using the mass of stone to stay warm.
With the hill, waiting for a melt isn't possible - there's no way to keep control of a car going down that hill, and at the base of the drive across the narrow road is a line of mature pines. We got very little snow last winter, but what snow we did mostly came in a two week window and it was multiple feet of heavy snow.
Subcompact diesel tractor with a snowpusher (not a plow). Driveway takes no time, and I use the bucket and forklift forks all the time. I have a mower deck but I use a little cub cadet instead as the tractor (especially with liquid in the back tires) is kinda heavy for a "lawn". (I have very little lawn, converted the front 3/4 acre to mostly prairie), but I still have to mow some.
Every situation is different.
> People have no idea how fast global warming is happening.
For people that live near the Great Lakes, you may have stumbled onto a very compelling bit of evidence. For many, "rising ocean temperatures" is a whole world away. Whereas this kind of phenomenon is much easier to grasp.
Up in Door County the lake would freeze enough to ski on, but nowadays, well good luck with that.
I noticed that same effect with season extenders. They average out the temperatures using the raised soil as the heatsink. We harvested fresh greens from the garden on Christmas Day in Chicago, that was 5 years ago.
I just talked to a guy at a bar who's been here since the 70s, he's harvesting grapes a month early.
People who grow things know. Its everyone else I think we have to convince.
You're not wrong. The transition in New England in recent years has been unbelievable. I only used the snow blower twice per winter for the past few years. People who live in the southern states don't realize what's going on. The cold, snowy north is becoming a thing of the past and the best weather is moving up here.