Denver Neighborhoods Get Some Help Digging Out

DENVER (CBS4) - Seeing Denver city plows on smaller residential streets is a rare sight after a snowstorm, but the recipe was right for that to happen on Monday.

The city only deploys its 4x4 pickup trucks with plows on the front to small neighborhood streets to do plowing if 12 inches of snow is predicted and there are freezing temperatures to go along with it.

Sunday's storm officially dropped about 9 inches of snow, and temps dropped into the teens overnight.

Approximately 90 different trucks were out plowing more than 14,000 residential blocks around the city early Monday morning, with about 70 large snowplows on main streets in the city.

Late Monday morning officials with Denver Public Works sent all the residential plow drivers home. Officials described the mostly snowpacked conditions on the residential streets as being "driveable conditions." They also expected that the clear skies and sunny conditions would lead to much melting of the snow.

Although there's a prediction for more snow on Tuesday, Public Works spokeswoman Emily Williams said don't expect to see the plows on residential streets again this week.

"It would take much more snow that what is predicted for tomorrow to bring the residential plows back out and that's because the residential plow program really is for emergencies," Williams said. "Tomorrow could be rough with a couple inches, but with the residential plows being out today your streets should still be okay."