Where to Park When It Snows in Minot

Where to park tonight

The rule runs from 1:00 AM to 7:00 AM. Every day and time on this page is read on the town’s own clock.

The whole week

Sunday is in neither list, so the 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. rule names no blocks on Sunday morning. The twenty-four and forty-eight hour limits below still apply, and so does a snow removal emergency if one has been declared.

The Central Business District

Ordinance § 20-22 says the rule applies "within the Central Business District" and then defines only what a street and an avenue are — not where the district's boundary runs. The text the City publishes with its Snow and Ice Control Plan carries no boundary either. Downtown blocks are signed, so read the sign; if you are not sure whether your block counts, Public Works will tell you on 701-857-4140.

Minot Code of Ordinances § 20-22, reprinted in full in Appendix II of the City's 2024/2025 Snow and Ice Control Plan

Limits that apply whatever night it is

Twenty-four hours

No parking on any street for more than twenty-four hours, unless the vehicle is parked as close as it can be to the property where its owner or main driver lives (§ 20-22(c)).

Forty-eight hours

No parking on any street for more than forty-eight hours, with no exception. The two limits run independently of each other and of any other time limit on the same block (§ 20-22(d), (e)).

When a snow emergency is declared

Where a declaration is announced

A proclamation is offered to the local broadcast media, including cable television, for immediate dissemination, and to the local newspaper where that is feasible (§ 20-24.2(c)); the City's Public Information Office also puts it out on the City website and social media. None of that is published anywhere a page like this can read, so check one of these before you leave a vehicle on a route overnight.

• City of Minot — Street DepartmentThe page a declaration appears on, with the snow FAQ.
• City of Minot — snow event reportsThe City's own running account of what crews are doing in a snow event.
• Hyper-Reach — Ward County emergency alertsWard County's reverse 9-1-1 sign-up: a phone call, text or email when something is declared.

The order the plows work in

This is an order of work, not a timetable. The City publishes no target number of hours for any priority level, and the plan says plainly that there are times when a lower priority takes precedence — because of the weather, vehicles blocking a street, or emergency calls, which always come first. There is also no "bare roads" policy, so a layer of packed snow on a street that has been cleared is not a street that was missed.

And then residential streets

Residential areas are cleared once the emergency snow routes and Priorities 1 through 5 are complete, and so are the City-owned sidewalks and walk paths that are not on the list above (Snow and Ice Control Plan § 5.5). The Street Department's own FAQ answers the question it gets asked most about this: "We do not skip ahead in our priority route snow removal."

What starts a run

The plan sets no depth that starts a run. Sanding trucks go out on the first snowfall, and what else is dispatched depends on the forecast: whether the wind is blowing and from where, how much snow is already down, how much more is coming, how wet it is, and whether it will melt in the next few days (Snow and Ice Control Plan §§ 1 and 6.3). Roads are pre-treated with brine early in an event, and a salt and sand mix is used when it is too cold for brine to work.

Which band is my street in?

Type a street name — a house number as well, if you have one, which is what separates the four quadrants.

The part that is yours

The ridge across your driveway

The ridge of snow a grader leaves across the end of a driveway is the property owner's to clear. Nothing comes back for it. This is the most repeated complaint in the City's own survey comments — "don't block driveways with snow", "plows should use their gates" — and it is better known in October than discovered in January. Clearing it back into the street is the offence above.

What the plows do about it

All eight of the City's motor graders carry gates, which hold snow back at intersections, in driveways and around mailboxes. They work for low to moderate snow only: heavy snow goes over the top of the gate, and wet snow puts enough pressure on one to break it. When the operators judge the gates ineffective they stop using them, and the City says it will announce that through its website, social media and news releases when it happens (Snow and Ice Control Plan § 4.2.2.2).

The sidewalk outside your door

Within 24 hours. The owner or occupant of any building, grounds or premises next to a street has to keep the sidewalk beside it reasonably clear of snow and ice. Where the premises also back onto an alley, that includes the walk across the alleyway, up to the centre line of the alley.

• If it is not done within twenty-four hours of the snow or ice falling or building up, the Public Works Director may have it cleared and the cost assessed against the property under N.D.C.C. ch. 40-29 (§ 28-87). There is no fine attached — it arrives as a charge on the property.

Minot Code of Ordinances § 28-85. The City's own walks are cleared under the council-approved snow plan, which does not change the duty next door.

Snow may not go into the street

Nobody may put snow or ice on a city street or sidewalk, or move it onto public or private property where it blocks a driver's or a walker's view at an intersection, a merge or a school crossing. Snow cleared from a parking lot, a filling-station forecourt or a driveway may not go onto city property or a city street at all, and nothing may be piled against a hydrant, a traffic signal, a sign, a bus loading area or an emergency access lane. The Street Department's own FAQ puts it in one line: snow must stay on the resident's property.

Minot Code of Ordinances § 28-86

Telling the city a street was missed

Phone

701-857-4140

Email

pwops@minotnd.gov

• Report a concern

Public Works Operations takes snow and street reports. A report is information rather than an instruction: the Street Department works its priority order and does not skip ahead.

Official maps and documents

• The city’s winter page
• Snow and Ice Control Plan, 2024/2025The City's own plan, with every priority route listed and all seven ordinances reprinted in Appendix II.
• Emergency snow routes mapWhich routes are posted. The sign on the street is the authority; the by-law requires one at least every 500 feet.
• Snow removal priority mapThe City's interactive version of the register this page reads, block by block.
• Snow equipment trackerWhere the City's graders and sanders have been. It shows where a machine has worked, not when your street is due.