[elmer fudd]

I'm also guessing that they might have put down some salt or other deicer.

[Vigilanteman]

I spent a winter in Sakata on the Sea of Japan, 1977-78. No, the snow wasn't quite this extreme, but take a train 30 km or so inland and you could see the piles heaped up perhaps half the size of those shown in the pictures.

Part of the reason the snow piles up is the pattern of thawing and freezing continuously recyles moisture into the atmosphere. On some of the main streets of Sakata, nozzles at periodic intervals sprayed water to keep the roads cleared. They stopped when the weather was well below freezing, but the timing wasn't always perfect. There would be nights we would go home on sheets of ice.