MnDOT Announces Winning Names of “Name a Snowplow” Contest

The votes have been tallied and the Minnesota Department of Transportation has announced the eight winners of its third annual “Name a Snowplow” contest.

The “Harry Potter”-inspired pun “Yer a Blizzard, Harry” came in first, with 15,248 votes. A plow assigned to southwestern Minnesota will bear the name. A plow in the metropolitan area will be called “Blizzo”, which came in second place.

The contest drew votes from more than 64,000 people, according to MnDOT, which announced the names of the winners on Wednesday.

“We had a good turnout again,” spokeswoman Anne Meyer said. “We love how much fun people have with the contest.”

The agency held the contest online in January, inviting voters to help nominate a snow plow in each of the eight MnDOT districts. Participants could only vote once, but could select up to eight names from the 60 that appeared on the selection form.

The Class of 2023 and their assigned districts also include Clearopathtra (Northeast Minnesota), Better Call Salt (Central Minnesota), Han Snowlo (South Central Minnesota), Blader Tot Hotdish (Northwest Minnesota), Scoop ! There it Is (southeast Minnesota) and Sleetwood Mac (west central Minnesota).

MnDOT launched the call for name suggestions in December and received more than 10,400 suggestions. Staff members narrowed down finalists based on uniqueness, frequency of submission, ideas and Minnesota-specific names that would be easily identifiable and understandable to most audiences, Meyer said.

Including winners from the past two years, MnDOT now has 25 named snow plows statewide, including “Plowy McPlowFace”, “Betty Whiteout”, “Duck Duck Orange Truck” and “The Big Leplowski”. Each district now has at least two named snow plows.

Last year, in addition to the winner of the 2022 contest, Northeast staff named a second plow, Giiwedin, the Ojibwe word for north wind. The vehicle is parked at MnDOT’s Duluth truck station and covers the highway. 33 near the Fond du Lac Reserve.

The MnDOT was the first Department of Transportation in the nation to launch a snow plow naming contest in an effort to bring some levity to winter, Meyer said. Agency officials had seen an article in ‘Roadshow’ explaining how Scotland names its entire snowplow fleet and publishes maps showing their locations. The country calls the vehicles “sandblasters,” according to the article, which has led to witty handles such as “Gritney Spears” and “Gritty Gritty Bang Bang.”

The competition could return for a fourth year in 2024.

“It’s still very popular and there are a lot of names and a lot of plows in our fleet,” Meyer said. “I can see us doing another contest in the future.”