Astonishing! This Ontario snow pile made it to July (so far)
Signs of the incredible 2025-26 winter in Ontario's snowbelt regions are still holding on as a massive snow pile in Barrie remains standing after surviving the latest heat wave.
It's been a few months since we've last seen snow fall in southern Ontario, but there is still an impressive amount of it left in Barrie, Ont.
With Ontario residents attempting to stay cool during the recent heat wave, a social media post from the City of Barrie showed a photo of a behemoth snow pile still standing. The snow was removed from across the city over the winter, then stored at Barrie's Operation Centre.
The snow has not only been standing tall over the past few months, it endured the heat wave quite well. The snow is still there, and it's still a giant, according to a June 30 post on the City of Barrie Facebook page.
Barrie snow pile at the Operations Centre, taken June 30, 2026. (City of Barrie Facebook)
Barrie saw 400 to 500 centimetres of snow over the course of the winter.
More than 9,000 dump-truck loads of snow, about 180,000 cubic metres of it, were removed and taken to storage sites over the 2025-26 winter, the city said in the photo caption.
Snow pile reportedly about 18 feet high still
Even with multiple days of temperatures near and in the 30s in Barrie, the snow pile is maintaining a height of roughly 18 feet and a width of 100 feet, reported by CTV News on July 3.
Snow pile at additional storage site on McKay Road in Barrie, Ont., taken Feb. 20, 2026. (City of Barrie)
According to the report, the height of the snow pile reached nearly seven storeys and was visible from Highway 400.
How does the snow survive the heat?
Dave Friary, Barrie’s director of operations, told CTV News that the city handled the snow pile differently this winter, helping to extend the duration of the snow to July so far.
“We actually brought in a bulldozer to compact it similar to what we do at the landfill,” said Friary, in an interview with CTV News. “So, make everything a lot more dense, so that’s one of the reasons why it’s hanging around so long.”
It's worth mentioning that it has been more than 60 days since Barrie saw temperatures fall below the freezing mark, and yet, the snow pile is considerably high still.
To make that statistic more notable, the city has recorded nine days of temperatures above the 30-degree mark.
"And we're still holding onto that snow," said Kevin MacKay, a meteorologist at The Weather Network.
While the snow and associated debris are reportedly continuing to melt in the city’s works yard on Ferndale Drive, an exact time frame for when the pile will disappear is unknown. City officials, however, suggest it will be gone before the August long weekend.
Thumbnail courtesy of the City of Barrie, taken on Feb. 5, 2026.