So yesterday we had a snowy day. Maybe a couple inches fell in my area on the west side of the valley, though it was really windy for the morning until about lunch so the actual accumulation was probably under an inch. I think last night there was 1/2" on the driveway but the dirt and peoples' lawns probably had an inch. (Wife says there was a lot more in the center of the valley where she works and the roads got better as she drive west).
Our driveway is probably 6"-12" thick depending on where you are. The grading for it didn't quite match the pour (which was poured to match the house elevation and the sidewalk as level as possible). They also poured it a but thicker because they came straight out for a few feet before angling down to the sidewalk, so that the step in front of the house over to the front door porch was even height along the whole thing.
We had asked for about a 5-6" driveway instead of the normal 4" because we had 2" foam underlayment insulation and snow melt hot water tubing under neath it with both some rebar and heavy wire mesh reinforcement and wanted a bit more mass to counteract the thermal expansion and contraction from snow melt. We ended up with anywhere from around 5" to 12".
So we have a bit more thermal mass in our driveway than the neighbors. Which means when the sun comes out, our driveway tales a few extra hours to melt of the snow and ice.
The first pic was at 10:19am this morning. You can see the neighbors' driveways are pretty much clear. The second pic is at 13:40pm today. We've let most but not all of ours. The morning shot was less snowy and icy than it was over night. We'd already had a couple hours of sun on it.
You can se on the first pic from the morning, the sidewalk which is probably only 3-4" thick concrete, had already melted.
Interestingly on the 13:40 pic, the parts on the left that are still snowy are one of the thinner parts, 5-6" on the edge compared to the parts on the right.
And in case you're wondering, the snow melt system isn't in operation yet. I still have to add the controller and another electronics box that distributes some wiring, and then pressure test the manifold and piping. Mainly testing the manifold to make sure all the connections are good. And then fill it with a water / glycol mix. We did get the piping actually connected to the manifold this past fall... Luckily we've not had a lot of snow and no heavy storms this winter.