How we research and check our snow guides
Every number in our guides should trace back to a source you can open yourself. Here is how we find those sources, what we refuse to publish, and how to tell us when something is wrong.
Who writes the guides
The guides are written and published by the Macomb Lawn & Snow Solutions team in Macomb Township, Michigan. We plow and salt homes and businesses across all 26 Macomb County communities, and the guides answer the questions homeowners and property managers bring to us: what snow removal costs, what a contract should say, what the local rules are, and how to stay safe until the plow arrives.
Primary sources first
We start from the organization that owns the fact, not from someone summarizing it:
- Weather and climate: the National Weather Service, including the Detroit/Pontiac office, and NOAA climate records.
- Health and safety: the CDC, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, FEMA, OSHA, and medical bodies such as the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
- Law and local rules: the Michigan Legislature, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Macomb County Department of Roads, and each city's or township's own code of ordinances.
- Products: the manufacturer's own instructions, because a warranty follows the maker's rules, not ours.
Each guide lists its sources at the end with working links, and names the source in the sentence that uses it. Those links are checked before a guide is published.
Our own data
Some questions have no published answer, such as how many times a plow actually comes in a Macomb County winter. For those we go to the raw data: daily snowfall records from NOAA, retrieved through the Regional Climate Centers' Applied Climate Information System. Each data guide explains exactly how the numbers were counted and where the method falls short, so you can redo the count yourself. See how many plowable snows Macomb County gets and when it first snows.
What we will not publish
- A number we could not verify. If a statistic cannot be traced to a source we were able to open, it is left out. Vague but true beats specific but wrong.
- Medical or legal advice dressed up as fact. Health guides repeat what the official bodies say and tell you to ask your doctor; legal guides cite the statute or ordinance and say plainly that they are not legal advice.
- Promises about timing. No guide tells you when a plow will arrive, ours included. Storm timing decides that, and anyone who promises an exact time is guessing.
- Stale prices. Every price for our own service is drawn from the same published price list as the calculator, so a rate change updates every guide at once.
Local rules carry a date
Snow emergency rules, sidewalk ordinances and weather alert names change. When a guide summarizes one, it gives the code section or source and the date it was checked, and it tells you to confirm with your own city or township. When we learn that a rule or a number has changed, we update the guide and its date.
How the guides relate to our business
We sell snow removal, and each guide ends with a short note about how we handle the topic. Inside the guide itself, our service comes up only where it genuinely answers the question, and the advice applies whoever you hire.
Report an error
If something in a guide is wrong or out of date, tell us at hello@macomblawnsnow.com or (586) 310-7995, with the page and the source you are looking at. We check it against the source and correct the guide.