I no longer live in snow central, but leaving 1" of scraped and probably packed snow is a bad idea. It'll just turn into a thick ice.
Snow does not last for very long here in Oklahoma unless things are real bad with an overcast. If I can get close to the black asphalt the sun will usually melts off the snow. I do clear the ice from the concrete garage apron. The snow/ice on the apron melts during the day and turns to glare ice at night. Will the FEL scrape the ice off with the scoop edge straight down?
My wife laughs at me when it snows. She is real Southern (born Atlanta, raised Dallas) I was brought up outside Boston, if it snows; it has to be shoveled even if it will melt in a few days. When it snows heavy here, the snow drifts on the dirt county road (two miles to the highway). The county usually clears the road in a day or two but seldom to the dirt. Shaded areas bear caution because they do turn icy.
For all you Northerners, ice storms here can be real entertainment. They drive right up to a stop sign and expect to stop. When we lived it Fort Worth, the bridges would freeze over. People would hit the ice on the bridge and jam on their brakes. The car would hit the dry spot beyond and screech to a stop just as the semi behind them was on the bridge ice. Crazy. Since I am retired, I usually wait a few days unless we have to go somewhere.
Wolfman, you mentioned packed snow. When I was in Fairbanks, Alaska, the alert airplanes (B-47s) were parked on a foot of packed snow. If for some reason we burned a hole in the snow (accumulated jet fuel would catch fire during a hot engine start and burn a hole) or blew out a deep patch of snow with the engines; we would have to tow the airplanes clear so they could scrape the parking ramp down to the pavement. I do not miss snow, that's one of the reasons I live down here.
