Photo by william couch

A winter without snow can be disappointing for a lot of people, but probably not for the city’s bean counters.

The little snow that has fallen this year means that D.C. is likely to come in under the $5.1 million budgeted this year for snow preparations and removal. As of February, D.C. had deployed snow teams 16 times, spending $2.3 million in the process.

In 2012, the city spent $4.6 million, less than the $5.2 million it budgeted. By comparison, in December 2009 D.C. had already gone through $4 million of the $6.2 million it set aside for snow—and that was before the two big storms of 2010. By early February, all the money was used up, and D.C. requested federal assistance for snow cleanup.

Speaking at a D.C. Council hearing yesterday, D.C. Department of Public Works Director Bill Howland said that while very little snow has fallen this winter—most notable in the recent bust of a storm we had—he still has to spend money preparing for the possibility that it might. That usually involves sending crews out during the night and early mornings, which costs more.