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And if there's SOME snow down before you tarp, it can freeze to things.

You just have to empty the tarp often enough.

I guess it depends on where you live, but here in Finland it certainly snows often enough in the winter that you don't have to think about it, you just keep it in place all winter.

That and dragging this tarp of heavy snow… onto a yard / dumping area full of snow sounds impossible.

Some anchors and a winch and this could be pretty effective. And you could probably automate it, too.

at that point it seems simpler to install heating

A winch would be many orders of magnitude more efficient than a heater. Now maybe a heated tarp to help unstick it, if it happens to freeze in place.

Take a look at how much energy you need to put in to melt water.

0J ?