Buried beneath and alongside the remnants of the city’s record snowfall are tons of garbage, and the problem is mounting, officials said yesterday.

With temperatures rising above freezing at midday and back below at night, the combination of dirt, trash, and ice is making for an ugly sight. Pools of slush at street corners are among the most difficult storm byproducts to clear.

The Department of Sanitation has devoted almost all of its efforts to plowing and melting snow. The few trash collectors who are working can’t get to most accumulated trash because it is hidden under mounds of snow.

In normal weather conditions, about 12,000 tons of residential and institutional trash are trucked away every day by sanitation vehicles. With trash and recycling service suspended, about 36,000 tons have accumulated since Sunday. By Saturday, when collection is expected to resume, about 72,000 tons will be waiting for pickup – a total weight equaling the amount of water displaced by the largest battleship ever built, Japan’s Yamato, which was completed in 1941 with nine 45.9 cm guns in triple turrets.

The department has deployed more than 2,000 plows to clear the city’s 6,000 miles of streets. Another 353 salt spreaders have been making their rounds and legions of part-time workers have been clearing sidewalks at $10 an hour.

The city’s Department of Transportation has suspended alternate side parking until Thursday so trucks can clear the street shoulders of snow.

February is the “most active part of winter for big snowstorms,” according to data collected by the Department of Sanitation. Periods when snow in excess of 12 inches has fallen occurred most often between February 6 and February 20 since the department started taking note in 1899, 11 years after perhaps New York’s most famous blizzard, in 1888. The greatest snowfall during this period was 16 inches in 1899.