Octopus Overlords

Storm names

Gail

Winter Storm Gail is hammering the Northeast as a high-impact nor'easter packing heavy snow, strong winds and coastal flooding.

This storm's impacts aren't confined to the interior Northeast, but are also occurring near parts of the Interstate 95 corridor from New England to New York City.

Over 40 inches of snow has been reported in south-central New York and snowfall from Gail, heavy in some areas, continues to fall in much of New York and New England. Ten inches of snow has been measured at Central Park as of Thursday morning.
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Shirley? You can't be serious.

It came thru on Sunday for us. Left about 6 inches of snow here. We finally got into town yesterday. First decent amount of snow in five years.

Gail Storm is too easy.

We don't name our snow storms in Canada

That said, last week we had a fairly big snow storm. We'd had lots of rain in the past, and any snow we had hadn't lasted, and everything was fairly dry. Felt more like late-fall than Winter. Oh, but the windchill was brutal. Then last week it all fell in one swoop and by the end of that one day we had several feet.

I look forward to the stories about the clean-up crews after the next storm.

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Harold's Angels

Got about 6 inches of snow yesterday and last night in Philadelphia, our first of the year.

The dog loves it. Every year he forgets what snow is, and every winter he's thrilled to rediscover it.

I was told this would be light, powder snow. Wrong. We got maybe 8-10" of the heavy stuff. Took me twice as long to clear as I had expected.

Stepson gave me some kitty litter to spread on the snow on my porch. It seemed to work but now that the snow has melted I have kitty litter mud all over the porch. Makes a hell of a mess on the rug.

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 5:12 pm I was told this would be light, powder snow. Wrong. We got maybe 8-10" of the heavy stuff. Took me twice as long to clear as I had expected.

Ours was heavy too. I'm still feeling it in my back.

Something changed because I was clearing an area last night around 11:30pm for our dog and it was so light and powdery. Then it stopped for a few hours and I can only assume the second round was heavy and wet, because yeah it was like like dealing with concrete. I think we only saw around 6"-8" but it sucked.

In the new house we share a driveway that runs behind three addresses. We're the middle of them.

My wife and I are working from home and avoiding outside trips, so we'd be happy to wait for the snow to melt naturally. Unfortunately the inmost house sharing the drive needs to get in and out, so we're obligated by neighborly morality to clear our portion of the path for their car.

Man, that was a lot of shoveling. I hope there's a Neighbor Heaven.

Smoove_B wrote:Something changed because I was clearing an area last night around 11:30pm for our dog and it was so light and powdery. Then it stopped for a few hours and I can only assume the second round was heavy and wet, because yeah it was like like dealing with concrete. I think we only saw around 6"-8" but it sucked.

Ya later in the night it turned to sleet. Digging out the end of the driveway was less than fun. It could have been much worse though so I'm not complaining.

Holman wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 8:56 pm

Kraken wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 5:12 pm I was told this would be light, powder snow. Wrong. We got maybe 8-10" of the heavy stuff. Took me twice as long to clear as I had expected.

Ours was heavy too. I'm still feeling it in my back.

It fell as powder overnight, but with daylight the temperature rose enough to slushify the bottom layer. Then it got cold enough again to put a crust on top. My snowblower was up to the job, but only slowly. I got a good upper-body workout today.

Winter 2021 is here. Currently getting pounded. I'm guessing we already have ~18 inches of snow at this point and it's getting more intense; not going to stop until tomorrow.

Supposed to get down to 13 here this weekend.

I should be like my neighbors and cleaning periodically. But holy shit it's bad out. I have no idea how I will get out tomorrow.

We're supposedly in the 8-12" band, but we're also right at the rain/snow line. It's snowed all afternoon but isn't sticking. I imagine we'll have some accumulation overnight, and it will be the heavy wet stuff. But temps are supposed to rise through the weekend, so we won't get encased in ice. I'm tentatively confident that we're dodging the bullet this time.

Got about 18" so far. We had a changeover to ice and back. That killed a gazebo and a table in my backyard. It was a nice pandemic hang out spot while it lasted.

Kraken wrote:We're supposedly in the 8-12" band, but we're also right at the rain/snow line. It's snowed all afternoon but isn't sticking. I imagine we'll have some accumulation overnight, and it will be the heavy wet stuff. But temps are supposed to rise through the weekend, so we won't get encased in ice. I'm tentatively confident that we're dodging the bullet this time.

We're in the 4-12" band and it's a nice fluffy snow which I like. But I'm not looking forward to a wet nasty snow if that's in our future.

Unlike where we used to live in MD though, the roads will be all good not long after it all stops.

$iljanus wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 6:29 pm

Kraken wrote:We're supposedly in the 8-12" band, but we're also right at the rain/snow line. It's snowed all afternoon but isn't sticking. I imagine we'll have some accumulation overnight, and it will be the heavy wet stuff. But temps are supposed to rise through the weekend, so we won't get encased in ice. I'm tentatively confident that we're dodging the bullet this time.

We're in the 4-12" band and it's a nice fluffy snow which I like. But I'm not looking forward to a wet nasty snow if that's in our future.

Unlike where we used to live in MD though, the roads will be all good not long after it all stops.

Raining/sleeting its ass off now. We might wind up with 0", depending on where the temperature goes overnight.

Just cleared a car-width path to the street; it's 24" deep and still snowing. Totally bonkers here among the Hill People in NW NJ. It's very powdery and light, but the depth is ridiculous. There's definitely drifts where it has to be closing in on 30".

EDIT: Weather channel is saying 3-5" tonight and another 1-3" tomorrow morning and afternoon. ok, that's enough.

Kraken wrote:

$iljanus wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 6:29 pm

Kraken wrote:We're supposedly in the 8-12" band, but we're also right at the rain/snow line. It's snowed all afternoon but isn't sticking. I imagine we'll have some accumulation overnight, and it will be the heavy wet stuff. But temps are supposed to rise through the weekend, so we won't get encased in ice. I'm tentatively confident that we're dodging the bullet this time.

We're in the 4-12" band and it's a nice fluffy snow which I like. But I'm not looking forward to a wet nasty snow if that's in our future.

Unlike where we used to live in MD though, the roads will be all good not long after it all stops.

Raining/sleeting its ass off now. We might wind up with 0", depending on where the temperature goes overnight.

We're a bit north of you in Lexington. Still a nice snowfall.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 7:01 pm Just cleared a car-width path to the street; it's 24" deep and still snowing. Totally bonkers here among the Hill People in NW NJ. It's very powdery and light, but the depth is ridiculous. There's definitely drifts where it has to be closing in on 30".

EDIT: Weather channel is saying 3-5" tonight and another 1-3" tomorrow morning and afternoon. ok, that's enough.

We have maybe a foot here in Union County with some higher places in drifts. I spent four hours tonight clearing out my driveway so that I could get to the street if necessary. The piles of snow along the sides of the driveway are high enough that it will be a nuisance to throw any additional snow over them.

I'm curious what will away me tomorrow. I'm sore enough right now that I don't know where my line between "gotta go clear the rest" and "frak that I'm driving over it" might be.

At least 2 feet here, our minivan is gone with the drifting.

We've got an inch of slush now. A phalanx of plows keeps going up and down Franklin St (state Rte 37), racking up those billable hours. All the contractors who've sat idle all winter are making bank tonight.

I don't see how my house doesn't start leaking all over the place next week. Storm Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. I fn give up. I don't even bother trying to get the one car out.

We're likely going to get some leaking in one spot once things start melting. I did manage to get the van out of the alley yesterday so my son could go to a doctor's appointment, so that was a success.

We have a bay window that loves to leak from the top. That's easily managed. I just pray it doesn't start coming down the walls. The gutters have long since frozen over and even with a roof rake it's pretty much impossible to clean snow off the roof. My house was designed to make it impossible to do anything.

Monday is supposed to get down to -7. Sunday and Monday it's supposed to snow.....a lot.
It's been my experience that it doesn't snow when it gets too cold. I guess I may get proven wrong.

Octavious wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 2:14 pm We have a bay window that loves to leak from the top. That's easily managed. I just pray it doesn't start coming down the walls. The gutters have long since frozen over and even with a roof rake it's pretty much impossible to clean snow off the roof. My house was designed to make it impossible to do anything.

Have you looked at heat cables? i.e. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Frost-King- ... /202526143

I picked up one a few years back when an ice dam ended up causing a leak above the front window. For the front, I was lazy and just ran the cable along the bottom of the gutter. But it still seams to help. I added one to a section at the back of the house a year or so ago. For that one I actually used the clips and ran the cable a couple feet back from the gutter. It makes a huge difference. It has the benefit of melting the snow near the edge.

Of course, you do still have to remember to plug in the cables....

Ya I may have to look into that for next year. Right now it's a lost cause. It only leaked the one day, but next week looks like a shit show of pain.

I assume you are running into the same issue I had. The gutter fills up with ice, which lifts up the shingles a bit. Then when the ice starts melting, the water moves up under the shingles and is able to leak down into the walls. In my case it was aggravated by poor implementation of the roofing that didn't have sufficient protection against water/ice.

Ya the main roof was replaced 2 years ago and hasn't leaked at all yet. It's just the stupid little roof on the bay window. And with everything in my house it's really really hard to access the roof.

We're debating seeing what it would cost to expand the house to a normal size. And that would remove that window. Otherwise I'm replacing that window with something else. It's just always been a nightmare.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 2:32 pm Monday is supposed to get down to -7. Sunday and Monday it's supposed to snow.....a lot.
It's been my experience that it doesn't snow when it gets too cold. I guess I may get proven wrong.

Cold air doesn't hold much moisture, so it rarely brings deep snow. When cold air meets warm air, though, or moves across a body of open water, watch out.

We're having a slightly colder than average winter, but so far below-average snowfall.

Octavious wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 2:14 pm We have a bay window that loves to leak from the top. That's easily managed. I just pray it doesn't start coming down the walls. The gutters have long since frozen over and even with a roof rake it's pretty much impossible to clean snow off the roof. My house was designed to make it impossible to do anything.

Oy. I have a feeling the number of Google searches in our area for "Ice Dam" are about to skyrocket. The amount of ice on my roof right now is concerning, and there's not a thing that can be done. Based on the weather forecast for the next 5 days, my prediction is...pain.

When I was 11 and living in the mountains of east Tennessee, my Boy Scout troop went on a campout at the top of Buffalo Mountain (about 5500 ft maybe). In the middle of a blizzard. Temps were like 0, -10 wind chill, absolutely life threatening conditions when you're under-prepared (no, we didn't follow the Scout Motto that weekend); I got so cold at one point early Sat morning that I wandered off from camp looking for my dad, who I knew was driving up that morning. Got disoriented and lost and like a freaking Lassie movie, a dog one of the Scout leaders had brought with them had followed me. The dog led me back to camp and next thing I know my dad is there.

Long story longer, I've hated the cold (which I define as anything less than 50F) ever since and I always say, like a mantra that I hope wards off the Evil Cold, I'll never complain about being hot just don't let me ever be that cold again.
I'll be working EMS Tuesday morning in Dallas where it's forecasted to be -2F. This was not part of the deal.

I did 2 a-days, 6 days a week in August as a teenager, rode 50 miles on a steel frame bike in hills around Austin in 110 degrees, did a 10k run on the 4th of July, mowed 1000 lawns in the sauna of June. I'd do all of that again, 100 times over, before one day of this shit.