This Year’s Storm Of The Century
So it looks like the big storm of this winter is headed this way. I was disappointed to miss the four inches or so we got last week while I was out in San Francisco, but it appears this here is the storm to beat this year. And it makes me excited.
As with the summer storms, I really enjoy the big snow storms we get here some winters. A lot of people complain about snow or the cold, but I think such adverse weather really makes you feel alive. Drink some coffee and watch the radar, go out and shovel the drive, take a nighttime walk in the muted and oddly bright neighborhood…
It’s also a time when some city folk are just a little bit kinder to each other. We’re all in it together, so help someone scrape their car, maybe throw a shovel in the truck in case you have an opportunity to stop to dig someone out, or just open your mouth and talk about the weather to the guy beside you in line. He’s got something to say about it too.
But of course it can’t all be good. Certainly if the power goes out, that’s a bad thing. I like the storms, but I also like my steady 70 degrees, a flushable toilet, and my internet and cable, so when the power goes out and disrupts my normal standard of living, I get a bit grumpy about it.
Even worse than living in sub-standard conditions (for Dublin, that is) is the three-ring show the local weather monkeys put on. Yes, I keep an eye on the radar and like to get the updates from the weathermen of ambiguous sexual orientation, but geez, don’t stretch a snow storm into some kind of sign of the end times. A solid wind chill and moderate snow accumulation is plenty for most folks, so there’s no need to build conditions up unnecessarily as part of some scare tactic to keep viewers glued to their TVs. So if any of you have programmes that you watch on Monday nights, be prepared to have them interrupted unnecessarily…
But anyway, that windy dude from the olde-timey maps is blowin something our way, so if you’re in the area, bundle up, get out and grab some groceries, check the fluids in the car (especially the washer fluid), charge those cell phones, and flip up your wipers if your car lives outside.
I don’t know where to get an official number on inches of snow for my area, but I like what we got. I opened the garage door tonight to go out & get the truck cleared off & ready for action & the amount of snow that had built up was pretty impressive. And of course it’s always fun tearin about the roads in that heavy Jeep…
Anybody got numbers for their area or particularly interesting tales?
We got 4 inches or so before the ice arrived. I heard on the news that Dublin got 9 inches.
upstate new yourk got 11 feet of snow
i like Q-FM calling the storm “white death” pertaining to the overreaction of forecasters before the strom
:) 1460am The Fan calls it that, too.
It’s pretty hard for me to tell for sure what it’s like at my house. Some areas of my yard are green grass, others are huge drifts. In general, “a lot”.
We had about 3 inches at around 9am yesterday when I shoveled the front walk for my wife to get to the car. By 5pm, the work I had done earlier was wasted and the front walk had about 10 inches. Even with 4WD, we had a little trouble getting the Honda through the drifts and out of the driveway. Drifts in the driveway were up to my knee, and our side porch was blocked off by a drift at least as high as my waist.
On my way back in last night, I actually ran off the road. The fields were losing a lot of snow across the roadway, so it was a white-out on the road surface. Just before my house, I misjudged that a sheet of blowing snow was in fact a large drift (over the bumper) half way into my lane. After pulling out of that, I got bogged down at the mouth of our driveway. I had to hike up to the house from the end of our drive.
We actually spent the night at my brother’s house, so I don’t know how much more we got last night, but I’m calling to have somebody plow the driveway this morning. If it weren’t for Microsoft Tuesday keeping me busy up until my brother called to say his twins were being born, I might’ve had a chance to tackle it with the tractor. As it stands, I can’t get back to the shed to get the tractor out.
All in all, I would say it’s a particularly successful Midwest snow storm. (Though I’m jealous — one county north of us, Logan, got an official Blizzard Warning).
Power is back on here in Perry County. We stayed toasty warm with the wood burning stove, gas burning stove and kerosene heater. Loved having the battery radio. Abraham Lincoln had it rough trying to read by kerosene lamp.
Lots of ice out here – as well as snow. Inches…don’t know.
Something I realized this week is that I despise living in the city when there is alot of snow on the ground. I wanted to go sledding, make tunnels in snow drifts and all that fun stuff. Yes, I’m still 12 years old.
Da ‘Ville got hit REALLY hard yesterday. When I went out to shovel it was about 3 inches above my knees. Grant it I am vertically challenged..but there was alot. Worse than that we had to have had a good 2-3 inches of just ice alone. It was bad enough to keep us at a level three until almost 6 o’clock. It almost ended Valentine’s day :-)
Am I the only one who’s bummed that they’re calling for temps in the 40s next week? I’m not ready for the snow to go. I want it to stay like this for a while. It’s been fun having such a major change up. Makes for fun trips out in the truck too…
Bill, normally I’d be on your side on this one. But I could use some thaw right about now. Missing that sweet spot in the storm where plows were able to move snow, i have a mostly ice-bound drive. My car is currently drifted in, and if I can’t dig it out by hand soon, we’ll be in a world of hurt.
Normally, I have to move my car from its spot for the propane truck to fill my tank. Since I can’t, the propane guy won’t be able to fill my tank (unless he’s been just jerking my chain all year for no good reason). So this time around, I’m looking forward to a long Saturday of digging and warming temps to help me get my driveway to a point that we can keep the heat on.
But on the upside: my entire backyard is a big sheet of ice. I’ve been having lots of fun walking to and from the shed, a few feet above my lawn. Occasionally I fall through, but I’ve climbed some pretty incredible drifts in the last few days!
Step number 1 of moving out to the boondocks: means of plowing your drive
The Jeep’s been fine in this (still haven’t bothered to try out the Element) but they finally got around to plowing my street, so of course I was left with a big wall of snow/ice at the end of my unshoveled driveway. So yesterday I had to cut out a path to the street. Not good on my back normally, but after throwing it out last weekend, it definitely didn’t feel good…
Snow……..What is Snow?
First snowfall of the season is lookin pretty good so far. Maeby’s in heaven.
Overlooking snow-covered Little Mexico:
I think the snow is beautiful if you get to stay home and enjoy it. It took me an hour and forty minutes to get from the apartment to work. Even on a clear day with heavy traffic it usually takes about 15 min. So I am a little slow on the praise of snow :)
But you are SO right. It’s funny watching the animals play. A dog’s first snow is pretty funny to watch.
I’m with Amy on this one. The snow is pretty but it really ruined my day. It took me about two hours to get to work and part of that time included me sitting in a ditch after my car slid off the road (no damage to me or the car). I’m comfortable with saying that I really hate snow.
Unlike last year, I have a new tractor and a plow. I love the toys, and it took me no time at all to do a first pass and clear most of the snow off my driveway and make it passable. I’ve got more work to do after the workday is done, but it’s good enough for now. So, with most all the important concerns taken care of, I’m enjoying the first taste of winter in Ohio.
Yay snow!
(PS, the roads aren’t that bad here “out west”, our road crews got the major stuff cleared and passable very quickly, even in the county; my guess is that Columbus drivers are just bad)
Our little 12 week old Lanee was a sight to behold today – she absolutely had a ball in her first snow!
Today I can appreciate the snow since it’s not on the road. Driving in from Urbana today was beautiful. All the trees and fields had frost on them which looked like white glitter. Everything sparkled and it made me smile.
Typical Lisa. Of course you would like nature once it glams up a little.
It’s another beautiful snowy day. Hope you’re all enjoying the weather. Maeby & I are. (Not so much Rudy. I left the electric blanket on for him…)
Since travel is usually a common complaint during this kind of weather, here are a couple videos for you:
Train Snow Plow 1
Train Snow Plow 2 (notice Fall to Pieces playing in the background — I still think this is one of the best recent rock ballads)
Who’s up for one more nice snow storm? Raise your snow shovels. This may be the one to beat this year.
We got an early release which was fine with me, but it was announced two hours before the actual release therefore the students were extra wiley for the two hours after the announcement
Here’s a pretty good site to help you get an idea of road conditions. Mess around with the filters under Travel Status to get what you want. You need to click Apply Filters whenever you tweak it, and you may need to re-apply if you zoom out.
http://www.buckeyetraffic.org/
Wiley — ha.
Central Ohio folks, how much did we get?
I had a classic avalanche moment today. I went about shoveling off the back steps by opening the sliding door and shoveling my way out. Once I got out onto the second step I closed the door behind me and of course a huge overhang of snow came crashing down on me, right down the back of my coat. I had that “oh crap that’s cold” paralysis for a couple seconds.
The roads are very fun. My old Jeep is a beast master. It cannot be stopped.
http://www.speedace.info/automotive_directory/car_images/jeep_cherokee_blue_bull_bars.JPG
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http://www.sworddragon.com/passions/images/dar2.jpg
Ditto. We had a good foot of snow not counting drifts and the piles from the plows. What made it real fun was the 3 hours of heavy sleet we got friday night. made for some serious sledding, and adds to the driving fun.
I’m kind of depressed, Athens only got maybe 3 inches of snow. If all of our freezing rain had been in snow form, I would be able to impress you with some big numbers.
Despite mostly missing out on the “Blizzard of 2008″, I did get to see the thunder and lightning Friday night that accompanied the little snowfall we had.
Officially, from my neck of the woods, this was “worse” than the Blizzard of ‘78.
Here in between the fields, we had easily some waist-deep drifts, and if it weren’t warming up so quickly it would probably be a few weeks before I could get my car out of the drift it was in. As is, however, the storm is somewhat of a non-event. Didn’t travel Friday night or Saturday, but things were fine by yesterday morning.
Still have some digging to do on some of the worst unplowable driveway drifts, but last year’s Valentine’s freeze-thaw-snow-freeze-snow fest had a much more lasting impact.
Well the snow’s been very pretty to look at but the temperatures these past couple days have been ridiculous. I’ve been waiting for my little menu bar app on my laptop to tell me it’s above zero but that hasn’t happened yet today. Perhaps it won’t at this point… I had to bring Maggie in to hunker down in the basement. I don’t think she’s very happy about it, and I imagine she probably has a bit of cabin fever at this point, but there’s no helping that.
I posted a few pics in case you’ve never seen snow before:
Why don’t hundreds of people ever have snowball fights in my yard?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTRcO-26_B0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-N0yNJ3PsI
that is just awesome – Im soooo jealous!