Where I live, we just got buried by over 23 inches of snow. I laugh at the paltry totals mentioned in this thread.
Yesterday, a not too bad of a winter day, roads dry as a bone. Today, we were promised a monster snowstorm, everything everywhere shut down, but it didn’t snow all THAT much. We should be used to it. The city 30 miles north of us, one year, had a snowstorm that in one day buried cars in the parking lot, and a snowpile the DPW made didn’t melt until August. Tomorrow - a break; Sunday we are scheduled to be pounded again. Then freezing rain somewhere in there…Got out the snowblower, our shovelling days are OVER! Snowblower and air conditioner in summer, that’s what you end up appreciating the most in life, kids.
Yep.
Michigan has “snow belts”. The Detroit area gets very little,sometimes no accumulation for the whole season. Up north the ski resorts love it. Down here we often rely on snow making machines to keep the skiers from running out of base.
If you get near the UP the snow amounts do go up a lot.
This has been an unusual year . Detroit is already in the top 3 snow Decembers of all time. The whole state is getting pounded this year.
Dearborn Hgts had 9 inches last night. It was not fluffy and very heavy to move. I spent hours shoveling it out and it was hard work. 15 minutes after I finished the plows came by and loaded the driveway with chunks. So I went back for another hour.
So we are right back to the thread title. Squared, at least. Found out on the 6:00 news that we are already four inches above this point at this time last year. If memory serves me we are at 29 inches to date. It’s making beating 101.4 inches for the season last year quite attainable.
:mad:
You did not, did you? We had 120 inches, and parts of Canada had 180. Aren’t you supposed to get more snow than New England?
Actually Columbia County had a bit more snow than Madison and that was the Madison record. Hell if I can find the Portage area total now. I don’t think we get more snow than you guys. I know the low temperature for the USA is often International Falls, Minnesota.
This will sound so measly to the 120 inches… but we are supposed to get 6-10 inches here in Portland today. This is a massive amount for Portland. Probably a once in a decade amount of snow for this area. A big snow for this area is around 4-5 inches- and even that is only every 3 or 4 years.
Of course- as is typical- the large dump of snow is going to be followed by a full day of freezing rain on Sunday. So we have an extremely limited amount of time to actually go enjoy the snow before it is all destroyed and turned into a sheet of ice. For all the vitriol you have towards snow- triple it and that is how much I loathe freezing rain.
We’ll see what happens though. Weathermen around here seem to be absolutely mystified when it comes to predicting snow. <shrug> We’ll probably accumulate an inch at most. ha
I don’t know if I am speaking for Dane County or southeastern Wisconsin, but as of yesterday’s dump we are four inches above the same date last year. We are due for a few more inches tonight.
The thing is, there is weird weather all over the nation.
And yes, HD, you are correct. You guys to the north of us usually get a little bit more than we do, and are more rural.
It just sucks because we have to plan EVERYthing around the flipping weather. Already this year/month, we get two days of snow emergency followed by one to two days of decent roads, meaning semi-bare.
I was going to post in this thread, but…no time. I gotta go outside and blow snow for the third time in two days. And more is on the way. See link in sig.
I went out at 5:30 AM and spent 30 minutes dealing with snow at -2F and high winds. I went back out at 9:00 to do more snow starting at 5F with high winds. I finished at 11:00 with higher winds and 9F out.
I could see and feel ice hanging off my face when I was outside. I went to the mirror to see how much ice I had in my beard and mustache. I had a 1.5 inch fang and about a .75 inch layer of ice frozen in the rest. I had to run warm water over my face to melt out the layer of ice. It was funny as hell to see. now I’m drinking down 16 ounces of very hot Swiss Miss. Somebody has to go fill the gas can now. Brrr.
Snow is finally over. Now we have 25 mph winds blowing it all over. The dogs are pushing for a walk. They wont be happy unless they go. They wont be happy if they go. The wind chills are way below zero and the temp keeps dropping.
I have had years where I heated with my fireplace, until the first of the year. Not this year.
I have about a three foot deep, two-car-driveway wide drift in my driveway which means I am housebound. My neighbor is out there clearing it out with his snowblower because it is a virtual brick wall. I am not exaggerating. A shovel bounces off it. And yes, the snow is done coming down here also. If the wind would settle down, I wouldn’t even complaint about the cold, though I can say that since I am not the one out there cleaning it.
That’s one of the wonderful properties of high wind driven snow. It’s solid as concrete when it forms a drift.
Just how does that work? Wind-driven snow automatically melts, then refreezes? How else can it become solid?
Doesn’t work like that in my neighborhood. I have several-foot high drifts right now and they are as soft as a downy pillow. {cue music here} They might not be if the sun comes out tomorrow and/or the temperature rises.
For real fun, try going out when it’s icy. I ensured myself a permanent place in the Idiot Hall of Fame when I drove from Greenville to Winston-Salem in the middle of an ice storm. While I had enough good sense to know to drive at about 20 mph, a lot of other people thought “Hey, it’s the interstate! That means I can drive OH MY GOD THE BARRIER crash”
I haven’t been able to build a proper snowman since 1986.
The drift forms because of the wind, then the wind blows. And blows. And blows. And blows. It compacts it. No, it does not melt. It’s too cold to melt. The wind chills right now are in the double digits below zero. I don’t know if HD can explain it better. Gawd I wish for drifts soft as a downy pillow.
Jesus Fuck do we have snow here now. It started Friday night and hasn’t stopped yet… well, except for a period Sunday when it decided to layer a 1/2 inch of freezing rain in the middle of the snowpile.
I’ve never seen this much snow and not been about to ski. I couldn’t even open my front or side doors. In fact, the side door has snow somehow piled up about four feet high against it. (As does the side of the house). Having been out in it a few times now, I’d estimate we have 12-18 inches of snow outside my house. Keep in mind that in Portland… 4 or 5 inches is considered a major snow.
I had to shovel out our front walk, and I shoveled a little behind my car so I could get out if I needed to. But I don’t have a snow shovel, so I had to use a garden spade. Plus, I don’t really have proper snow pants or anything anymore, so after about an hour I was frozen down to my wiener.
Plus my house isn’t exactly a mansion. It’s become a 1000 sq ft prison, filled with a two year old and a 9 month old who have begun to get extremely bored. I tried to take the two year old out in it, but after about 5 minutes he was done. “Freeze! Freeze!!” as he attempts to run back to the house. 
I’m running out of indoor activities.
I don’t even know what to do. Anybody have any suggestions? is there anything I need to do so as I don’t find myself with a $10,000 repair job in the spring?
It’s been a long, long time since my kids were those ages. I was going to suggest board games, but I guess they are a little young for that. Put on some music and dance? Eighteen years ago when my younger son was born and my ex was working two jobs (meaning Mom was the principal form of entertainment), my then four-year-old LOVED Aerosmith’s “Love in an Elevator.” He would stand on a footstool and boogy with me. My younger son would be doing his version of a jam in the playpen. Do you have an Etch a Sketch? For physical stuff, I would lay on my back on the floor with my knees bent, grab my sons (one at a time obviously) by the hands, raise my feet and plant them square on their bellies, then lift them straight up in the air so they were parallel with me/the floor so they are “flying.” They LOVED that. Watch your balance though.
OK I’m wore out to the point of standing outside and screaming. The below 0 weather has broken a lot of stuff like always happens. More snow right now, and I can’t physically do this any longer. I can’t grip anything tight so I drop everything. Good thing I can plink out on the keyboard. As soon as Christmas day is over I’m abandoning an area I’ve had to clear over and over again so guests can park. The snow blower can’t blow over the top of the snow piles any longer. I’ve also been trying to get the basement usable before Christmas to remove the stuff from the upstairs rooms where it was put after the flood. Where’s the pulling my hair out smiley? I won’t be back today, as I’m too busy. By the way you have a day and a half to get your Christmas shopping done.