because the only way that parts of the midatlantic gets huge amounts of snow is through a nor’east’r. the appalacians protect the northeast fairly well from the storms coming from the west.
a nor’east’r will gather moisture from the ocean and drive up the coast from around the carolina’s up to maine. many of them do more damage than a hurricane when it is rain and in the winter if the storm hits when a cold front is coming in from the west, boy howdy, we get feet of snow.
usually storms that come in over the mountains from the west just give a few inches of snow on the east side of the mountains, the west side of the mountains get feet of snow sometimes.
there is a mountain area in pennsylvania where the lehigh tunnel gets you from one side to the other. that is where most of the storms from the west die. one side of the tunnel is a completely different world from the other.
You ain’t from around here, are ya? Here being the deep South. Nowhere south of Nashville has any salt trucks, snow plows, or people that know how to drive in snow/ice. I dunno if even Nashville has the equipment available. Doubt the Carolinas have much of it, either.
Big snow + no equipment + damn few experienced drivers = epic clusterfuck.
In the town where I was raised, we got snow in 1972–almost an inch. Got more sometime in the late 80s, and again just a few years ago. Where I live now, snow is more common. We get a few flakes almost every year. Sometimes it will stick for a day or two. Once a decade or so, we get an ICE STORM. That’s really bad juju. Whole state will be closed for about a week. Power fails. Most roads and bridges are closed. People die.
I awoke to about 8" accumulated in my yard. I shoveled a pee path for my little dog, but I’ll need to shovel again when I take her out again.
The wind is starting to pick up - I expect we’ll lose a bunch of branches and maybe a few of our dead pines will fall over. Fortunately, none threaten the house. Last time I checked a weather site, it promised up to 17 more inches before it ends, but unless the rate of snowfall increases, that’s not going to happen. It’s barely coming down at the moment.
My little cat is fascinated - probably because our covered porch is the only place the birds can alight. I should toss some breadcrumbs out there…
Here just north of Baltimore, we woke up to about 8-10 inches of accumulation. My understanding is that the heavy snow hasn’t even hit us yet. This is pretty damn big.
So glad I went to the store yesterday- I live on a fairly small road, so I’m kind of dubious that we’ll see a snowplow for a while.
No snow on this Marylander! I say that with mixed feelings.
(Remember the DC drive time guys who, when a called reported the first snowflake would sound the klaxon? "Abandon your cars! Begin walking down the median strip!)
Crap. We’re just about out of milk. No one bothered to mention it to me, and I didn’t think to check. Oh well - looks like anyone wanting cereal will eat it dry.
Stoopit milk.
The snow slowed, but picked up again, and the wind is kicking in. Local forecast is predicting 12-22" before it’s done. ugh
We’ve got around 8 inches already too. They said to expect another foot or so today alone. Now I’m glad I only have about 20 feet of sidewalk to shovel.
Buy a cannister of dehydrated full fat/whole milk. It lasts several years, and tastes less like ass than the normal skimmed dehydrated milk and is perfectly servicable for pouring on cereal or cooking with.
I got mine in a chinese grocery store, can’t say as I have ever found other than powdered skim milk in US nonchinese grocery stores. You might also find it in a hispanic grocery store. I have no idea why american groceries seem to ignore instant whole milk and just carry skim crap.
We always keep a couple of quarts of the ‘shelf-stable’ 2% milk in the pantry; it tastes better than powdered milk. In fact, once it’s chilled, it tastes just like the other 2% milk we buy!
I bought an extra gallon of milk yesterday so we’d have plenty to make hot cocoa with today!
I should have run by Food Lion for milk and, oh, I dunno, ice cream? It’s not a huge deal. I expect by mid day tomorrow, all the main roads will be clear. And chances are, someone will plow our neighborhood. There are guys who live for putting the big ol’ blade on the front of their pick-em-up trucks. They’re so cute…
mmmmm, hot cocoa would taste good. I expect that would work fine with powdered milk.
I’ve got two loaves of bread, a gallon of milk, and just over a dozen eggs. Oh, and two pounds of bacon, so I can make French toast and bacon! The sprog’s at Gramma’s, so he can eat her bread and drink her milk.
Bring it on. I’ve got a book to read and about four videos to watch this weekend. Oh, and a PowerPoint to do. It’s a good weekend to do that.
Well, Metro in DC has officially stopped running bus service and is halting above-ground rail service at 1 p.m.
In the 25-30 minutes it took to shovel our walk and steps, another inch accumulated on the already-shoveled portion. We hit Costco for milk yesterday and have everything else needed, so we’re all set.
We’ve gotten 18" now and it’s still going strong. I think they said the heavy stuff would stop around 6-8, but still continue most of the night. I wonder how much we’ll get, we’re already in the top 10 snows since they’ve been keeping records.
Hee hee, I got out on the last plane from Philly before the airport closed down. Now I’m stranded in Phoenix for a while, but at least there’s no snow.
Here being the deep South. Nowhere south of Nashville has any salt trucks, snow plows, or people that know how to drive in snow/ice. I dunno if even Nashville has the equipment available. Doubt the Carolinas have much of it, either.