Snow of the Decade...

[Natch]

No one in the U.S. gets it consistently worse than these guys:

http://wnylakesnow.weebly.com/les-08-09-maps--totals.html

Being a Yooper by birth and genetics (very limited, genetics, I might add) we might contest this claim. I've lived in the Snowbelt of New York (went to Syracuse for a while and "played" in the area a might) but growing up in Ontonagon a few hundred feet from the shore of Lake Superior, we had some pretty good snow falls. If you can believe Wikkipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Peninsula_of_Michig♠an#Climate or: http://postcardy.blogspot.com/2008/03/record-snowfall-keweenaw-county.html When I was little, my uncle worked for the county and drove one of those huge V-plows, the kind that could clear two lanes at once. He would tell me stories (and they were exaggerated, of course, as all good stories are to wide eyed, innocent little nephews) of hitting cars buried in snow drifts that he couldn't see and sending them flying 100 feet into the woods. I wanted to drive a plow when I grew up, thinking that would be the coolest job on earth!

The Eastern end of Erie and surrounding region gets more press because it's much more populated and has large cities. I guess when my home town, the largest in the county (at almost 1,000 population back then) gets buried, it doesn't quite make national news. We have a similar "chip on our shoulders" which is instilled in us by our grade school history teachers in the UP regarding the "Great Chicago Fire" of the past. The next day half of Northern Wisconsin and the UP caught fire, and hundreds of thousands of acres burned, (with a timber value loss greater than all the burned Chicago buildings) and several times the loss of life as dozens of small lumber camps and towns were obliterated by the Peshtigo Fire. But again, Chicago at that time was one of the largest cities in the US and we were, well, north of nowhere.

Still, that doesn't negate the intense snow the Eastern Seaboard is getting. In the UP, we were used to it, we all had snowshoes, snowmobiles, plows, chains, etc. As a kid growing up, I don't ever remember school being canceled because of snow, and we could get a foot or two a night, every night, for several days in a row. Much of the lower Seaboard doesn't have events like this that often, so they're not as well prepared. I'm gathering data on this event for the natural hazards chapter of a class I'll teach this spring.

Keep warm and enjoy the silence of a blanket of snow. It really knocks the "civilization" out of a neighborhood for a while.

Natch

 

[Al in Canada]

Well our snow is enough to leave your foot print in it, but that is it so far. Not that I am complaining, you understand.

I remember being in Atlanta for one New Years and they got a little freezing rain followed by 1/2 inch of snow and the world nearly stopped, except for the guys who were spinning out of control.

I was driving a VW and we putt putted up and down the hills and back to my girlfriends house, watching all the Georgians trying to cope with snow by hitting either the gas or the brakes,

with equal lack of success.

Well Winter doesn't start yet, so enjoy the Fall boys and girls.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Sounds like you have the key items: water, food, heat and plenty of baccy :santa: :rendeer:

 

[pipetongue1]

We are expecting 15" starting now!! :tongue: :santa: :rendeer:

 

[HistoryMajor]

All y'all take care with this weather! We had a rough couple days a week or two ago...it ain't pretty. Hunker down with a good pipe and take 'er easy.

Me...I'm headin' to the mountains!

 

[LL]

We had a rough couple days a week or two ago...it ain't pretty.

HistoryMajor's back porch view last week:

 

[Dodge]

Love that picture of the deer neck deep, reminds me of a few storms I saw in Buffalo NY.


I'm in Connecticut we got whacked with about 2 feet. The town plows turned that into a 4 foot wall of snow at the end of my driveway but my big ol' dodge ram tore that right down, I didn't even touch a shovel this morning.

 

[ftrplt]

Won't be doing any "sonic booming" on this trip!! I'll just be glad to be able to do the speed limit and not get jammed up by some super wreck!!! Looks like the trip thru West "By god" Virginiaon Tuesday may be a little testy!

Signing off til January!!! A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all :santa: :rendeer: :santa: :rendeer: FTRPLT

 

[dbreazeale]

If you're in the south and not used to the snow and ice then I'd suggest staying home as much as possible. I've lived in Syracuse the past ten years and work the thruway from between Albany up to Lake George to Buffalo/Niagara Falls. The only snow I like is on pictures of a post card.

 

[Anonymous]

Made it to work this morning, just a half hour late. The roads arent that bad, the snow plows were at it all weekend. Interstate 81 which splits the county in half (Montgomery) was a mess according to the local news reports, seems the snow fell so fast Friday evening and there was so much traffic from local Universities letting out and the holiday travelers cars and trucks were just stopped and Interstate 81 ceased to exist, becoming a parking lot. Anyhow they got the people to shelters for friday night, but then Saturday was spent towing vehicles out of the way so the plows could get through. Anyway lots of locals got their first chance to drive in a real snow.
The forcasters got it right, we got exactly 12" at my house although many surrounding areas got up to 24".
I think one thing many of you northerners (and/or flatlanders) may not realize is we (at least in this part of the state), live in the mountains, many hills and valley's; one spot freezes the next spot is just water. You might be able to get to the top of one hill but not stop at the bottom. There can be many inches diffference in the depth of the snow depending on which direction the storm is coming from. We locals find that the flatlanders that move in here are usually the ones hitting the ditches first. :twisted:
Growing up here we saw at least one snow a year like this, with many more (6-8") between, with a "blizzard" (~24") about once every 10 years, it's just been over the past ten years that we haven't gotten any substancial snowfall.
The kids are loving it anyway!

 

[HoosierPuffer]

Well, send some our way. I'd sure like a little more than we've gotten so far. All I was able to do was have one measly snowball fight with my boy and build one tiny snowman. :x

 

[aaronbtxnc]

We ended up with about 12 inches give or take, depending on elevation. Friday afternoon was the worst with everyone trying to get home, but by Friday night the idiots were mostly out of the way. This morning's drive in was probably the most dangerous driving of all weekend with the black ice everywhere. It's supposed to get up to about 50 today so there will be more black ice tomorrow morning, be careful out there.

 

[LL]

A bird's eye view of the recent snowstorm:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=41979&src=eorss-nh

 

[Anonymous]

In Knoxville, we didn't hardly get a flake. As usual, everywhere surrounding us got snow while we got rain. When I grew up here, we used to get snow every winter, but that's certainly not the case nowadays. The last big snow we got in Knoxville was in 1993 when we got about 2 feet.

No white Christmas for me

 

[Anonymous]

In Knoxville, we didn't hardly get a flake. As usual, everywhere surrounding us got snow while we got rain. When I grew up here, we used to get snow every winter, but that's certainly not the case nowadays. The last big snow we got in Knoxville was in 1993 when we got about 2 feet.

No white Christmas for me

I remember that 93 storm, we got 24" as well. Pretty much shut everything down for two weeks. We lost power for a week.

 

[Doc Manhattan]

In Knoxville, we didn't hardly get a flake. As usual, everywhere surrounding us got snow while we got rain. When I grew up here, we used to get snow every winter, but that's certainly not the case nowadays. The last big snow we got in Knoxville was in 1993 when we got about 2 feet.

No white Christmas for me

That's the power of the Sunsphere!

 

[Wide Awake]

There was the 98 snow storm that shutdown most of East Tennessee for a couple of days. I was at TC for college at the time

 

[Anonymous]

Here's a photo I took Saturday after the storm passed, and before I dug us out.

 

[Anonymous]

In Knoxville, we didn't hardly get a flake. As usual, everywhere surrounding us got snow while we got rain. When I grew up here, we used to get snow every winter, but that's certainly not the case nowadays. The last big snow we got in Knoxville was in 1993 when we got about 2 feet.

No white Christmas for me

I remember that 93 storm, we got 24" as well. Pretty much shut everything down for two weeks. We lost power for a week.

Yeah, I remember it well. I was living on my grandparents farm up in the mountains back then. It started snowing late Friday night, and didn't let up until late on Sunday. I had drifts 5 feet deep, and no power or phone for over a week. I heated that drafty old house with fireplaces and an old wood burning cook stove in the kitchen, and about froze to death! The snow was so deep I couldn't push a wheelbarrow to the woodshed, so I had to carry it in arm-load at a time. No power meant no running water, so I was melting snow to get water to drink. THe batteries in my radio died on the second day, so I stayed cooped up for 6 days by myself with no contact to the outside world.

I do wish for snow, just not as much as in '93. Been there...done that...don't want to do it again :!:

 

[Anonymous]

There was the 98 snow storm that shutdown most of East Tennessee for a couple of days. I was at TC for college at the time

Yes, East TN gets snow quite often, but not much in the city of Knoxville. I have a fifth-wheel travel trailer on a permanent campsite near Greenville, TN...there was several inches of snow there over the weekend, but none at all here in Knoxville.