Snowmaggeddon

[Wei Ji the Learner]

Just dropping this here, hopes and prayers for the folks out on the East Coast that are getting the heavens dumped on them right now.

Hang in there, stay warm, be safe.

[Alzrius]

From what I've heard, a lot of it should be melting over the next day or two, so hopefully things will be better very soon for everyone that's been snowed in.

[ShinHakkaider]

Alzrius wrote:

From what I've heard, a lot of it should be melting over the next day or two, so hopefully things will be better very soon for everyone that's been snowed in.

I think you've been misinformed on that account. At least here in NY there's going to be snow on the ground for some time I think. Temperatures being what they are and the fact that in some parts of the city there are over two feet of snow.

[thejeff]

Bah, from your northern neighbor, I'm disappointed in this storm. Up here in mid-CT, we've got something like 3-4". Hardly worth fussing about. I was actually hoping it would shift North a bit and spare the mid-Atlantic that isn't quite as accustomed to it.

But, I think that's the nature of the El Nino year storms. They tend to dump more farther south.

It is supposed to warm up, so it will be melting. That much will still take awhile though.

[Thomas Seitz]

Here I'm pretty sure I saw a Yeti.

But seriously while I don't think this is the disaster people make it out to be, it's not something people are going to get over by say, Monday or Tuesday. Here in Morgantown, WV, we've probably got at least 2 feet. Will the roads be cleared tomorrow? Maybe. The Interstates around the state are partial closed in places. I do expect that to remain until probably Sunday night. Monday, they will probably be open. The State of Emergency in WV I expect to be lifted by Sunday afternoon/evening. Regardless, lots of places got dumped. Two feet of snow isn't going to just disappear. But it will be gone I imagine by Wednesday or at least manageable by then.

[thejeff]

Yeah, I was comparing to last winter when at least up here, we didn't get huge 2' snow storms, but we kept getting more snow and it never got above freezing long enough to melt any of it until well into March.

[Lathiira]

Here in Maryland, over 2 feet already, about 3 feet total. I shoveled 2 feet of the sidewalk this morning. Came up tonight and there's nearly a foot back on it. It's supposed to be right around freezing Sunday, but Tuesday there's a good chance of rain and temps in the low 40s to help melt it, but then it'll refreeze at night and make things a mess. Not looking forward to starting the shoveling again in the morning.

[Lord Snow]

I may be a bit insensitive here, but I'm seriously jealous at the snowed-in people. I'm the kind of guy who'll take a flight abroad just to get some actual winter experience, and while I know living your daily life in a snowstorm has a whole slew of annoying and potentially dangerous repercussions, I would give a lot to experience it.

[Thomas Seitz]

Lord Snow,

If I still had a working teleporter, you'd be the first person I'd send for.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

It's always cute to see people unused to snow panic when they get a little.
/a*@#~*%& mode

[Cole Deschain]

I try to remember that they're not only unused to it, they don't have the stuff we take for granted to deal with it...

[Feros]

And a full meter of snow...that is a lot for anyone.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Oh I know they aren't used to it. Heck, even around here people seem surprised the first proper snowfall each year.
It's not the meter of snow in a place unused to it that really gets me, in any case. It's the few snowflakes and people making 'ice age' comments.

[Lathiira]

What confuses me is that Maryland gets snow in Central MD most years. So why does the first snowflake cause everyone to go into panic mode like they'd never seen the stuff before? We see it every year, people. Deal with it!

[John Kretzer]

Lord Snow wrote:

I may be a bit insensitive here, but I'm seriously jealous at the snowed-in people. I'm the kind of guy who'll take a flight abroad just to get some actual winter experience, and while I know living your daily life in a snowstorm has a whole slew of annoying and potentially dangerous repercussions, I would give a lot to experience it.

....considering I just spent all morning shoveling snow ( snow blower is broken) and still have the hardest stretch in front of me...my first instinct is to slap you....as you have obviously lost all sense.

You know I guess it would be nice to get snowed in...unfortunately legally you have to clear your sidewalks...be able to get the cars so you can got to work ( thankfully it did this on a sat so you have we have a whole day to dig out and not just a morning.)

I know you probably have a romantic view...and after the work is done...it is nice and different and can be beautiful...but it also for me means back breaking work. Reality sucks.

[Wei Ji the Learner]

Lathiira wrote:

What confuses me is that Maryland gets snow in Central MD most years. So why does the first snowflake cause everyone to go into panic mode like they'd never seen the stuff before? We see it every year, people. Deal with it!

I suspect a part of it is the hype of the weather-media out there.

We half-jokingly refer to the craze build-up before a big storm as "Oh, no, DETHSNO! at work because everyone goes insane and starts buying product like the world is about to end (which leads to an insanely long and hard work day).

Taking it easy, taking it slow are antithetical to the fast-paced move of modern society. So the idea of a day where one 'doesn't do much of anything at all' (save dig themselves out so they can get to work/etc) also strikes a deep chord that disrupts the frenetic psyche of 'must have it now' society.

Same thing happens during power outages (at any time of the year) or just before a big storm of non-snow varieties.

[captain yesterday]

I spent 12 years overseeing a shoveling crew, I miss it, next year I think I'll get back in it tho, with Tiny T-Rex going to school
.

[memorax]

Good luck to you all. Being from Montreal Quebec snow lots of it this time of the year we are usually prepared for it. Though even 2 feet of snow is quite too much for us as well. Then again unlike many places we have a decent snow removal system. Not by choice we have to.

[Pan]

In Minneapolis here and haven't even had to rip the blower yet this year. I dont miss it but know what its like hang in there east coast.

I work in property management for a corporation so I've been working round the clock this weekend finding additional plow drivers and roofers to relieve snow loads out east. Stay safe folks!

[Manji-Kuu]

Nah what bugs me was working at a grocery store in the places no one expects snow. The bread, milk, and... well everything is gone. No matter how much snow is called for. Minor flurries before continued rain? Empty store.

[MMCJawa]

John Kretzer wrote:

Lord Snow wrote:

I may be a bit insensitive here, but I'm seriously jealous at the snowed-in people. I'm the kind of guy who'll take a flight abroad just to get some actual winter experience, and while I know living your daily life in a snowstorm has a whole slew of annoying and potentially dangerous repercussions, I would give a lot to experience it.

....considering I just spent all morning shoveling snow ( snow blower is broken) and still have the hardest stretch in front of me...my first instinct is to slap you....as you have obviously lost all sense.

You know I guess it would be nice to get snowed in...unfortunately legally you have to clear your sidewalks...be able to get the cars so you can got to work ( thankfully it did this on a sat so you have we have a whole day to dig out and not just a morning.)

I know you probably have a romantic view...and after the work is done...it is nice and different and can be beautiful...but it also for me means back breaking work. Reality sucks.

yeah...I am currently on break two of snow-shoveling today. My car is still mostly covered with snow but at least I have the immediate area front and behind the car shoveled, although perhaps not enough to actually get out...

It doesn't help when your landlord who you share a drive way with had her side snowblowed, but said folks simply blew it onto your half.

I grew up in Northern Michigan and did my Phd in Wyoming and this is the first time I have dealt with my car being snowed in THIS BAD before.

[thejeff]

As I said this one wasn't bad where I am, but after last year, I've given up anyway. I've got a long, steep driveway with space for a bunch of cars at the top, but I live alone. I'm leaving the car at the bottom of the drive and only clearing that bit and a path down to it. The rest can stay till it melts.
We'll see how that goes.

[knightnday]

Manji-Kuu wrote:

Nah what bugs me was working at a grocery store in the places no one expects snow. The bread, milk, and... well everything is gone. No matter how much snow is called for. Minor flurries before continued rain? Empty store.

People do that where they do expect snow too. I live in Colorado and people act, every single time, like the world is coming to an end because it may snow. It may snow like 8 months out of the year here! I feel bad for the people on the East Coast; I've been in this stuff before and it isn't fun, even if you are used to it.

[Thomas Seitz]

Well I'm officially tired of shoveling. I had to dig out my walkway and my driveway again. (Apparently it's better to wait some times). That plus dig out the mailbox. Not that I think the mail is coming. But living with your mom, she kind of likes to get mail even if all she gets as she says is junk.

[DM Jeff]

We got 2 feet in NJ where I live. The only disaster was both Saturday AND Sunday D&D games were cancelled. Bah.

[Lathiira]

Friends and family are gonna fish digging me out here. My estimate is that I've personally shoveled around 17 metric tons of snow, plus probably another ton or two this morning. My back is telling me that even if I used the wrong density for snow, it's had enough.

[captain yesterday]

Snow is heavy, I'm sure you aren't that far off. :-)

[thejeff]

captain yesterday wrote:

Snow is heavy, I'm sure you aren't that far off. :-)

At least up here, this was pretty light and fluffy snow.

The muscles are informing me that they've been used though.

[GM_Beernorg]

Greeting from Rochester, NY, former home of the snow that NYC is busy shoveling. ;)

[CBDunkerson]

Remember when there used to be snow on the ground for months at a time in New England? Now the snow from this 'massive storm' is going to last... two weeks, maybe? There were about ten people in my office building (instead of the usual hundreds) on Monday... even though everything except side roads in major cities was completely clear. Another 30 years and the northeast US is going to be like the South... everything shuts down when there is ANY snow because people just don't know how to deal with it.

[thejeff]

CBDunkerson wrote:

Remember when there used to be snow on the ground for months at a time in New England? Now the snow from this 'massive storm' is going to last... two weeks, maybe? There were about ten people in my office building (instead of the usual hundreds) on Monday... even though everything except side roads in major cities was completely clear. Another 30 years and the northeast US is going to be like the South... everything shuts down when there is ANY snow because people just don't know how to deal with it.

You mean like last winter? When nothing melted from February through March?

I don't know where you are, but we didn't have anybody out last Monday.

Mind you, it was a major storm, just that it mostly hit further south than New England.

In the actual South, it's not usually so much "don't know how to deal with it" as "don't have the infrastructure to deal with it" - from enough plows to salting the roads beforehand all the way down to all everyone having snowblowers and all the snowplow guys digging people out.
And they don't have all that because it isn't worth investing in, given how rarely it's needed.

[Cole Deschain]

Salting the roads.

Wacky, wacky southerners.

(Up here, we use gravel, because when you can expect periods of thirty to forty degrees below, a little salt doesn't mean that much)

[thejeff]

Cole Deschain wrote:

Salting the roads.

Wacky, wacky southerners.

(Up here, we use gravel, because when you can expect periods of thirty to forty degrees below, a little salt doesn't mean that much)

Alaska?

Yeah, you're dealing with a different world. You're basically building gravel roads on top of the snow/ice. We can actually get rid of it. Or at least move most it off the pavement and melt the little we can't scrape up.

[captain yesterday]

We've been mixing beet juice with salt, using a comically oversized wooden spoon to stir it I assume.