Winter weather

[just brew it!]

So I just finished digging out both of the vehicles you can see in that last pic. I debated whether to finish shoveling out behind the rear one, since it'll just get plowed in when the plow comes through again -- they did one pass yesterday afternoon (just a single lane up the middle of the street), and are supposedly coming through again at some point. But given that temperatures were hovering just below freezing this afternoon, I figured it was worth the gamble that I might need to shovel the last bit of the driveway twice, in exchange for a chance that I might not need to shovel it at 6:30 AM tomorrow when I leave for work and temperatures are expected to be around -5F!

Oh, and our next-door neighbors buried the fire hydrant (again...) when they shoveled their driveway. I guess I need to have a talk with them about that. After shoveling the cars out, I grabbed a broom handle and probed around for the hydrant until I found it so I could dig it out too...

[Captain Ned]

And all I got out of that storm was about 8" of very dry fine-grained powder.

I'd dig out my mailbox but to do so in the dark is suicidal seeing as the speed limit is 50 and people do it even with snow on the road. I really need to teach my plow guy how to just slice off that chunk of snow as he comes in to do my driveway. Since he does it for free, though (he owns the 4-plex next door, is a good friend, and is the guy I call first with major heating/plumbing problems), I can't really complain.

One of these days I'll get the snowblower attachment for the Cub Cadet.

[insulin_junkie72]

My region got 23" in 24 hours; max winds were 64MPH.

Front door was a massive no-go because of drifting - had to use the back door.

[liquidsquid]

We got skipped over! How disappointing. A whole 2-3" no wind. It was supposed to be almost more than 18 inches. So far off on the forecast it is sad. All of the local schools closed the night before in anticipation for no reason.

[idchafee]

we had a huge huge huge drift in the middle of the driveway, took almost 4 hours to clear the whole drive

[SpotTheCat]

The storm gave us 4" or so, a couple of days ago. It was very fine powder up here.

[just brew it!]

Lost the gamble, just had to shovel the end of the driveway again. At least it isn't 5 below yet!

The wife and daughter get to deal with un-burying the mailbox tomorrow while I am at work. I would be willing to bet that there is literally a ton of snow heaped in front of it (by the plow) now!

Edit: And... it could've been a lot worse. At least I don't work in downtown Chicago and take Lake Shore Drive as part of my commute: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 7680.story

[DancinJack]

We got about about 12 - 14" here. It's supposed to be like 45 degrees in a few days. Kansas weather cracks me up.

[just brew it!]

We got about about 12 - 14" here. It's supposed to be like 45 degrees in a few days. Kansas weather cracks me up.

Well, in the Chicago area the joke is: "Don't like the weather here? Don't worry, it'll be completely different tomorrow!"

[SpotTheCat]

We got about about 12 - 14" here. It's supposed to be like 45 degrees in a few days. Kansas weather cracks me up.

Well, in the Chicago area the joke is: "Don't like the weather here? Don't worry, it'll be completely different tomorrow!"

In Minnesota the joke is "if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes"

not true at all. It can remain cold for weeks, and I don't like it!

That said, starting Friday/Sat I'm going to start training, rain or shine.

[Hance]

I am out of town working but the wife said it was -20 this morning. I will trade snow for cold anyday.

[FireGryphon]

The DC area lost snow during the storm, as above-freezing temperatures and rain combined to melt much of what was left of the snowy ground cover.

Nearly a thousand cars were stranded on the drive overnight. Many of those motorists have blamed the city for failing to close the drive and said there appeared to be no organized rescue plan.

"I feel like someone missed on the boat on not closing down Lake Shore Drive before it became a disaster," said Craig Close, who was stuck on the road for about five hours as he tried to make it home to Lincoln Square.

I think I'm missing something. How is the city to blame because people got stuck in the snow? It seems to me that the people who drove on the road -- even with prior warning that it would be dangerous -- are responsible for their own choices and actions.

Blaming the city for failing to close the drive? It sounds like these people are incapable of taking care of themselves and want the city to make their decisions for them.

[just brew it!]

Yeah, pretty much. I don't see how the city could've done much more than they did. Once the accidents started and traffic came to a standstill, what happened was pretty much inevitable given how fast the snow was coming down.

I think closing the drive early might have been just as bad, if not worse. Thousands of people use it to get to and from work in the downtown area; the disruption to the evening commute would've likely caused the entire downtown area to gridlock. All those people would still have been stranded, just spread out over a couple of square miles of city streets instead of in a nice neat line along the lakefront.

All the weather forecasts were predicting a humongous blizzard, so it wasn't like people didn't have any warning. Anyone who works in downtown Chicago and stayed at work past mid-afternoon was taking a huge gamble.

The really amazing thing is that nobody was injured. Hypothermia is a pretty common problem in situations like this, as people start to run out of gas and can't run their car heaters any more.

[JustAnEngineer]

35°F and raining all day.

[Captain Ned]

The plow berm at the house end of the driveway:

[FireGryphon]

Ned, how does the new Subaru like the cold/snow vs. the WRX?

[Captain Ned]

Ned, how does the new Subaru like the cold/snow vs. the WRX?

No real difference between the 2. The Legacy is maybe 150 lbs heavier. The only downside to the Legacy is that I can't use the steel rims I used on the WRX (they won't fit over the brakes) and I'm forever trying to get snow out of the spokes so I can run highway speeds without bouncing all over the place. The upside is that the Legacy has a stability control system which neither WRX had.

[IAmGhostDog]

16 inches of snow on Wednesday

[Captain Ned]

Great. Another 6" of wet 'n' heavy stuff, meaning that as soon as the thermometer drops back below 32F we'll have ice-pack. Yay.

[Ozenmacher]

Looks like I posted in the wrong thread earlier (weather junkies). For weather enthusiasts--check out my weather blog. I like to blog the scientific side of meteorology.
http://jasonahsenmacher.wordpress.com/

[DancinJack]

Well, it seems as if Kansas is inching its way towards spring. The past few days we've had high temperatures of over 50 and the forecast says more of the same. Nearly all of that 14-ish inches we got last week are gone. Woooohooooo!

btw it's supposed to be over 70 here tomorrow. I'd be surprised if it got that high, but I can see >60 for sure.

[ludi]

Well, it seems as if Kansas is inching its way towards spring. The past few days we've had high temperatures of over 50 and the forecast says more of the same. Nearly all of that 14-ish inches we got last week are gone. Woooohooooo!

btw it's supposed to be over 70 here tomorrow. I'd be surprised if it got that high, but I can see >60 for sure.

Same weather here, and only the drifts and plow kerf remain now. You got twice as much snow out of it as we did out of that pass.

[Ozenmacher]

Big winter storm coming for MN/WI/SD and parts of MI/IA/NE. Going to be a fun one with a slight chance for thundersnow in portions of southern MN and into WI. Impressive and unique storm in terms of the height field setup.

[Ozenmacher]

Well, it seems as if Kansas is inching its way towards spring. The past few days we've had high temperatures of over 50 and the forecast says more of the same. Nearly all of that 14-ish inches we got last week are gone. Woooohooooo!

btw it's supposed to be over 70 here tomorrow. I'd be surprised if it got that high, but I can see >60 for sure.

Winter is definitely not over yet--including KS. The PNA is projected to remain pretty negative with free flowing troughing pattern over the intermountain W and a number of ejecting storms into the plains accompanied by arctic fronts. A pretty typical late winter pattern really--but don't discount winter yet.

[Ozenmacher]

For anyone in southern MN/Twin Cities into southern and central WI and even into SD there is a legitimate threat for thundersnow and thunderpellets/thunderZR. This storm is going to be ripping across parts of MN/SD in terms of wicked snow. I am pretty excited.

[liquidsquid]

We were supposed to have an inch today, but it is still snowing and we have about 8" courtesy of Lake Huron, which should be too far away to dump this much crap. Weathermen were a tad off.

Haven't had thundersnow (synopotic) here in a while, 10+ years that I know of. We are supposed to have a pretty good snowfall here Sunday night (7+ inches) but not to that degree. I would love to have a big banger of a thunderstorm with snow. However I have experience some snow squalls off of Lake Erie in the early winter that had plenty of thunder, greenage, the whole works!

I was stuck in a squall south of Buffalo that snowed at a rate of 5" per hour and shat snowballs out. Literally. It snowed so damned hard that my wiper blades going full-tilt kept popping off due to the weight. Luckily it passed through quickly and I got to my destination with beer intact, but it was wild to see the clear skies overhead afterwords, but see that massive line of squall clouds to the south flickering like a sci-fi movie was something I will never forget. Thie lightning in those is nothing like a real thunderstorm, really weak. We wound up with a little more than a foot of some really weird ball-snow which was like Styrofoam pellets. All in around 2 hours.

Thus why I don't live downwind of the lakes. That stuff is just crazy.

[ludi]

We wound up with a little more than a foot of some really weird ball-snow which was like Styrofoam pellets.

...and your word of the day is graupel

We get that around here from time to time, usually in the spring. Generally ranges in size from pinheads to BB ammo.

[SpotTheCat]

The street plow got stuck outside our building. Must be nice and heavy.

[FroBozz_Inc]

Got stuck three times on my way to work this morning.
Glad I brought the shovel with me.
Kinda totally lost my cool and flipped out / had a spaz.
Still trying to calm down now that I've finally made it in.
I'm sort of a reserved person, and when I loose it like that - it kinda freaks me out when I reflect afterward.

[FireGryphon]

Spring is here!