This is about all of the snow we ever get here in Alabama, @Cody Fousnaugh , and we usually only have that once a year (or even less often). In Idaho we had snow well over my knees for almost half of the year, and below zero temperatures quite often. When I lived there, I had a long driveway going in to where my trailer was at, and if it was snowing, I went out every half hour or so , and drove up and down the driveway a few times to try and clear the road enough that I would be able to get out for work the next day. When it was really snowing, I had to park out on the road and walk up the driveway to my house. Since I had livestock to take care of, once I got home from work (sometime after 8PM), I would put on my little “headlamp flashlight” and shovel my way out to take hay to the horses and feed the rabbits and the milk goat. For several years, I didn’t have running water there, so once I was done with the livestock, then I used a couple of 5 gallon buckets and hauled snow inside (over and over) and filled up the bathtub and a large garbage can that I kept inside to store water in. By morning, it would be melted, so I had water to flush my toilet with. I had 4 studded snow tires on my Mazda pickup, plus a couple heavy bales of alfalfa or bags of grain in the back of the pickup to give it traction in the snow. To insulate the trailer, I put straw bales all around the perimeter of the trailer and then shoveled snow over that to make a snow berm outside of the trailer and keep it warmer underneath. Since I didn’t have water, I did not have to worry about frozen pipes; but it did help keep the trailer warmer inside. This had to be maintained during the winter, so there was just a whole lot of necessary shoveling needed when I lived in Idaho. Here, we have snow in inches and not feet, and it lasts days and not months. I still prefer no snow, but I can deal with this amount. Picture of the driveway to my trailer in winter. My son built a house and lives there now, and uses my trailer for his shortwave equipment, and stuff like that. They were getting a blizzard when he posted this earlier this winter.
Funny, but my BIL (wife's brother) who, even though he was born/raised in southeastern Michigan, has spent most of his adult life in southern Florida. When he moved up to Alexandria, Louisiana, to live with an old girlfriend, and it snowed (some) and was fairly cold, he was in shock. Definitely wasn't use to winter weather at all. When they broke up, at her request, he moved back to Florida and was so, so happy to be back in the Baca Ratan area.
I can identify with all of that including the Mazda pickup. I left my Mazda down at a ranch 5 miles below me. I used my 4WD International PU many times chained all around to get down there and then used the studded sniped tired Mazda with a 3-foot section of a railroad rail in back to go to town and work. Did you milk twice a day? I did and also used my mining headlamp (with lead-acid battery on D ring belt) for early morning and late evening chores. Is your son a ham operator or just a shortwave listener? Either way a great hobby for living in a remote area. The only reason I stay here is I live near the river in the "banana belt" area, however, this year the snow is staying on longer than I have ever seen it. Here is a photo below my cabin after the county started plowing the road. The summer look above my cabin
Sounds like we both dealt with the snow in similar ways, @Faye Fox ! I miss Idaho, but not having to be outside working in all of that cold weather. My son, his wife, and both of my grandsons have a ham license, but my son is the main one who uses it. He belongs to the local club and also to the SAR for the country where they live. It sounds like the western part of the United States is getting more snow than usual this year, which is good if it helps stop some of the wildfires next summer. They need lots of snowpack in the mountains to get you guys out of that drought. My Mazda pickup in the snow, this was in Western Washington when I lived there.
Got 8" here in the middle of Virginia overnight. The last time we had something like this was March 2012.
That would be the DC area. I've left my car at work and walked home, while the traffic did not move an inch the entire 3 miles. 2" of snow leaves abandoned vehicles scattered about like the set of some rapture movie.
Sounds like everyone --or most everyone--is having strange weather. We had terrible winds yesterday and they continue today. The troopers have a "shelter in place" recommendation in place for much of the state. Winds were clocked at 91 mph at one point near Palmer, and the KFC in Wasilla has collapsed, with debris flying allover town and most of the businesses there closed, either due to roof damage or to lying debris. As far as I know, we have not suffered any damage, but I haven't travelled the property yet. From the house, all we can see are some downed branches. Businesses out here are open as usual. We have temps down to about -5 F. and we were on the generator for most of yesterday but regained power sometime in the night after midnight. I can identify a bit with Faye and Yvonne and the troubles of winter. The biggest reason we got rid of the livestock was that my wife was unable to haul water and dump over the fence in winter. We had water piped out there in the summer but had to haul during winter to the heated water tank in the goat pen. Hauling water was always my job, or the sons' when they lived here, but when we were here by ourselves and after I broke my back, the animals had to go. All we have now is a few chickens and a dog. I, too, had a Mazda pickup that I sold with 387,000 miles on it.
Turns our we got over a foot, and the 3 of us down here can't get out until someone comes by and clears all the felled trees across the right of way. There's no way that 3 guys+chain saw+Kuboto can get it done, so we called a local to bring his skid loader. Dunno when he's gonna show. One of the guy's sons came from his place with a saw, but he cannot get to our driveway because of all the downed trees on the main road. This all fell starting around 6:00AM until maybe 9:30AM. Before that it was an all night sleet event. Back Yard Front Yard Looking up the driveway from my house Nothing but felled trees all the way to the road Every once in a while there's the *CRACK!* of a tree breaking and then the soft *thump* when it hits the ground. This is wet & heavy. I'm sure the layer of sleet added to the weight.
We tried to take a tour with the 4-wheel truck and found a tree down across the driveway almost at the end, so I had to back up through the snowdrifts back to the house. Many more trees appear to be down but are back in the woods. We seldom get drifting here as we are protected by forest, but we have small drifts now. Greenhouses and outbuildings seem to be unscathed. One son lost part of their roof last night, so they were on the roof last night into the morning trying to patch enough to keep weather out. A large Safeway store in Palmer lost its roof and the sprinkler system went off and the water froze solid inside the store. I suspect it and everything in it is a total loss. As far as I know, the Kroger across the road from it came through fine. We didn't get any snow with this, as the the snow went to the north of us and is dumping in a blizzard to the east of here. It is a little unusual to get this wind in this part of Alaska, but when we lived on the west coast, it was very common. Schools got called off there when the wind chill hit -65 or below. Here they called off the schools as most had no power. The temperature at the moment is -3 F. and the wind is constant at 35 mph with gusting to 50, so I am going to have to bundle up to get the tractor out to plow the drifts off the driveway and get the tree out of the way.
Wow. We get nothing like that here. Last night they were warning of white-out conditions starting at 6AM or so when the heavy stuff started to fall. I hope everyone out your way fared well. Schools here get called when there's just enough snow to make it unsafe for school buses. In much of Virginia, our roads are paved goat paths (even the rural parts of the crowded regions)...there are darned few straight flat stretches. Here is a shot down our right-of-way from the top during a prior winter. It's that way the entire 1/2 mile length down the 75' drop in elevation. When I first moved here, thought it was "pretty." Here is is at the bottom looking back up towards the road when an ice storm took down some trees. There have been a couple of times it was like that the entire length. That's when you call in the reinforcements.
My step-daughter lives in Palmer, and she has been posting pictures on her facebook page of the storm, @Don Alaska . She said it was supposed to keep going until Wednesday . One video she posted, you can really hear that wind howling in the blizzard.
We had some heavy rain and winds early this morning then about 2 or 3 hours of beautiful snow. Like I said yesterday, it didn't stick. But it sure was pretty to look at.
When I looked at youtube for pictures of the Alaska blizzard, there were also pictures of snow in places like Japan and Saudi Arabia , where they do not usually get snow. Most of the western United States, from Mexico all the way through Alaska are getting snow storms and blizzards, the eastern US is having snowstorms, and even the South is having cold weather, ice storms and snow in places. Almost all over the world is having unusually cold weather (except for @Kate Ellery in Australia). I think that I might know who is responsible for this. I remember reading something about Biden linking the covid with global warming; so this snow and blizzards all over the world is simply Biden’s answer to stopping covid. We all wondered how he intended to keep that promise to stop covid, and now, we know what his plan was. “The emergence of COVID-19 suggests that global warming may present an even graver threat to human welfare than many recognize. As indicated in the scientific literature, not only could the current warming of our planet increase the likelihood of an air-borne pandemic such as COVID-19; it could also damage our health and welfare.”