Bitterly Cold This Morning...

Hehe, sounds like this thread will become 'The USA's official weather broadcast thread'.

 

Well, it might be the Temporary DP New England Weather Update.

The snow and winds started in earnest last night at around 7:00pm. The news say that they are hitting 70+ mph so we have a hurricane force blizzard in effect. They also say that we could see thunder snow during this storm which I have only seen once in my life (lightning and thunder during a snowstorm.) 12 hours later, we have about a foot of snow on the ground and drifts as high as 3-4 feet. It is hard to see out the windows because they are plastered with blown snow. The good news is that the temperature is 15F/-9.4C so the snow is dry and powdery and not sticking to tree limbs or power lines, so hopefully, we will not lose power. That is key in any snowstorm, of course. It is possible to "shelter in place" as long as the heat is working. Otherwise, it can get ugly fast. There is a young couple with four children under school age who rent the house next to mine. The father called me in a panic last night, worried about what might happen if they lose power and asking if they could borrow some of my firewood if the heat goes down. I have enough for both of us, so that is not a problem, but I also advised him that it is not a good long term strategy as these homes' fireplaces are more for decorative purposes and they only heat up the room that they are in, so even with a fire, the house will be miserably cold and having his young family huddled around a fire for days will be difficult.

But the good news is that the power is still on and I am hopeful that it will stay that way throughout the rest of the storm which is expected to end in about another 12 hours. I was on a conference call yesterday before the storm with a few businesspeople scattered around New England and as it ended, I asked the question, "Why does anyone live in New England?" It got some laughs, but no one had a good answer.

 

Well, it is almost over. We have gotten 18 inches of snow, so far, and I doubt that we will get even one inch more. I was "tricked" by the weather forecasters to snowblow twice because after a little over one foot had fallen, they were still predicting another foot or more to fall. My machine would struggle a bit with 2-foot high snow, so I went out and cleaned out the driveway and sidewalk around lunchtime. Fortunately, the strong winds had died down so the snow did not just drift right back and there were only a few more inches to quickly clean out this evening. I have been especially grateful that temperature was around -15F/-9.4C because it made the snow light and fluffy (dry) which made shovelling easier and reduced power outages. We did not lose power at all, making being "shut in" much more tolerable for all. I managed to do quite a bit of work, had web meetings, conference calls, etc. This region was pretty much closed for business, but the rest of the country was open.

More snow coming Friday but just some light stuff. My big Tuesday meeting has been moved to then, so I will be on the road, snow shower or not.

 

As someone said on the radio: They trust the computer simulations more than their own experience. Dummies.

Small businesses lost money, so did your average worker. All that panicking for nothing.

 

Yes, to a certain extent. However, one town about an hour north of me that I used to live near (Framingham, MA) got 30 inches, so some of the dire predictions did come true for some. And, even with a mere 18-inches, I did not want to be on the roads Tuesday, whatsoever. White-out conditions and roads deep with snow drifts (think how close your car's underside is to the road.)

Another interesting aspect is the worker situation you mention. There were a ton of IT/Telecom industry workers (mostly sales reps and sales engineers) from this region that I needed to contact and all were available from their home offices. Office workers, for the most part, should have the ability to work from a home office when these types of conditions exist. With today's VOIP phones, email, IM, and integrated video conferencing, it is a no-brainer. Retail, manufacturing, etc., cannot really produce their product without onsite workers, so that remains the challenge for the weather forecasters.

On another note, I woke up this morning to a thermometer reading 5F/-15C degrees. It then warmed up to a balmy 35F/1.6C this afternoon. It is supposed to start snowing again at midnight tonight through all day tomorrow for a total potential of 3-6 inches. Then, I understand that another storm will be coming early next week. It certainly is winter here in New England.

 

it is really cold. it must be snowing there. I live in south part of china . so there is no snow all year/ kinda envy u can see the real snow .

 

Well, don't envy me. I am the one in the family who has to shovel it, brush it off cars, bushes, etc. My dog, however, absolutely loves to romp in the snow and now that it is piled pretty high in many places, she is having a ball. She is a big dog with a heavy coat of fur, so winter is her season.

It is snowing right now (early Friday morning here) and I have to drive a couple of hours to an important business meeting. Fortunately, it is not expected to have significant accumulation, so it should not be a particularly tough drive and I am heading slightly south down the coast where it likely will be raining. But there is a bigger storm on the horizon in the next few days.

 

It cracks me up when some own those dogs here in FL. It should be outlawed since the dogs feel absolutely miserable outside (if they ever venture to go outside). We have a lab mix and she stays inside pretty much 90% of the time, but she is also 12 y.o. so that doesn't help.

Is it storming again over there?

 

Yes, our dog is uncomfortable for most of the hot months. But we have her coat trimmed down to a buzzcut when it is warm and that helps quite a bit.

It is sunny and cold today. Tomorrow night we are expecting the next snowstorm which is supposed to deliver 8-12 inches more. Stay tuned...

 

Greetings from Upstate New York. It's been bitterly cold here and no improvements in sight in the 10 day forecast. Winter is getting us good!

It was around 4 F today. We went to the lake to drill some holes in the ice. It's very deep!

 

My wife is originally from upstate NY. Utica area. We actually hit 20F/-6.6C this afternoon, but the wind was blowing so hard that it felt much colder. I was thinking that the ice in our area must be quite thick as it has been really cold for a while now. One of my sales reps was supposed to go ice fishing today but without a portable shack he did not expect to stay out long.

 

jrbiz, it's a small world, I'm just 25 miles north of Utica

 

Hey, I think it is even closer than that. She was originally from Rome.

 

Oh I go there to do grocery shopping

We also go to the Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona once a month for their all you can eat buffet which is out of this world. Verona is just past Rome.

Meanwhile it's still colder than I'd like it to be

 

I have been to the casino a few times, over the years. Haven't been out that way in while, though the wife and kids get out there occasionally. You have much tougher winters than we have here, that is for sure.

 

Our winters are actually tougher than in Rome (I'm located near Boonville). It's only a small distance, yet the elevation is higher and we get tons of snow. Our lilacs and apple trees usually bloom 10 days to 2 weeks after the ones in Rome bloom.
I don't know what I was thinking when I moved up here, it's brutal

 

You know, my father-in-law, who has since died, used to try to tell me that Rome was "lucky" in that just a few miles away the real snow belt began. I would just roll my eyes because they get hammered pretty good, in my opinion. You must be in that part of the geography.

 

Yes I am I'm in what they call the snow belt. What they had in Boston last week is nothing out of the ordinary for us (of course we're always prepared so it doesn't hurt much). Rome and Utica are not in the snow belt, cutting winter shorter for them.

 

Oh boy. The thermometer read -1F/-18C degrees this morning. And, I then turn on the weather station and they are saying that another big snowstorm will be taking place from Saturday through Tuesday. Given how much snow we already have on the ground (my guess is about 30 inches), I may start looking into sled dogs for transportation.

I have an offsite business meeting today, so I will have to go out into the cold and am NOT looking forward to it.

 

It's starting to look like a bad situation is getting worse, lol. We're expecting about 30 inches of snow over the weekend. This will be followed by several days of absolutely extreme cold (high temp a week from today shows as below zero, yeah that's high temp). We've been in this cold spell for weeks now and no end in sight so far!