I'm on the backside of your snowstorm. -8F (-22C) with winds gusting to 40mph. Frigid.

Tom--lucky you. I love snow, but we don't get much here. We haven't even had much snow in the MD mts this year.

The one real storm we had so far was ice, and it was hard on my young white oaks, which are still young enough to hold their leaves through the winter, thus catching too much of the freezing rain.

Now the forecast for Thursday night and Friday is for another substantial ice storm. Wish us luck--this is a La Nina year, which usually means little snow but ice storms instead.

--Spruce

We've been spared the ice so far this year. It can look fantastic, but comes with quite a price. Good luck with your oaks.

Yes, Ginkgo, the winds a'howling here now too. Gonna be a harsh one tomorrow.

+oM

harsh is a understatement. I got frostbite today after only 5 minuets outside, after that thing came through.

Hopefully you didn't really get frostbite.

I like snow, but you can have this weather. It rained Monday night (temps in the low 40's). Rain in January is never a good thing around here. On Tuesday we got hit with 4-5" of snow, with temps dropping almost 60 degrees (-16F last night). Our driveway is a sheet of ice covered with snow right now. Oh, and winds howling about 30 mph. And yes, I would like some cheese with that whine. ;)

bboy, Excuse me? It sounds as if you think i am kidding or something.

I know you don't really get than kind weather up were you are, but thats sort of what happens when you are walking into the prevailing winds at negative double digit (-20 [-30's?] around-ish, plus huge wind-chill) directly into the prevailing winds, which of course are naturally blowing in your face in the direction you need to go. Snide comments are not appreciated.

Bboy is referring to the true (i.e., medical) definition of frostbite, i.e., tissue death caused by freezing. If this had happened, you'd be in hospital now for skin grafts, and (in the case of fingers or toes), possible amputation. I think his comment, and concern, is quite reasonable.

Resin

Frostbite:

Warning: not pleasant pics!

{{gwi:636088}}

There are varying degrees of frostbite. Hopefully, Fledgeling, you only had 1st degree (i.e. frostnip). Bboy was probably thinking of the severe cases where you can lose appendages.

Oops, Resin beat me to it. I bet there's not too many frostbite cases reported in Britain. :)

Oh, i am sorry. I misinterpreted your comment. In my defense, i read it as 'really' being as if you actually did or not, not as degrees of severity. My apologies, sir.

It snowed again Thursday. And by Sunday, it looks like we could be in for another pretty good dumping!

I know it's been a good snowy Winter when I start to run out of places to put it when I shovel. That is definitely the case now.

This, finally, should start to really help us make up for our moisture deficit. One thing about cold places like here-a lot of water is just laying there locked up in its frozen state. Some can seep slowly into the ground where frost is not too deep, and with the Spring thaw, there are going to be snowbanks melting for a long time.

Yeah...........;^)

+oM

I heard Madison has set a all-time record for snowfall. How fun that must be!! I bet the conifers are loving it. Sadly everywhere else in the nation isn't getting nearly as much!

Yes, Madison and Milwaukee have really gotten pounded. I'd guess we're all caught up to them by now.

Today is that rarest of items, a clear day. Cobalt blue sky and no clouds in sight. From this room, I can see lots of neighborhood trees including several tallish arbor vitaes well caked with snow. The effect is absolutely stunning. It may be sunny, but it is COLD out there. And by later this aft, we could have more light snow or flurries.

The only drawback to a winter like this is all the whiners and complainers saying how much it sucks. To them, my unspoken advice-Leave! ;^)

+oM

This winters weather is almost perfect!
Frost is not very deep here,we had alot of rain between snows with no water standing on the surface of the ground,Yet nearly 2ft of snow.The cold we have had lasted only a day or two. I recorded a low of -10F for the low temp here in eastern WI,others Offical temp would probably be lower.My temps always seem to read 5 degrees warmer than what our local TV station records.So this year I put another thermometer out,this one out far enough to catch even the slightest wind and still within .5 degrees of my original thermometer.
O well.

Relative to this discussion, today is the day I decided I needed to get some snow down off my roof. So I called about a dozen hardware stores to see if they had any roof rakes in stock. I used to have a home-made one, but it broke. None to be found at these stores. All sold out. So I made one using a landscape rake-the kind of thing you use to prepare a seedbed for putting in a lawn-and a pole saw handle. Works very well. All I had to do is drill a hole in the rake handle for the connector clip to snap into on the pole saw handle. What's especially nice about this home-made one is that I've got both a rake, to bust up the frozen crust, and a scraper side to the business end of this tool. I'm on lunch break right now, and about half way through this task. I'd estimate I will have pulled a couple tons of snow down by the time I'm done. All this work because my house is very subject to ice dams. It's one of the amazing things about water that it wants to flow downhill so bad that it will flow uphill (Under roof shingles) for a distance if it has to in order to resume its downward flow. Very damaging! Of course, this represents only phase one. Now, I've got giant new piles of snow all around the house to contend with.

I'm guessing that someone reading this from, say, Atlanta, has no idea what I'm talking about here ;^)

+oM

ps...more heavy snow could be here by Monday.

Tom:

I have done some roof shoveling/raking. The trailer home I have at my timberland (recently flooded and destroyed) was a 1979 model, and I was afraid the snow load could cave in the roof. We had about 30 inches of heavy wet snow on it with 18 inches more forecast, so I shoveled it off. What work--hard because I was afraid that the weight of me up there shoveling/raking would be enough to collapse it. I did the same with my old farmhouse--really, really tough work. At one point I had so much snow in the piles under the eaves I thought about jumping off and sliding down. Several times in the county--Garrett--in MD, has had very heavy snow in recent years and the local paper was full of pictures/stories of collapsed roofs. One small shopping center was under one really big long roof that collapsed, and the whole thing was subsequently abandoned.

Of course you are talking about ice dams--that is a problem that even the strongest roofs can have. Oh, by the way, on the back side of my trailer home, any time we had a persistent cold snowy spell, the icicles from the back of the roof joined the ground. Kinda pretty in a way.

But this year we have had almost no snow--I had never seen so little before!

--Spruce

When you guys in the Mid-Atlantic region DO get snow, it can sure be a tremendous amount! The thing around here is that, because we're typically so cold, snow just keeps piling up and piling up. When I pulled the snow off my roof today, there were several distinct layers, each with its own crust on top. Boy, that rake thing I made sure worked well!

I've got ice dams 12 inches thick in the worst spots! Sheesh.

+oM