FUN - For Those of You Missing NOB Weather

Open Google
Type: let it snow into the search box
Watch what happens to your screen

Or go and look at the NM DOT cameras. Wow, that's a pretty healthy storm. I'm sure folks there are loving it given how hot and dry the summer was. I used to like the snow--for about a day and then I was ready for weather like we have here lakeside.

The storm is no where near what the weather Nazis would like you to believe! The snow is much worse up in the NE corner and Grants reportedly received 13 to 18 inches. They just closed I40 from Louisiana to the Texas border. Two photos (one taken at about 10am and then another about 4pm):
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As you can see no big deal and we are in the heights where it is worse than down in the valley.

Pretty! And too damn cold!!

Cold? Hell No! I was at Kelly's Liquor and Lowes today and people were there wearing shorts. Go figure!

That's what you guys call snow? In Canada when we lived in the snow belt, we had to dig a trench from the house to the driveway, which remained from November to April. Sometimes the drifts reached up to the telephone lines.

The last year we lived in Toronto, we were trapped indoors for four days till the army showed up and helped clear the roads.

Kidding aside 13 to 18 inches is no joke if your town isn't expecting it, and you don't have the equipment to get rid of it.

Thanks for posting, just another reminder of why I won't be going back to the joys of winter wonderland, or the hot humid summers punctuated by deer flies and west nile.

Yep, here is a picture of Hocks digging his car out when he got back home to Regina a couple of weeks ago.......

As Mainecoons knows full well, a snowstorm in Albuquerque may produce snow that lasts for a day or two unless it is an out of character snow fall. The last really good storm we had was about four years ago and the city was paralyzed for almost a week. Nothing compared to storms I somehow managed to live through in MN, WA, NY and CO!

Agree. Generally it melts the next day, sometimes it might take two to three days. But it is also damn cold except in the sun.

We enjoyed NM greatly in our 14 years there, just got tired of the heat in the summer, wind in the spring and cold in the winter. It does have a lot of sunshine but the temperature variation is extreme compared to here.

Looks like you're living in the heights, Neil. Many times it would snow like a bandit up there and we'd just get a dusting in the valley.

raqueteer - Snow in Toronto?? Stuck indoors for 4 days. What are you smokin'???

Try New England with it's Nor' Easters and ocean effect snow with 25 to 40 mph winds. That's real snow 18 to 24 inches. And that's why we're here!!!

Yes John, snow in Toronto...sometimes 24 inches but usually only 6 inches at a time. Where do you get off telling people who have LIVED there, how much it snows?

What a crack up! Does bragging that: my weather was worser where I came from, justify the move to Mexico more?

ferret wrote:Yes John, snow in Toronto...sometimes 24 inches but usually only 6 inches at a time. Where do you get off telling people who have LIVED there, how much it snows?

I have a good friend who's here from Canada now who tells me it rarely snows in Toronto and if it does it's very little. And how long did you live in Toronto to be all knowing?

We had a snow that kept us home bound for a week in Washington D.C. in 1976. More than 2 feet and we were on the bottom street in one of those little valleys that Silver Spring has. So the stuff blew down into our street from the higher areas and was piled as tall as me. That was quite an experience, we were a little concerned that the roof might collapse as the house was not built for that much snow.

Oh dear. John, I lived in Toronto for 50 years. If you read my post we also lived in the snow belt where the snow was so bad we lost several farmers every year in whiteouts when they were unable to get back to their houses from their barns. That's where the snow drifts got as high as the telephone lines. In 1999 we did have a massive storm and the army did have to be called in to help with snow removal.

Mainecoons - I don't know if you remember, but in the Northeast it was called the Blizzard of 76. I worked on Rte 128, the outer belt in the industrial area outside Boston. Rte 128 is 4 lanes wide North and South in each direction. It took me over 4 hours to drive about 25 miles. Luckily I had a Saab 99 4WD then. I never saw more cars stuck on the roadway.

A tractor trailer jacknifed across the highway on the Southbound side. Traffic stopped. We spent overnight in our cars. The blizzard lasted all night long with drifts as high as door sills and to the roofs of full sized cars. I kept my engine running for heat with windows open 2" for ventilation. Many people died from exhaust fumes. The trucks cleared the Northbound side of the road. The next day the snow subsided. Many of us walked across the road to a Howard Johnsons where we spent overnight. A Doctor took over and managed the food supply to each person. The next day, the Red Cross transported us to a company with a warehouse. We spent the night on cots. I told the Red Cross I was an epileptic so they got my medication and brought it in by helicopter. After spending overnight, they took us home in a deuce and a half going down the wrong side of the highway. I was dropped off in Quincy center 1 mile from my house.

The radio told people to leave their keys in the ignition so they could be driven to the side of the road to be picked up days later. They had to break down the guard rails to get equipment in to remove the snow. Two days later, I picked up my car from the breakdown lane. An experience I will never forget.

Interesting that you would remember a storm that wasn't even in the top 10 for Boston area storms:
1. February 17-18, 2003 27.5 inches
2. February 6-7, 1978 27.1 inches
3. February 24-27, 1969 26.3 inches
4. March 31-April 1, 1997 25.4 inches
5. January 22-23, 2005 22.5 inches
6. January 20-21, 1978 21.4 inches
7. March 3-5, 1960 19.8 inches
8. February 16-17, 1958 19.4 inches
9. February 8-10, 1994 18.7 inches
10. January 7-8, 1996 18.2 inches
10. December 20-22, 1975 18.2 inches
10. December 26-27, 2010 18.2 inches

I flew into Boston after the double whammy in 1978 and it was ugly!

Here's a blog about the storm of 1999, Toronto. Called the storm of the century.

http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/12/a_look_back_at_the_toronto_snowstorm_of_1999/

Look up Oswego NY on the South East edge of Lake Ontario. They have
feet of snow rather than inches of snow. Lake Effect it is called. I spent
10 years there not knowing any better. Funny when you have huge amounts of snow you build infrastructure that can handle it like FWD
plows built especially for the huge drifts. No converted garbage truck
will work in this much snow. We use to dump all the snow in the river
which I am sure you can't do anymore. Towards the end of winter
the drifts around the city streets were so high we tied a flag onto the
front bumper and you would creep out into an intersection because you
could not see around the corners due to 10ft of snow. When it melted
it just created small lakes and you had to have rubber boots. Don't
believe me....check it out. I was very foolish to stay there but I didn't
know any better.

Z

Syracuse, NY has been designated as the snowfall record holder for all big cities in the US. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe their full winter total was 144 inches sometime in the 90's.

As far as REAL snowfall records go - Paradise Inn at Mt Rainier recorded 1122 inches in 71/72, a new World Record that was subsequently broken in 98/99 with 1140 inches at Mt Baker Ski Area. For those who are geographically challenged, both of them are in Washington State in the USA.

johninajijic wrote:

ferret wrote:Yes John, snow in Toronto...sometimes 24 inches but usually only 6 inches at a time. Where do you get off telling people who have LIVED there, how much it snows?

I have a good friend who's here from Canada now who tells me it rarely snows in Toronto and if it does it's very little. And how long did you live in Toronto to be all knowing?

Only forty-five years...do ya think I might know? Or should I have lived there at least 50 years.

Ferret: sounds like Santa should bring John a foot-from-mouth extractor for moments like this.
YES, of course 45 years isn't enough!

CheenaGringo wrote:Syracuse, NY has been designated as the snowfall record holder for all big cities in the US. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe their full winter total was 144 inches sometime in the 90's.

Oswego thirty miles to the north of Syracuse gets more snow. Both are considered to be lake effect cities. A couple of years ago 80 inches or so
fell east of Oswego in one storm. It is an insane place to live in the winter. When the wind was right and a few feet of snow fell we use to go
out our second story windows and dug our way down to the front porch. I had a snowmobile with license plates on it. State troopers had snow
mobiles with flashing lights and a siren on them. Snowmobile riding, drinking brandy around a campfire seemed to be the main occupation during
the winter growing up around Oswego. It was amazing how tolerant the infrasturcture was to the snow. We didn't have chains but we did have
snow tires and the school bus made it pretty much most of the time sometimes with a snowplow ahead of it. When we had a snow day it was
probably because of multiple feet of snow or winds making huge 10/20 ft drifts crossing the roads from the wind driven lake effect storms. I think
about it now I had five different kind of boots for different conditions from snowmobile riding to late winter rubber farmers boots to walk through
all the puddles surrounded by snow. The only place I have seen worse all are at high altitude like Lake Tahoe. Oswego may not be the coldest
place in the world but it might be one of the snowiest at close to sea level.

Z

Sorry folks, a senior moment. It was the "Blizzard of '78" not '76 as I had said.

Zed:

As the saying goes: "upstate New York is a good place to be from"! My relatives were from the Syracuse area, I went to prep school in Lake Placid and some summers were spent either at Sandy Pond or in/near Clayton. Went I left for college in Denver back in the 60's, I swore I would never return and I haven't!

When I landed at Logan after the blizzard of '78, two sales reps that worked for me picked me up. When trying to drive around piles of snow and into blind intersections, the rep driving said: "don't worry, we have straight on red in Boston".