How nice that we should start the first of December with a howling snow storm.
This is prairie winter: not your big fat flakes falling gently, but hard icy snow slicing horizontally with a stiff wind; no quiet hiss of steady accumulation, but the rushing roar of wind and weather blowing billows of crystals everywhere. We’ll have thick drifts against the house before this is done.
I’m glad to be sitting quietly in a warm house, and I think I’ll put on another pot of hot coffee. Later, when it dies down though…then comes the cold feet and the tired shoulders that go with shoveling snow. At least this stuff tends to be dry and light and fairly easy to heave.
I was talking to Mom last night (they’re near Mankato) and she was telling me about this oncoming storm. It was sunny and 40 here in Boston yesterday. It’s only about 25 now.
I miss snow. I don’t miss the cold of MN (Bostonians are wimps), but the snow here always seems to stop at Worcester. I would love a good “shut the city down, sit inside with hot cocoa and a snuggly cat) blizzard.
Having grown up in Minnesota, I don’t miss blizzards at all. :)
I never understood why people who get a lot of snow just don’t enclose the walkways and driveways of their homes to keep the snow out of those areas and avoid the need to constantly shovel snow away. Sure, it might be a little expensive, but I think it would be worth not having to shovel snow every year.
Of course, since I live in the South, where we rarely get little more than a few flakes, I probably have no idea what I’m talking about.
I have to admit to missing the entire seasonal experiences, including the howling blizzards!
I grew up in North Central IL, but have been in FL on and off for the past 11 years. I’m looking to do a reverse snow-bird and flee back North for a change in climate.
I’m done driving for the day here in the Twin Cities. Every year the first snow catches people off guard. It takes them a while to remember how to drive in the stuff. When our first snow is a big one like this it’s even worse. Went out and got some Bailys to go with my coffee, I’m all set.
And here I was, thinking that Pittsburgh was bad…
The quiet hiss of steady accumulation usually means hell to pay later. Our fat pretty snowflakes here in the Northeast are pleasant to walk around in and look lovely and all, but they generally pack in tight and end up weighing a ton.
YAY! I looove snow. Looks like it’s coming my way (mid-MI) this evening – but we never get much snow fall. :( It’ll probably just be a couple of inches… won’t even cover up all of the grass, I bet.
Our snow here in Madison appears to have switched to pellets, so we might have an entire ice rink by morning.
Have a care as you shovel. We couldn’t stand to lose America’s Richard Dawkins, nay, Minnesota’s Richard Dawkins to a heart attack.
You need to get a wovel. Then come back and tell the rest of us if it’s worth buying.
I’m sitting inside looking at big fat fluffy flakes falling here in Utah. Usually snow is dry here, but this is a wet, heavy snowfall. Wonderful!
It’s freezing sleet here in central Iowa. It looks like I have about an inch of snow on my lawn, but it’s ice pellets. Nasty, slippery, do I have enough personal liability ice. And it’s just slightly above freezing right now, meaning that it’ll freeze overnight and be even more dangerous in the morning.
Good thing I stocked up on beer yesterday.
I’m in central Iowa too, Todd. I’m enjoying the day, as I live in an apartment and don’t have to go anywhere. I’ve been cooking all day – sausage & eggs and apple cinnamon muffins for breakfast, chicken enchiladas & cornbread for dinner – the cat is snoozing on my foot, and as long as the power stays on, I’m purringly content. I should be writing a paper, but complete sloth has set in and it seems almost too much of an effort to read, let alone write, so I’m just noodling around on the internet. Good times.
I missed the snow when I lived in Seattle, although I hear they’re getting flurries today.
The wovel (snow shovel with a big wheel) that Carlie mentioned looks interesting. I haven’t seen anyone using one yet.
I did dig up my snow shovels for this latest blast through the Midwest. It’s always more fun to shovel with a partner.
Two words: snow blower.
Yours for better living through technology,
-jcr
Ten bucks for the neighbor kid. Lower carbon footprint.
It looks the same here in BRF, WI, as it does in Morris. I stopped calling it snow a long time ago. It’s WHITE SHIT!!!! My 2c. :)
How nice. I just came home from watching the sunset on the beach over the palm trees. Y’all can enjoy your hot cocoa with the cat by the fireplace…I’m just not all that fond of cats.
Freezing rain in the Chicago suburbs, earlier it was snowing. One of the worst storms that I have ever driven through (been in, period) was in Minnesota, but it wasn’t snow. Almost ten years ago I was driving west, not too far past Minneapolis on 94 and it looked like there was a curtain of dark sky in front of me. I finally got to it and there really was a boundary. I usually don’t stop in those rural areas because it usually is ok to just go very slowly. I ended up exiting and pulled into a parking lot. It was like being in a car wash! I thought that the gravel was going to wash away because it was raining so hard and I would be stuck but that turned out ok. When I resumed driving, I listened to the radio and they mentioned something about vertical winds and how they weren’t sure if it was that or if there were actually tornados in downtown MSP. I was probably out of range when they figured out what happened but now I don’t take these things lightly. I should have found a rest stop and stayed there until everything passed.
It was late in the evening; I thought soon to crash,
When I heard a small squeal, so as quick as a flash
I was off down the hallway–a parent’s mad dash–
And I opened the door (with a bit of a crash)
To find my young daughter, her hands on the sash
Staring out in amazement… at hydrogen ash.
No, that wasn’t today; it was years, now, ago;
She has grown, as I know every daughter must grow.
Too fast? Though it’s tempting, I have to say “no”,
All children grow up, and you reap what you sow.
But ever since then, there’s a magical glow,
And I travel through time, every time I see snow.
I rank snow blowers right down there with leaf blowers, jetskis, dirtbikes, and Cadillac Escalades.
Buy a freakin shovel! Or, for an hour, a neighbor kid!
yours for better living, and better neighbors,
SD
p.s. Pittsburgh?! I grew up there and moved to E. Lansing MI for college, and I’ll tell you: Pittsburgh winters are nothin.
Mena,
My favorite driving in bad weather story involves a return to Iowa State after Thanksgiving break. Probably my sophomore or junior year as an undergrad. I’m driving along I-90, near Blue Earth, and I can barely see the road. All of a sudden, there’s a herd of deer crossing the road. I hit the brakes to avoid the one in front of me, and one of them runs into the side of my trunk (no one ever wants to accept that the deer hit me).
I found out when I got to Ames that I-90 was officially closed because of the weather while I was driving on it.
The best was actually late night blizzards on country highways. Just blasting through the drifts, knowing there’s enough traffic you’ll be ok, but not enough that you’ll run into someone.
Haven’t gone outside today, Frezing rain earlier but the temperature came up so that melted.
As I wander about the internet to my favorite places, I celebrate Jaco’s birthday as beyond jazz continues to play his music. However I do feel sad as that big, beautiful British shorthair that Bonnie found through friends surpisingly had FIV and felt it only proper to put him down. At least I’ll get some smiles between Banjo and myself as I offer a can of his kitty food to him and are thankful as we are all here under one roof.
Tebo,
condolences for the kitty. I know how hard that is (I even had to help my dad, the country vet, do it a couple times).
MAJeff: You must not have been in Peabody 2 or 3 years ago when we got three feet of snow. It is not fun when you have to spend an hour digging yourself out of the house.
Also we flood pretty badly, my house becomes an island.
I am perfectly happy in Southern Arizona. I shiver a bit when it hits the 40s now. ;o)
I want snow? I drive up into the mountains. So far I’ve been content to look up at them and go … “ahhh.”
37″ in Somerville….we just scooped several times so it didn’t build up too much. That was the weekend a friend I hadn’t seen in 10 years decided to come visit me in Boston.
It’s sticking, too, and it’s worse the further East you go. We have a big jam- and soap-making day planned at our prof’s house in Issaquah tomorrow; at the rate it’s coming down and piling up, we’re just going to hunker down at home with the cats instead. It is funny how nuts the local news goes about any amount of snow, though–the coverage is almost lurid, like “When Snow Attacks!”.
Speaking of cats, sorry to hear about your kitty, Tebo.
I have to admit, I have a love-hate relationship with the snowblower. On the one hand, there’s the waste involved, and shoveling is great exercise for me, and I can’t afford one, anyway. But then again, when the snow is falling at 3-6 inches an hour it’s hard to keep up with, and when the freakin’ snowplow compacts it at the end of your driveway a couple of times in the middle of the night so that you have two feet of hardpack to dig through, a snowblower comes in mighty handy, and I’m awfully grateful for the neighbors who come through and clean off that ridge for me with theirs.
It’s even snowing up here in Vancouver BC! Of course, this is the day my hubby and his brother decide to repair our roof… The convenient appearance of a nephew lightened my wallet by $5 but at least the driveway’s clear!
We had snow flurries in the Portland (Oregon) area this AM. The cold and snow will be to the east, in the Columbia Gorge and beyond. To the west will be wind and rain. Possible hurricane force winds at the coast, but at least the temps are high enough that the roads won’t be icy. I head to the coast — and right into the storm — tomorrow for a 2-night stay in a cushy inn. (I won the trip in a raffle.)
It is fairly easy (this time) to heave from my own driveway. I have always hated – too strong…? emphatically seriously disliked the proverbial ‘prairie winter storm.’ I detest winter. Regardless of understanding the absoluteness of nature.
But I find the winter storms a personal contract with humanity.
Children far away, and neighbors’ indifference to the plight of those not fortunate in health, mind, body and/or spirit.
Do you know how many driveways and sidewalks that can be cleared with a few mere moments of sweat?
PS: And yes, for those naysayers, I fully understand the potential liabilities to myself clearing a ‘neighbor’s’ walk and/or driveway of a winter’s bitter first harvest, so don’t spoil my version of Humanism with any legalese talk.
Well the ol’ Cuttlefish (#21) has done it again. Great stuff, Cuttle. My memory too was cast back a few score of years gazing at PZ’s pic of a winter storm. On Sunday mornings after a heavy blizzard Dad and I would shovel off the sidewalks at the Presbyterian Church our family attended in small town Ohio. I remember feeling as if I was, in a very small way, helping the lord by clearing a path for all those righteous and holy Presbo worshipers. My zeus, how things change. Thanks PZ for the pic and post and thanks to all the commentators.
where is the promise of global warming?? i now have to increase my carbon footprint via the snowblower.
About 3 inches of rain out here. For those of you with extra time and mad math skills, that’s one fourth of an acre foot times 4,281 square miles (at 640 acres per square miles). Plus snow in the mountains.
Even better, it’s all headed your way. Arizona’s getting it right now, and it should be into Oklahoma by Monday. Don’t tell me we never send anything to you.
That thing looks like the bastard child of a penny farthing bicycle and a coal shovel.
It is actually coming down enough here that I put the car in the garage. I don’t expect to be awake before the snow crews plow everything out, but I’ve got an electric snow thrower in reserve Just In Case.
It’s sticking, too, and it’s worse the further East you go. We have a big jam- and soap-making day planned at our prof’s house in Issaquah tomorrow; at the rate it’s coming down and piling up, we’re just going to hunker down at home with the cats instead. It is funny how nuts the local news goes about any amount of snow, though–the coverage is almost lurid, like “When Snow Attacks!”.
Having grown up in Michigan, I find the reaction in Portland absolutely hysterical. I missed a great photo op with my tiny old truck (now deceased), pulling a great big bruiser over an icy overpass. I had chains, they didn’t.
I love that they close schools, when the snow is barely sticking. I actually called the library before I went out today, in fear they might be closing. I was told to come soon because it might just happen. Meanwhile, I recall trudging through snow a couple feet deep, to get to school when I was a kid. They mostly just closed school when the power was knocked out.
I believe that you have some cause of concern coming up though. Portland is far enough inland that we probably won’t get hammered, but late Sunday, early Monday, expect all hell to break loose. They are claiming it will be a once in several decades sort of storm, stretching from Alaska, down to the Bay area or even further south.
I am actually hoping we get a fair hit of snow here. It’s really big fun watching everything shut down and playing with the boy. We usually only get up to the mountains two to three times a year, once with my bro and nephew in Snoqualmie and once or twice to Mt. Hood. So when we get pounded close to home, it’s an extra special treat.
Man, I’ve been complaining all week because I still have to use my car’s AC.
Happy winter from Florida.
DuWayne,
I, too, grew up in Michigan and now live near Portland, OR. I trudged through the snow on the one mile walk to school and only remember being “snowed in” a few times in all my years in the Detroit suburbs. Here they close the schools at the THOUGHT of snow. Of course, the freezing rain is a real pain in the wazoo. I’m lucky I can telecommute — as long as the power stays on.
I sure hope all hell doesn’t break loose tomorrow. I’ll be driving right into it on the way to Cannon Beach.
You know, It also started snowing here(Vancouver)today…not a blizzard or anything, but it’s building.
I’m really impressed with what I see about the Wovel. Snowblowers are obnoxious, shoveling the old way is dangerous if you are not in great shape (and can result in a really sore back even if you are).
I’d buy one, except I now live in San Francisco where it snows about once in 10 years. (I miss the snow, but not as much as I miss violent thunderstorms and hot summer nights, both of which are equally rare)
And with that nice prairie snow storm, I got in a car accident. Rear wheel drive is essentially no wheel drive.
Wovel? What an amateurish attempt.
We Finns know how to handle snow:
http://www.masitools.com/eng/?page=lumikolat&sm=2
Wovel? What an amateurish attempt.
We Finns know how to handle snow:
http://www.masitools.com/eng/?page=lumikolat&sm=2
We all have problems. Just this morning it was a touch cool as we rode on our rented motorcycle in T-shirts and shorts (how they get a motorcycle into T-shirts and… never mind) up into the hills in northern Thailand and had a nice meal in a restaurant by a river just past Monkey School and watched an elephant walk by. If only I’d had a light jacket the first half hour.
:)
“We Finns know how to handle snow”: the big old aluminum snowscoop is the cat’s meow for moving firewood in the snow. and it makes a nice path too.
Quoth jcr #16: “Two words: snow blower.
Yours for better living through technology”
Almost word for word what my comment was going to be. Dang, you beat me to it!
Quoth MAJeff #17: “Ten bucks for the neighbor kid. Lower carbon footprint.”
This is what I have my own kids for! All it takes is much raised voice and/or blood pressure, threats of violence* and VIOLA! “free” snow shoveling service. ‘Course it doesn’t snow much anymore in south western Virginia. “sigh”
On the other hand what about an electric snow blower, is there such a thing? Although maybe it would just transfer the pollution to the power company.
Cheers,
Ray
*mostly kidding about the violence
The Wovel sells for $120?!?
For that kind of scratch, I can get the neighbor kid to do my walks for two years and still have enough change left over for a bottle or two of top shelf antifreeze to drink while supervising the little lackey.
Yes, you can buy electric snowblowers (they tend to be small, single-stage units though). I have one waiting in reserve for the time I actually have to clear my own drive again.
I would not be too surprised to see someone adapt a hybrid car to power a set of electric snowblowers hanging from the bumper. They have the power-handling capability and the mechanical stresses would be much smaller than for a plow.
…and this is why I don’t have a car in Iowa City: nothing to shovel out!
Lassi – one of my neighbors has one of those, but only uses it in light snows (under 8 inches) because he’s elderly and everyone else in the ‘hood does it most of the time. Do they work at all on deep snow?
For the people who find it cheaper to hire neighbor kids, you must live in areas without a lot of snow. Here in the frozen northeast, all winter you’re looking at shoveling 6-12 inches at least 3 times a week, it has to be done before leaving for work because even if you shoveled last thing before going to bed the snow fell all night, and the really fun part is when you live on a street with weird snowplow timing so that you get up at 6 to shovel in time to get back in, shower, and get ready for work, and then you get out to the car to find that the snowplow has blocked you in again so you have to spend another 20 minutes on it. Then often when you get home from work it’s the whole process over again to get back in the driveway.
Our version of the neighborhood kid with a shovel is a guy with a plow attachment on the front of his truck.
I’ve shoveled snow for almost 40 years, and I’ve got to say that those things look like the lousiest tools for snow removal I’ve seen. Big and ungainly, no use for heavy or wet stuff. I wouldn’t want to use them on the wet, icy dumping we just got in Wisconsin.
That said: I’m kind of glad the first winter storm has hit: time to put on a pair of boots and go for a walk in the woods.
And time to wax the x-country skis up. We’re not at a ski-able level yet, but soon…
Woke up to an inch or two of snow on the ground here on Long Gisland this morning; looks wintry. Put the Jeep in 4WD just because I could. Why does that make me so happy?
Hydrogen ash? I don’t quite get what that is supposed to mean. Snow?
Hydrogen ash? I don’t quite get what that is supposed to mean. Snow?
So, if we New Englanders get these as nor’easters, does that make this a mi’wester?
Yes, the Prarie. As I was driving back from the Middle of Nowhere (pretty close to your place, PZ) yesterday, through the worst of the storm, I noticed the following:
1) Snow would not accumulate on the highway because the wind was too strong.
2) Where it did accumulate was where there were trees lining the road to the east-northeast, slowing down the wind.
I could predict where the trees were lining the road based on whether or not I could see the pavement.
We’re getting your storm now. It stinks.
#51: “Do they work at all on deep snow?”
Better than a shovel, or that Wovel thingy. The idea is to move the snow around without having to lift it.
The way to win the War on Snow is to have a Winning Strategy. Allocate a part of the yard as a concentration camp for the enemy combatants (call then snowflakes if you want). Start filling it from the remotest corner. With a snow pusher that is easy.
#51: “Do they work at all on deep snow?”
Better than a shovel, or that Wovel thingy. The idea is to move the snow around without having to lift it.
The way to win the War on Snow is to have a Winning Strategy. Allocate a part of the yard as a concentration camp for the enemy combatants (call then snowflakes if you want). Start filling it from the remotest corner. With a snow pusher that is easy.