November 18, 2014
76 inches snow, in 24 hours, with as much as 25 inches more snow expected in the next 24 hours.Mostly south of Buffalo, in the snow belt. Thruway shut down from PA line to Henrietta, NY. Really rare the Thruway is shut down, and even more rare for two days in a row.
Wonder if that's going to result in collapsed roofs, and houses turned to match sticks?
- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus
I lived in Utica, NY 1989-1994 and saw my fair share of snow, even more snow than I saw in Caribou, ME, mostly due to the lake effect stuff. The Blizzard of '93 dumped a massive amount of snow on top of all the other stuff we already had. Then it all immediately freezed and pretty much turned into ice.
I have never seen a collapsed roof in that area of New York. Maybe they're constructed differently or maybe people clean them off more often. One thing most roofs up there had that I haven't seen elsewhere is metal flashing that replaces the first couple rows of roof shingles at the eave. I believe that helps the snow slide off the roof easier and faster.
In situations like this, people pull together to help each other out.
We seldom get blizzards like that here in Manitoba, but when we do the local radio and TV stations serve as public billboards. They ask people with snowmobiles to ferry doctors, nurses and patients to and from the hospitals, and to get prescriptions filled for people that otherwise couldn't get their meds. The TV and radio stations all announce closures and cancellations for public events and stuff, as well as keeping people up to date on what roads are open and which are being cleared.
The good thing is that during a heavy snow fall, the snow doesn't accumulate on the telephone wires so communications are still intact. People can still phone each other if they need help. It's during ice storms that ice accumulates on telephone wires and tree branches causing both to come down and interrupt communications. That's even worse because then people that need help or need to go to the hosptial can't communicate with anyone to let people know they need help.
Last winter there was a similar situation in the Tennessee and surrounding states where the roads became extremely slippery with ice and driving anywhere became very dangerous.
I ended up stranded in UofB parking lot in Mar of '70, during the first big blizzard of the season. I haunted the student union bldg, where they hadda ride share map. I needed a rider to CA to share gas. The thruway was closed fer 1-2 days (I forget), while I slept in my '64 Dodge in the UB prkg lot. Big snow in Buffalo is nothing new. ;)
nb
Central PA looked like a Japanese pickup?
nb
CY: Ideally, much same here.
CY: We used to have a radio that did that. Perhaps they still do.
CY: Agree, I'm not much fond of ice storms.
CY: Doesn't that global warming stuff happen more often, now?
- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus
The first decade we lived out of town (from 1973) we could count on excellent trail skiing conditions 1 Dec. to March 31 every year: Then things started to change, e.g. we had a green Christmas one year and frequent winter rain (which later froze, wrecking the snow.)
I was watching a TV show a few days ago and one of the supposed experts on that show says that carbon emissions into our atmosphere are expected to continue increasing until about 2080 before they begin to subside.
The reason for this is that countries like China, India and Brazil all have a growing middle class that are now being able to afford cars, and all those cars will be burning fossil fuels of one sort or another (like propane or methane instead of gasoline).
Also, many emerging countries that can't afford to import gasoline and LNG from other countries have large reserves of coal. Those countries will be using their coal reserves to produce electricity for as far into the future as anyone can see.
So, I you consider how much fossil fuel was being burned over the last
65 years, or since 1950, we're likely to burn at least twice that by 2080, and so if Global Warming exists, it's really just only begun.
When I was a kid in Vermont, steep slate roofs were still popular. Snow would slide off before long, but huge icicles were generated.
The biggest I saw were at my 19th Century grade school. Each day at about 8:50 AM and about 12:30 PM, we'd be ordered to line up along the front of the school. A line of icicles 6" in diameter and 8 feet long hung 30 feet over our heads.
8:50 was an active time because the roof was warming in response to turning up the thermostat. 12:30 was another active time because the sun was just getting around to warm the west eaves, over our heads. We tried to remember to stand two feet farther from the wall than normal so the icicles would hit by our right foot and not on our head.That may explain why two of the most noted Marine heroes of WWII, Evans Carlson and Merritt Edson, came from Vermont. Edson must have attended my school because his house was 50 yards up the street. With an educational background like that, of course he wasn't fazed by shellfire from a Japanese battleship.
The day we finished 6th grade, in June, we hopped on our bikes, rode 3 miles out of town, and had a snowball fight in t-shirts.
from 1974
Mark
The weather forecast for the area south of Buffalo NY that was hit with
6 feet of snow is for milder temperatures with rain.That rain is going to potentially cause lots more roofs to collapse. When the rain falls on the roof, it's going to get frozen by the existing snow and add to the weight of the snow already on the roof. I can see that rain causing more roofs to collapse.
I'm just hoping that homeowner's insurance will cover that.
As with some things, the real disaster happens after the event, when the cameras are gone else where.
Rain for snow weight, and next week might warm up, and cause mass flooding.
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