[PA Engineer]

Thanks for the ping. Will be following this one very closely. Looks like we are ground zero for the predicted 24"+ of heavy wet snow.

That is going to pose a double hit for western to central pa. The trees still have many leaves so we would expect many broken branches and power outages. The second problem will come during the thaw when the leaves and debris clog the storm sewers.

[kidd]

Oh no.

We had 12 inches of wet heavy snow this time last year in Connecticut. We still had lots of green leaves on the trees when the snow fell. Perhaps 20%-30% of all branches broke. It was incredible. I went outside in the middle of the storm and it sounded like a gun going off every 10 seconds.

We were without power for 8 days, and we live in the suburbs. Some were without power for three weeks. It was really miserable. Fortunately, we had hot water.

Be prepared. Here are some things I wish I was ready with:

1. Get a generator.
2. Learn how to use your generator to power your heating system.
3. Fill up your car with gas and store at least 15 gallons of gas...gas stations will be without power too.
4. Do all of your laundry before the storm hits.
5. Get spare chains and chain oil for your chainsaw. Hardware stores will be cleaned out for many weeks after.
6. Charge your cell phones.
7. Get unscented candles...scented candles used for light will make you sick after about two days.
8. Make sure your battery-powered radios work. Ours did, but we didn’t have any to lend to our neighbors.

[matt04]

Ironically on Oct 29th 2011 CT/NJ/MA got hit with 12-24” inches of heavy wet snow on trees that mostly had green leaves on them. Lost power for 9 days.