Posted on 01/22/2026 5:14:26 PM PST by Jamestown1630
Nobody seems to have begun a thread for the snowstorm that is forecast for this weekend, so I thought I would.
Where I live (DC Metro area) a big snowstorm is relatively rare. We're the ones who don't really know how to drive in it because we don't get a lot of practice; and we also crowd the grocery store and wipe out the shelves - often for stuff we don't really need, and for a forecast that doesn't amount to much but flurries.
But once in a while, we really get whacked; and I think this may be one of those times. (My husband grew up in the wilds of Pennsylvania, and laughs at what we consider 'getting whacked' down here.)
I'm hoping we get lots of snow, and little or no ice; and hope everyone will be safe.
Let us know what you are doing to prepare, if you live where it might hit.
@JudgeClayJ Clay has gone away. Thanks for all the weather warnings that you tweeted from an airplane taking you to warmer climates. Way to stick it out with your county.
https://t.co/BESdH2thRE— MookieG. (@Mookiegarza) January 24, 2026
Still, that is a plane full of Dallasites that are skipping town. Bad look for our leaders.
We started our snowpocalypse by watching Casablanca. What a great movie.
It’ll be cold enough, I don’t think the sleet will “stick” much unless we get freezing rain too. The latter now looks like a very low chance, but the sleet chances look like pretty much a sure bet.
Yes, I do have a generator if worse comes to worse. Two actually, but the guy who tried to fix #1 just screwed it up, and I’ve never been able to find a replacement carburetor for it...
BTW, several hours ago I was looking at NWS’ US Counties map of warnings and alerts. It is most impressive: There are winter storm warnings out in a WIDE swath from the Rio Grande to the US NE Coast, and New Hampshire and Vermont. To the south are quite a few ice storm warnings. To the north are cold weather advisories and extreme cold weather warnings. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that many counties under one type or another winter weather warnings.
I hit the grocery stores Friday early (7 am for the 1st one, a large local grocery store). The local store was in pretty good except for the meat section: All their sale stuff was already gone. Wal Mart was next and a bit worse overall, but, still had good stock on most items, meat was better stocked. Then I went to Aldi 10 minutes after they opened, and, except for no “damage” or phasered employees, it looked like the Klingons had raided it. I’ve never seen a grocery store out or nearly out of so many items, except maybe in pics from Eastern Europe in the old Soviet days...
Best guess is that their truck didn’t come in.
Oh, well, try THIS one on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8DD1r2fhtc
(GREAT song, great sound quality on a good system, but, I try not to listen to it more than once every 3 months or so. You’ll see why...)
Not hummable, but very cool (in more ways than one):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dFFh4Idl24
“Ice”, by Celestial Navigations
Looks like my dry etase board at work.
It’s supposed to be cloudy for me this weekend. 64 on Saturday and 60 on Sunday.
Maybe include a PMS scale for them? PMS 3 or 5 would be bad, but watch out for a 6 or 7!
During the ‘70s “pipeline boom” in Alaska, we residents were on high alert at the first snowfall of a winter — defensive driving on steroids. Oil companies were bringing in their people from Texas, and most believed driving on snow and ice was no different from any other conditions. They were wrong. Accidents everywhere.
“We watched 4x4s go off the road.”
4x4s are really good at sliding!
We had a 4x4 Blazer, and a Riviera. The Rivera was better in winter — even through snow.
Agree with “peace of mind”. When buying our houses, we made sure to install whole-house Generacs. We might be iced in, or snowed in, but we’ll have power.
The one we have now is connected to city gas. The one before was propane which was a little concerning. If we were iced in, the propane truck was iced out. Fortunately, we never had a problem.
On Wednesday I went to Kroger to pick up a prescription, and had to park in the back 40 due to others shopping for provisions. Check-out lines were down the aisles. Crazy.
Thanks for the thread!
Handy link, NOAA’s Probabilistic Precipitation Portal...
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/Prob_Precip/
To see what’s likely to hit your neck of the woods. Very specific.
If your locale doesn’t show up handily, zoom in on the area.
We went through all that in 2021. Lost power and had a low temp of 5 above. All the while ERCOT was saying that “all was fine”. Yeah, not falling for that again.
Have gassed up generators, gas logs an plenty of meat stored.
Latest map from Max Velocity...
https://x.com/MaxVelocityWX/status/2015049704522871064
I heartily recommend his X feed and YouTube channel.
“memories of snow; and we both loved the way it made everything so quiet.”
That’s true. When living near Buffalo on Lake Erie, if I opened my eyes first thing in the morning, from the sound — lack thereof, actually — I knew it had snowed overnight.
Possibly interesting factoid from Upstate NY...
Drove by a scrap yard the other day.
Didn’t see a single nat gas furnace carcass.
But I did see quite a few discarded air source heat pumps.
Shoulda picked our own cotton.
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