The worst snow storms of the year can come in the month of April. Plenty of moisture in the air, and a good solid Yukon Clipper blast comes out of Canada, and FOOP, down it comes with wind behind, leaving snowdrifts that are impassible.
We had a snow storm in late April of 1988. Lubbock, Texas
I flew into Boston on a business trip on March 31, 1997, right into one of the biggest blizzards to ever hit there.
“The snow came in like a wall during the evening of March 31. Three inches per hour snowfall rates were common throughout the night. Boston received a foot of snow in four hours, between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. By dawn on April Fools morning, 2-to-3 feet of snow blanketed the region.”
It was the #4 all-time blizzard in Boston, dumping 25.4 inches. We were the last plane into Logan; other pilots were sensible and diverted or returned. It took over two hours for the shuttle to get to Braintree and many times I thought we were going to get stuck and spend the night in that cold van.
I couldn’t have picked a better week for that trip!
* * * Ah yes, alloysteel, I lived it.
I remember such a April surprise in the Boston outskirts of Newton. Snow and sleet came down so fast I was forced to sleep in the office 30 minutes from home. When I drove home in the morning, the driveway was 18 inches deep with the heaviest slush I ever had to shovel out.
But it turned into a valuable learning experience. I showed my neighbor, a corporate consultant, how I'd discovered a new technique. Rather than break my back lifting the slush, I pushed the shovel under a pile, dragged a shovelful out, and pulled it a few yards to a place on the side of the road where I merely jerked back the handle to separate the shovel from its load.
My consultant friend loved the idea: "Ha! Process improvement!"
* * *
Sure enough, the Japanese have long used snow scoops to clear heavy snow off roofs in their mountain towns.