Posted on 02/19/2025 6:32:02 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
The latest in a long line of winter storms is taking direct aim at the East Coast, threatening to dump heavy snow and some ice in several states.
A storm that dropped snow in the Midwest was spreading across the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys on Wednesday, bringing more misery to some places just starting to clean up from deadly weekend floods.
Up to 10 inches of snow was possible along the Atlantic Coast in Virginia and significant ice accumulations were forecast in eastern North Carolina, the National Weather Service said.
Elsewhere, a polar vortex took over from Montana to southern Texas. Bismarck, North Dakota, hit minus 39 degrees early Tuesday, breaking a record for the date set in 1910.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Y3ah some areas of NY just get hammered with snow- out by Buffalo especially with the lake effect snows. Nothing beats out in Cali in the mountains though- saw videos of the snow they got there and it was over the roof tops of houses literally. They showed massive snow throwers working to clearthe roads, it was truly insane
I actually planned ahead.
I have one full bag of Calcium Chloride that I only use on my sidewalk because it is lined with 50 year old Azela bushes.
I have at least five bags of rock salt I bought three weeks ago.
I have a sloped driveway that would not be permitted today. It is about twenty degrees in pitch. Current building code only allows 9 degree on a new driveway. My house was built in 1972.
I also have two sand barrels going up the hill portion of the driveway. I refilled those last Saturday.
The other thing is that Lake Erie would typically freeze over.
Especially back in the 1970s. Lake Erie is not very deep. On average only about 30 feet. Where as the other Great Lakes are hundreds of feet deep. The only parts that freeze over are the bays. Once Erie freezes over the lake effect stops.
The worst place is from Syracuse north up to Watertown, NY. Downwind from Ontario. They get hammered every year.
The other place is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Same thing, they are downwind from Superior. Which never freezes over.
This year was like a normal Winter in the Northeast, Cold with snow.
interesting- especially the ice over causing less lake effect snows-
Our driveway is long and parts of it are steeper than we’d have liked, but there’s not much that can be done about that.
Our problem is a couple HUGE hemlocks that shade the lower, steeper part of the driveway and so it never melts properly.
After fighting with it for the last few years, I think we’re just going to have to bite the bullet and hire someone to take them down. They’re bigger than we feel we can safely handle ourselves and the amount of time it would take to complete the job is ridiculous. We can use the time for other things we can manage.
“Now they are called hyperbolic names like “River of destruction” “Snowmaggedon” “
Also, they tack on “event”, for example, a rain event.
El Rush-Bo often pointed out these ridiculous headlines. “Storms take aim” As if the storm is “deciding” where it goes.
Also, not too long ago, New York and Chicago were under a mile of ice.
Although in December of 1976 Lake Erie froze over the earliest on record. Around mid month. Then it continued to be very cold and snowy. The snow built up on the ice on the lake west of Buffalo. Around mid January the winds picked up to 75+ mph. The wind picked up all that dry powdery snow and blew it east into Buffalo and the south towns. Known as the Blizzard of ‘77.
I was 14 at the time. We had 3’ of snow and drifts 10-15’ high were not uncommon. School was closed for a week. I still remember jumping off our neighbors roof of their ranch house with a walk out basement. Jumping into a snow drift that was over 10’ deep.
A couple months later in March of ‘77 we had an ice storm. 1/4” plus of ice on everything. No power for another week. No school for another week. Eventually we paid for it though. I think we had to attend school that year until almost July to make up for all the snow days.
The next year 1978 was the big Noreaster in Boston. Where thousands of autos got stuck on the route 128 beltway around Boston. Everyone up here still talks about that.
It was right around then when TIME magazine had the front cover Are we going into another Ice Age?
I remember back in Maine we would get pretty clobbered with snow- and we’d have to shovel off the roof, and would jump down instead of using the ladder once the snow piled up high enough for soft landing-
[[The next year 1978 was the big Noreaster in Boston. Where thousands of autos got stuck on the route 128 beltway around Boston. Everyone up here still talks about that.]]
I was just reading abotu the worst new england storms in new england mag today infact- Ill get the link to it- it mentions the storm with photos
https://newengland.com/yankee/history/worst-snowstorms-in-new-england-history/
Was still in Maine, and just got my license and had to drive in a storm in 1980 i think it was- wasnt the biggest storm ever- but it was a good one- it was a trip keeping the van o nthe road lol-
I have the same issue with the hill on my driveway. I have about ten large(1’+ diameter)Hemlock trees that block the sun right in the middle of the day. They are too big for me take down. Plus IF they went the wrong direction they would take down the power lines and land in the road.
The thing is I should have MADE the logger take them when I had my property logged 12 years ago. He had the feller buncher right on that hill too. PSNH even took down the power line for the day while they cut the trees on the hill in front of the house. It would have been easy to have them take that group too.
The issue now is that Hemlocks have virtually no value. Plus, I no longer have enough timber to make it worth their time to bring equipment in and set up for a few days. All the White Pine was taken off the property back then.
I would also like to put another driveway in that direction because it would give me a place to push the snow at the bottom of my driveway where it meets the road. Now I have to push it across the road and bucket it over the embankment there. Which technically is illegal to push it out in the road.
I have only had to shovel off the roof a couple times. Both were when we got big storms around Thanksgiving. I think the last time I did was about ten years ago. We had three feet of snow by about the first of January with another 2-3 months of winter/snow ahead.
It is unusual that we don;t get some kind of January thaw. We have not had one of those so far this winter. Maybe next week.
yup- been cold all through Jan and now Feb- We ordered a ceramic space heater a month ago- and it got ‘lost’ in shipping- amazon did refund us though- it made it about 1/2 way cross country, and somehow the trackign for ups lost track of it around Illinois- so we’ve been having to crank up the furnace which gets expensive-
I feel your pain.
One of the things I’m doing as we’re clearing underbrush and dead or diseased trees, or the ones leaning WAY over, is taking out a lot of smaller hemlock saplings.
It allows for more light and air in the woods, and two years ago we did lose power when a hemlock on the neighbor’s property came down on our power line.
Problem is, while even hunting is allowed under the current use guidelines, taking down trees on someone else’s property, isn’t. And the property line is pretty close to the driveway, so we can’t do anything about what’s on his property that could come down on our power lines again.
Ask them IF you can take the trees down. Most people that have a fair amount of property couldn’t care less IF you take trees down.
All they potentially care about is the LIABILITY.
Yeah, we can contact him.
And he does own a lot and we never see him over there. There’s no driveway or house on the property that we know of. Certainly not from the road our house is on and it’s pretty well wooded quite a ways back.
Another frickin’ polar vortex. And, as always, I blame Canada.
Based on that I would suspect he would not care if you take trees off of his property. As long as you clean up any mess.
The value of standing timber right now in New England has actually gone down over the last few years. Mill River in VT closed down and now has been bought by someone else. Durgin Crowell was shut down for a fire for a couple years but has now reopened. So, the bigger sawmills are not paying TOP DOLLAR for logs.
Plus, unless they are large White Pine or Sugar Maple nobody really wants them. Hemlock logs have almost no value. Except to a few local mills that cut them into timbers for post and beam barns.
Twelve years ago the Hemlock from my property got debarked and put into a container and sent to China. That is because no one in southern NH wanted them. Durgin took all the Pine. All the hardwoods went to the sawmill in Henniker, NH to make pallets.
That’s very interesting.
Thing is, there are some ash trees on his property that are on the property line and look like they’re leaning in our direction. If they fall on our property, I suspect they are fair game.
But if he’d let us take the infested ones down, that would be good. We’re using it all for firewood.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.