S/O: Do you live in an area that can actually handle a snowstorm...

[arivecchi]

without a widespread panic? I am just in shock over the Mid-Atlantic snowstorm threads. Two feet of snow here would be a nuisance, but not a big deal at all. I mean, I would still take my kids out in our AT strollers with that much snow. :D

[AnnieW625]

HELL NO! They can't even handle an inch of rain! Check out this Conan O Brien skit, it's SOOO true, it makes me ill just thinking about it. We get breaking news for a rain storm, or a dog getting stuck in the LA Riverbed! It's rediculous. In Nor Cal where I used to live a large snow storm would get breaking news, and schools would be closed, but that's because there would be no snow removal equipment outside of Lake Tahoe. It never snows more than maybe an 1" every couple of years so snow removal equipment isn't needed.

If I lived in Tahoe or the So Cal mountains where my grandma lives I wouldn't be that scared of 2 feet of snow either. Snow is fun! Yeah it's cold, but kids love it, and I'd take the kiddos for a walk in it. My 80 yr. old grandma doesn't leave her house because she does get snowed in, but seriously yeah the Mid Atlantic stuff does seem a little crazy.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/102028/the-tonight-show-with-conan-obrien-rain-freakout

[bubbaray]

I think snow is relative.

Where you live, 2' of snow isn't a huge deal b/c people are used to it and the city has the equipment to deal with it.

Here, 1" of snow shuts the city down. I'm not kidding. The snow we get here is more like slush that freezes. It is hard to plow b/c it turns into solid, skating rink ice very very quickly. Plus, the city does not have the equipment to actually plow the streets b/c we get snow so very rarely.

On top of that, most people here have never driven in the snow. If they do drive, they are typically using summer tires, which any fool should know do not work in the snow.

The rest of the country always jokes about our area when we get snow. But, honestly, DH and I are both seasoned snow drivers and *we* don't like driving in the snow here because of the other morons on the road.

[JTsMom]

Nope. We just shut down for a half an inch about a month ago.

[lizzywednesday]

Yes, we can handle it, but the newscasters love to create a panic!

I haven't checked out the Philly news yet (they are more laughable than the NY news) so I don't know what they're doing now.

BTW, it's overcast but there's no precip by me. (I say at 12:30pm ...)

[JBaxter]

People here are stocking up like they wont be out for WEEKS. Its nuts Im in westernish maryland and we can handle a foot without to much issue but 2 ft ( which they are calling for right now) is a lot. the grocery store was NUTS yesterday

[mommylamb]

:waving4: mid-Atlantic over here and as you know, we can't handle it.

I grew up in Connecticut and went to college and spent my early 20s in Boston, and it was a whole different thing there. But, the plows were real plows and the states budgeted for snow. The plow that does my street is a pickup truck with a shovel strapped to the front. It makes one pass that is down the middle of the street, so there is tons of snow on either side in the middle of the street. So, we basically have to shovel half the street.

Also, I just like to b!tch about snow :).

[Ceepa]

Absolutely. Schools stay open with delays, people go to work and the grocery store shelves stay stocked. I think it's funny that there are areas of the country that get significant snow every single winter yet still implode when faced with a storm.

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

No. We have never gotten snow where we live in the 10 years I've lived here. It does snow occasionally at the top of the mountains.

I have no idea what we would do if it did snow! :)

[lchang25000]

Absolutely. Schools stay open with delays, people go to work and the grocery store shelves stay stocked. I think it's funny that there are areas of the country that get significant snow every single winter yet still implode when faced with a storm.

:yeahthat:

[mommylamb]

I think it's funny that there are areas of the country that get significant snow every single winter yet still implode when faced with a storm.

To be fair, the last time the DC area got 2 snowstorms as big as the two we've had this year was 1888 (or so said the radio this morning). I've lived in this area for 9 years now and there is only 1 other snowstorm that came close to the two we've had (are having currently) this year, and that was 2003. Of course back then DH and I lived in an apartment in the city and didn't have a car to worry about, a driveway to shovel, or a child to entertain.

[egoldber]

I think it's funny that there are areas of the country that get significant snow every single winter yet still implode when faced with a storm.

In fairness to the mid Atlantic, we are looking at snowfall totals this winter that haven't been seen in 100 years. :)

But when we lived in Iowa, sure, we got 8-12 inches all the time and it was no big deal. Schools wouldn't even be delayed.

But two feet of snow in 24 hours, even in Iowa, would have been a big deal, especially with driving winds.

[khalloc]

Yes, I am in Vermont and snow doesnt really phase people much. No one is mobbing the grocery stores, people are still going to work. Schools might be cancelled but thats about it.

[StantonHyde]

Snow is nuthin' here--we have 4 wheel drive, the plows are decent. You go. Heck, you go skiing if you can get up the canyon!!

[arivecchi]

The plow that does my street is a pickup truck with a shovel strapped to the front. Oh man! You are in trouble. :)

[mecawa]

Yeah, my area can handle it, it's not fun, but they get the roads cleared, for two feet they would close the schools for a day but that's it. We've seen MUCH worse though.

[egoldber]

Oh man! You are in trouble

That is what MOST neighborhoods here are plowed with. We don't even have enough real plows to keep the Beltway clear.

[bubbaray]

Yup, no real plows here either. They strap on a blade to anything that they can (dump trucks, front end loaders, pickup trucks). They also got these salt/salt solution things that they strap onto the back of some of the trucks, which did seem to help (but only if the temp stays in a certain range).

Yeah, a pickup truck with a blade really does squat when the ice is 3" thick and you could play ice hockey on the roads.

[Ceepa]

One of the driving detriments in the DC area is the way weather is treated like an event by the media. The news (ALL news: radio, TV, print, online) reports and forecasts and updates and interviews and scrolls along the bottom and podcasts and broadcasts from snow plow lots, grocery stores, Costco, schools, Metro, sidewalks in front of businesses, airports, hospitals, salt warehouses, news building terraces, etc. If someone living in the area was calm before the hype they're filled with growing anxiety about the "Storm of the Century". I don't even live there and I'm guessing they have the big news graphic created and emblazoned across the screen every eight minutes. It's bizarre.

OK. The snow will fall and schools and businesses will close and then ... what? The digging out will be slow and tedious. But it is for every snowstorm. I don't understand the inherent hysteria.

[egoldber]

I dunno. Most people I know aren't hysterical. But I don't know anyone buying 4 dozen eggs and 80 rolls of TP either. :ROTFLMAO:

Part of it is we JUST dug out from the last one. Seriously, there were still major snowpacks on the Beltway 2 weeks after the last storm.

The media is having a field day.

ETA: And they are now saying 20-28".

[fortato]

I live in NH and 2' of snow is a lot, but definitely just a PITA.
McDonald's did a commercial for their coffee recently where these 2 New England fishermen were doing word association and one of them said "5 Inches of snow" and the other guy just shakes his head and says "Dustin'."

It's so true. There has to be over 4" of snow for school to be DELAYED...

I'm actually jealous of this "Snowpocalypse" that's coming down south. I am dying for a nasty snow storm.....


OH- and ask us New Englanders what happens when a Hurricane is expected. We go ape**** crazy too.

[JBaxter]

I think alot of people are storm AND superbowl party shopping too

[mommylamb]

Oh man! You are in trouble. :)

During the last storm, the "plow" got stuck on my street and some of my neighbors had to dig it out :tongue5:.

[mommylamb]

OH- and ask us New Englanders what happens when a Hurricane is expected. We go ape**** crazy too.

Sadly, we go ape**** crazy over hurricanes too. We just like to get all worked up down here in DC. :)

I remember Hurricane Gloria when I was a kid in Connecticut... my parents filled our bathtub with water because we had a well and when we lost power (which we often did) we had no water, so we had to scoop it into the toilets in order to flush.

[rprav8r]

The plows here that are on the highway are dump trucks (filled w/salt or sand) with a blade on front. The plows that do the secondary roads are usually contract guys, often construction or farm equipment with a blade. For the storm in Dec, the first "plow" we saw (three days after the snow started) was a grader. Last weekend, we got a John Deere tractor with a blade.

Back when I lived in Mass, they had these awesome huge plows with gargantuan blades that would go three across down the freeway. That kind of snow removal equipment simply does not exist AT ALL here. Also, they had special little plows for sidewalks. Again, those don't exist here at all. So it's impossible to get out for a walk, even with an AT stroller, after more than a few inches. I took DD out in the BOB last weekend in about 6" of powder, and it was pretty tough going.

Also, we've been pretty lucky here that until this storm, all the snow has been pretty powdery this season. This storm has more typical snow - heavy, wet, mixed with ice. It brings down trees and powerlines, and trees onto powerlines. So power outages are pretty likely. But the roads aren't plowed well, so the utility trucks can't get out to fix them, so if the power goes out, we can expect it to be out for days. In 1996 my parents lost power for 5 days.

[fivi2]

I think snow is relative.

Where you live, 2' of snow isn't a huge deal b/c people are used to it and the city has the equipment to deal with it.

Here, 1" of snow shuts the city down. I'm not kidding. The snow we get here is more like slush that freezes. It is hard to plow b/c it turns into solid, skating rink ice very very quickly. Plus, the city does not have the equipment to actually plow the streets b/c we get snow so very rarely.

On top of that, most people here have never driven in the snow. If they do drive, they are typically using summer tires, which any fool should know do not work in the snow.

The rest of the country always jokes about our area when we get snow. But, honestly, DH and I are both seasoned snow drivers and *we* don't like driving in the snow here because of the other morons on the road.

This what happens in my city also. Actually, every city I have ever lived it.

[kijip]

I think snow is relative.

Where you live, 2' of snow isn't a huge deal b/c people are used to it and the city has the equipment to deal with it.

Here, 1" of snow shuts the city down. I'm not kidding. The snow we get here is more like slush that freezes. It is hard to plow b/c it turns into solid, skating rink ice very very quickly. Plus, the city does not have the equipment to actually plow the streets b/c we get snow so very rarely.

On top of that, most people here have never driven in the snow. If they do drive, they are typically using summer tires, which any fool should know do not work in the snow.

The rest of the country always jokes about our area when we get snow. But, honestly, DH and I are both seasoned snow drivers and *we* don't like driving in the snow here because of the other morons on the road.

This is essentially the same in Seattle. People are freakin-g scary in the snow here. Horribly, horribly scary. I don't go anywhere if I can help it for my own darn protection. My husband is a very skilled snow driver as where he grew up, the plowed snow was piled 4-7 feet high on playgrounds all winter, barely melting. They never shut school unless the utilities were knocked out at the school. Here, they have to plan to have kids in the gyms in case the parents can't get there in 6 inches of snow. And school is regularly closed if we get more than an inch.

Main deal is that places that don't get snow have municipalities and individuals wholly unprepared for even a little snow. We have not had any snow this year. Last year we had a "lot" for Seattle. Finn was born in it.

[nov04]

We get lots of snow here in Eastern Ontario. I think its handled well and ppl just keep on with their lives, just with more caution.

[TwinFoxes]

I think alot of people are storm AND superbowl party shopping too

Exactly! I may or may not be having a Super Bowl party on Sunday. So I had to buy chili fixins, plus snacks and beer. It will probably end up being just DH and me, since our friends are coming from Balto.

I don't think people are panicked, but when your county tells you to have enough supplies to "shelter in place" for 3-5 days, I think people pretty much realize the plows ain't coming! (This was Arlington Co, not Fairfax). I didn't see anyone buying anything crazy, like 50 pound bags of rice and sugar. But if I can't make it to the grocery store for five days, I'd be screwed if I didn't stock up before hand (unless I wanted to eat lots of soup, pasta, and frozen veggies!)

You Chicagoans love to make fun of us here in DC. There's this guy here who moved in with his family last winter, and he made fun of us too. :)

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/01/28/on-a-snow-day-obama-disses-dc-recommends-flinty-chicago-toughness/

[BelleoftheBallFlagstaff]

Not as well as before. The state of AZ is in trouble almost as bad as CA. So with budget cuts, they aren't plowing some stretches of roads they used to. Like from here to the Grand Canyon.... Our 5' storm was so bad a City Council member with a CDL was driving a plow. The reduced budget means less plow drivers... We had roofs collapse the week before last and FEMA and the Nat'l Guard were called in, so that was a really bad storm. Under a foot and we are usually good. They call snow days at 5am, if roads aren't being plowed fast enough, or if it is very icy.

[arivecchi]

Exactly! I may or may not be having a Super Bowl party on Sunday. So I had to buy chili fixins, plus snacks and beer. It will probably end up being just DH and me, since our friends are coming from Balto.

I don't think people are panicked, but when your county tells you to have enough supplies to "shelter in place" for 3-5 days, I think people pretty much realize the plows ain't coming! (This was Arlington Co, not Fairfax). I didn't see anyone buying anything crazy, like 50 pound bags of rice and sugar. But if I can't make it to the grocery store for five days, I'd be screwed if I didn't stock up before hand (unless I wanted to eat lots of soup, pasta, and frozen veggies!)

You Chicagoans love to make fun of us here in DC. There's this guy here who moved in with his family last winter, and he made fun of us too. :)

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/01/28/on-a-snow-day-obama-disses-dc-recommends-flinty-chicago-toughness/ LOL! I remember that brouhaha.

[daniele_ut]

Snow is nuthin' here--we have 4 wheel drive, the plows are decent. You go. Heck, you go skiing if you can get up the canyon!!


:yeahthat: I can't even remember the last time we had a snow day from school and some of the ski areas here get 500 inches of snow a year.

[Indianamom2]

Yep, I'm in Northern Indiana (very close to the Michigan border) and at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, so we get massive amounts of lake effect snow in addition to system snows.

If we stopped for every couple of inches (or ten!) we'd be snowbound all winter and early spring. :D

However, I used to live in Delaware, so I've also been a part of the panic over a couple of inches. It's funny now....

[SnuggleBuggles]

Yep, no worries here. Plus, I live in a borough that is like 1.5 square miles and they have dedicated plows and salt for our little town. So, they keep our streets really, really nice. If it gets bad you know they are making the rounds and will be there in less than an hour. It's kind of a problem b/c my streets look great but the next borough over or inside the city limits it's a whole nother story.

Beth

[arivecchi]

May I suggest these snow plows to our DC friends?

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Ice-Storm-Warning-Chicago-weather-updates-80053922.html

:hysterical:

[egoldber]

Snow plow envy. ;)

We have some that size, but alas, not enough.

[mommylamb]

Snow plow envy. ;)

We have some that size, but alas, not enough.

:yeahthat:

[klwa]

NOPE! :) We've been shut down for most of the week because of 3" of ice/snow. :)

[maestramommy]

Yes! Which is what makes me so crazy about these snowstorms. They are going to the WRONG PLACE!!!!!:hopmad::crying:

[MamaKath]

No. While we get snow, the budget and tools for removal are pretty minimal. When we lived in North Jersey, it took close to 5 feet for things to close for multiple days. Here it doesn't take nearly that much. Plus the structure of government here is more county based vs town based. In a town based plan each town would have to deal with their own snow removal. County based it is a few trucks for the whole county and some of the counties are fairly large with some fairly remote areas in them. So no we can't handle it well!

[maestramommy]

Back when I lived in Mass, they had these awesome huge plows with gargantuan blades that would go three across down the freeway. That kind of snow removal equipment simply does not exist AT ALL here. .

Yes, that is what we have here. One morning I had to drive to a doc's appt with all 3 kids, in the middle of a snowstorm. I waited for 3 months for this appt so I wasn't going to cancel or reschedule. I took the Pathfinder and drove with 4wd engaged the entire way. I got lucky coming home because I ended up following this 3 way plow system. It took forever, but it felt great and I just had to keep singing stupid songs so Laurel wouldn't scream:p

[bubbaray]

I :heartbeat: seeing the three-plow system. I've only ever seen it on highways here, ones far outside our metro area towards the mountains. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to see them -- like they are taking care of me (even if they are travelling in the opposite direction).

[daisymommy]

Nope. I'm here in Virginia, in an area where it literally takes a full week for them to clear the roads enough for people to go to work. Heaven help you if your'e injured and need to get to a hopsital, or run out of food.

I went mega-grocery shopping yesterday because I knew it would be awhile before I could get back again, and all 24 lanes were open at Wegmans, 6 people deep per lane. People were pushing and running into each other with their carts, grabbing stuff off the shelf like it was the end of the world. I had to put Hannah in the shopping cart along with Andrew just so she didn't get run over. It was a total mad house!

School was cancelled for today (when the storm is supposed to START...hasn't even snowed yet) and Monday already. Crazy!

[alirebco]

The other thing that is tricky in the DC area is that the temps go above freezing and then refreeze, creating even more of a mess. In Chicago and other places in the Midwest and West, that's normally not the issue. We tend to deal with more icy snow then the lovely powdery stuff.

Plus, MD and VA are already over their budgets for snow removal this year. We barely have any plows so people normally are stuck for a couple of days in a big snow storm - I'm not talking about less than a foot of snow.

I'm hearing totals of almost 3 feet in my area which is a lot of snow. When the snow is taller than my child, that's a lot of snow!

[mommylamb]

Nope. I'm here in Virginia, in an area where it literally takes a full week for them to clear the roads enough for people to go to work. Heaven help you if your'e injured and need to get to a hopsital, or run out of food.


A pregnant friend of mine is due today...

[maestramommy]

You Chicagoans love to make fun of us here in DC./ (http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/01/28/on-a-snow-day-obama-disses-dc-recommends-flinty-chicago-toughness/)

I always laugh when I see this statement because I remember during that huge snowy winter of '78? 79? There was snow everywhere, and Mayor Bilandic got ousted by Jane Byrne. The biggest issue was that snow wasn't removed in a timely manner, and she harped on that during the entire election. We had a mock election in my class, and Jane Byrne won merely on that one issue:p

[fortato]

Sadly, we go ape**** crazy over hurricanes too. We just like to get all worked up down here in DC. :)

I remember Hurricane Gloria when I was a kid in Connecticut... my parents filled our bathtub with water because we had a well and when we lost power (which we often did) we had no water, so we had to scoop it into the toilets in order to flush.

I remember when Hurricane Gloria was coming... my mom and I went to the supermarket, and there was no bread or bottled water on the shelves... so we bought the real essentials, Dove Bars, (Back when they were big!) Doritos, and Pepsi.... plus other crap, but I remember those three things....

[WatchingThemGrow]

Not at all. 6-7" meant that we had the weekend with snow falling, then 3 days off school, then a delayed opening. Sadly, all our "snow" right now is just rain. Waaah. We had so much fun sledding, staying home and nesting, etc.

[srkaplan]

People here are stocking up like they wont be out for WEEKS. Its nuts Im in westernish maryland and we can handle a foot without to much issue but 2 ft ( which they are calling for right now) is a lot. the grocery store was NUTS yesterday

That always cracks me up! I'm in Boston, where we certainly are able to handle a significant storm, and people are out and about right away after, if not during, the snow. Anytime there is a storm predicted to be more than a few inches, people mob the grocery stores stocking up as though they are going into a bomb shelter for months!!

[hellokitty]

Yeah, my area can handle it, it's not fun, but they get the roads cleared, for two feet they would close the schools for a day but that's it. We've seen MUCH worse though.

:yeahthat:

[HIU8]

I just heard 30 inches. Channel 9 has been on-air supposedly since noon giving up to the nanosecond play by plays.

I grew up here. However, I learned how to drive in the snow in upstate NY during college. Heck, if you didn't drive in the snow you didn't go out from October to April basically. I won't drive in the snow here unless I absolutely have to. The main reason is that we get more icing than snow usually AND a great deal of the area is made up of transient folks so you get a mix of people who can and cannot drive in the snow. I'm more afraid of being hit by someone who doesn't know what they are doing.

[Tinkerbell313]

I am in the bullseye of the storm here in VA and have lived here for the past 10 years. I have also lived in Boston, NYC and CT (where I spent the first 30 years of my life). It snows more here in the I81 corridor than it does in CT. This area just does not want to invest in the snow equipment nor the snow removal. They say they are not use to the snow here...I am not sure why they say that because they certainly get more than enough here.

And the school systems have snow routes...I don't understand...if they have snow routes (to keep the busses off of the more treachorous back dirt and moutain roads), then use them. My parents would have to drive me to a bus stop on days its would snow.

Last week, we were closed because of flooding. Some of the roads by the Shenandoah river get flooded (fair enough...it is a river). But we are only talking about 2%of our county roads). There are alternate roads the busses can take...and we even have flood routes for the busses.

Ok..thank you for letting me vent.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I understand the hoarding a bit more nowadays after living through a crippling ice storm in NC a few years back. The city was absolutely shut down for days. Even if you could drive on ice, you couldn't drive down roads because there were down live wires and trees in the road. Unless you were within walking distance to something that was open, you were screwed.

Plus, one time we had been gone for 2 weeks and drove home during a blizzard. Of course we were out of perishables and I hadn't really stocked up on anything. We were snowed in for 2-3 days under a lot of snow. We were down to eating the dregs of our pantry (but, of course, we didn't starve, just wasn't ideal :)).

Beth

[lizzywednesday]

No. While we get snow, the budget and tools for removal are pretty minimal. When we lived in North Jersey, it took close to 5 feet for things to close for multiple days. ...

EXACTLY!

I grew up in northwest NJ (Passaic Cty) and I would gauge how bad the conditions were by whether or not our main drag (which is a very steep grade over a mountain) was closed.

It was only bad if the main drag closed.

It's only been "bad" like that a couple of times in my memory.

But ... down where I live now, although we're still in NJ, it's SO different! I insist they don't have a clue how to plow, salt or sand, which is probably true, considering how mild the last several winters have been!

[MelissaTC]

I am totally LOLing here because we got 3 inches of snow last Friday/Saturday and life resumed again Wednesday!!! Does that tell you anything? :)

[Twoboos]

I live in NH and 2' of snow is a lot, but definitely just a PITA.
:yeahthat: I'm in MA and it's par for the course. But still, the tv people always make it sound like you may be living in an igloo for days. There was a storm the other day, we literally got 1/2in, and the news station website had the hr-by-hr snow totals. PUH-LEEEESE!!

McDonald's did a commercial for their coffee recently where these 2 New England fishermen were doing word association and one of them said "5 Inches of snow" and the other guy just shakes his head and says "Dustin'."

OT, but I love these commercials w/the two fishermen. They crack me up. I am partial to "Wor-chester?" "Wistah!" My old stompin' grounds! :D

[SpaceGal]

We get a lot of snow here in Central NY, schools might be delayed or cancelled but most grown ups still proceed on.

[vludmilla]

I guess we can handle the snow (NYC suburb). We definitely have school closures for snow sometimes but it is not so unusual to have snow that everyone freaks out at the thought of a blizzard.

[ThreeofUs]

Great Lakes, here. And it takes a good foot of snow, falling in a couple hours, to close anything. If the plows can stay in front of it, nothing closes unless we're talking ~4 feet or so. We always have an inch or two of snow on the roads in the winter. And sometimes in fall and spring, too.

I grew up in Maryland and DC, though, and well remember the week they shut down for in '79. Heck, we had to shovel out our street, 'cause the snowplows couldn't make it through. It's strange being in a place that's so very different and remembering the panic back east over even small amounts of snow on the way.

[niccig]

HELL NO! They can't even handle an inch of rain! Check out this Conan O Brien skit, it's SOOO true, it makes me ill just thinking about it. We get breaking news for a rain storm

http://www.hulu.com/watch/102028/the-tonight-show-with-conan-obrien-rain-freakout

Yep, it is crazy here. It's raining now, not hard and not a thunderstorm, but the local news channel has a report titled "Storm Watch"...mmm, it's a rain shower, it's not a storm.

Nothing is designed to cope with it though. The gutters are overflowing within a couple of hours.

[boogiemom]

Yep, I'm in Northern Indiana (very close to the Michigan border) and at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, so we get massive amounts of lake effect snow in addition to system snows.

If we stopped for every couple of inches (or ten!) we'd be snowbound all winter and early spring. :D

However, I used to live in Delaware, so I've also been a part of the panic over a couple of inches. It's funny now....

Hmmmmm...now I'm curious....I'm just over the border in Niles,MI......

We're doing a bit of chuckling at the level of panic. :)

[KrisM]

I'm near Detroit now and 2' would slow things down for a bit and likely our schools would close, but I'm in a big township with a large rural population and it will take a bit to get all those roads cleared for the busses.

I lived in the UP for 8 years and nothing shut them down. Seriously, we'd get 24" overnight and we'd have class the next day. The only time I remember school being canceled was when someone robbed the bank and took a hostage and it was snowing pretty hard. The police surrounded his car and shot out his tires and there was a standoff overnight. Since all of downtown was closed for that, nothing got plowed and we didn't have class.

But, where I lived we got 250+ inches of snow yearly and it was no big deal to get a couple feet overnight.

ETA: a pickup with a snowplow plows our subdivision here. They don't do main roads, but that's what people who do this as a winter job use. No issues at all.

[trales]

I am so jealous, as long as the snow stopped falling by about 3 am, we would still have school.


Dammit, we are supposed to get the snow, not you, it ours, ours, ours, give it back.

[crl]

Umm, no. San Francisco would be completely and totally shut down if it snowed here. And rightfully so. I've lived in Colorado and Missouri and I can deal with snow, but when you live where the city doesn't have snow plows, salt, no one has snow tires, no one knows how to drive on it--no way could this city handle snow. And DC is kind of the same (used to live there), the area just doesn't get enough snow on a regular basis to make it worth it to invest in the equipment necessary to keep the roads open when there's a couple of feet on the ground.

Catherine

[Indianamom2]

Hmmmmm...now I'm curious....I'm just over the border in Niles,MI......

We're doing a bit of chuckling at the level of panic. :)

I'm in South Bend. I visit the Lowes up in Niles quite frequently! I didn't know anyone else here was that close.

The panic is funny because I talked to my mom (a teacher) and school was let out early and not a flake of snow had fallen yet. Even though I grew up there, it wasn't that bad...we at least had to have snow on the ground before school was cancelled.

[MamaKath]

So this is how they are plowing for this storm...

[MontrealMum]

Yep :) Snow is a way of life here. Snow tires are now mandatory on all vehicles for a certain part of the year. We get snow from potentially early Nov. thru early May. Montreal has a larger snow-clearing budget than any other North American city.

Rather than plow snow - as in, over to the side of the road and onto lawns - they use a grader to suck it up into large dump trucks and take it away. There's just too much to plow like they do in most places. They used to dump it in the river but the salt was polluting it, so they now have official snow dumps scattered throughout the city. There's a yearlong manmade glacier because of the snow dump in one of the nearby municipalities.

We're actually having a pretty disappointing year snowwise...so I second Tracy...send it up here :)

Here's a picture of the snow removal trucks lined up outside our house back in early Dec...

[egoldber]

Ugh jealous. They made a big snow mound across the street instead of in front of our driveway (for a change), but they also got nowhere NEAR the end of our driveway, so there is a small-ish mound at the end of the driveway left in the wake of the plow.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I take it back. This morning there were about 10" on our street. They had come by several times last night but quit at some point. Areas near by declared states of emergency which allowed them access to our equipment. It's better now so I guess I shouldn't complain. :)

Beth

[mommylamb]

I think we've got to be nearing the 2 foot mark. It looks like more than what we got in December. DH has been out to shovel a couple of times and is about to go back outside.

[maestramommy]

I am so jealous, as long as the snow stopped falling by about 3 am, we would still have school.


Dammit, we are supposed to get the snow, not you, it ours, ours, ours, give it back.

:hysterical::heartbeat:

[egoldber]

I don't know about official totals, but at our house we certainly got a lot more than we got in December, and it's still snowing!!!!!

I'm wondering when FCPS is going to be open again. :dizzy:

[ezcc]

Just have to post a note for all you smug new englanders- just went for a walk (in Baltimore City) and saw a car abandoned in a drift with Massachusetts plates and a car from New York spinning out. Not too many other cars on the road.

[mommylamb]

Just have to post a note for all you smug new englanders- just went for a walk (in Baltimore City) and saw a car abandoned in a drift with Massachusetts plates and a car from New York spinning out. Not too many other cars on the road.

:hysterical: My laughing is at the care stuck in the drift, not the one spinning out. The spinning out one... well you better have a good reason for going out in this, but I feel sorry for those people.

[mommylamb]

I don't know about official totals, but at our house we certainly got a lot more than we got in December, and it's still snowing!!!!!

I'm wondering when FCPS is going to be open again. :dizzy:

FWIW, I'm betting we'll have a federal shutdown Monday. There's no way DC can clear this much snow in time for work Monday morning.

[KrisM]

This is the machine that plowed where I lived in the UP:
http://www.houghtoncountyroads.org/gallery/44.jpg

And, this is what they do with the snow:
http://www.mtu.edu/carnival/gallery/2010/results/phi-kappa-tau.jpg (http://www.mtu.edu/carnival/gallery/2010/results/)

[Momof3Labs]

I lived in Indianapolis for four years after college, and every year in December, they would announce that they had already blown through the season's snow removal budget. They would talk about how they just aren't equipped to handle snow in any volume - and it showed, with schools shut down for a week following a foot of snow. Having grown up near Chicago (and going to college in Iowa), I wasn't at all used to this. And for the budget to be blown, and the same comments made, every single year - well, someone out there wasn't paying much attention, methinks.

Two feet of snow would impact the Chicago suburbs for probably a day, I'd guess, assuming that there aren't other complications (ice, thawing and freezing, continued snowfall).

[egoldber]

This is the machine that plowed where I lived in the UP:

Well, what else is there to do in the winter in the UP? ;)

[KrisM]

Well, what else is there to do in the winter in the UP? ;)

True :). We had snowmobile parking on campus even.

I miss the snow.

[MontrealMum]

Those are the sorts of plows we have for the city here too Kris. But they blow it into trucks. On the highways here and in ON they have the 2 or 3 abreast fleets talked about above.

[KrisM]

Those are the sorts of plows we have for the city here too Kris. But they blow it into trucks. On the highways here and in ON they have the 2 or 3 abreast fleets talked about above.

They would blow it into trucks often as well and take it to the airport to dump it.

No highways, so no big trucks like that. Heck, when I first lived there, it was 88 miles to a red-yellow-green traffic light :).

[MontrealMum]

Heck, when I first lived there, it was 88 miles to a red-yellow-green traffic light :).

The UP is it's own special place ;) I've been there a few times, but never in winter. It's something I'd LOVE to do!!! My cousin went to Lake Superior State and he has quite a few interesting stories. We rented a place in the Paradise/Whitefish Pt. area a few years back and unfortunately DH didn't listen to me that we should stock up in the Detroit or at least Saginaw area. We ended up driving an hour to the Soo that first night for groceries!

[alirebco]

We have 3 feet here in my MD suburbs. Really, 3 feet of snow wouldn't affect you guys at all? I find that a bit hard to believe!

My husband did tell me that if he was still living in CO, they would just walk on over to the ski lift with this amount of snow - only 60 feet away from their house.

[fortato]

We have 3 feet here in my MD suburbs. Really, 3 feet of snow wouldn't affect you guys at all? I find that a bit hard to believe!

My husband did tell me that if he was still living in CO, they would just walk on over to the ski lift with this amount of snow - only 60 feet away from their house.

For maybe a day or two... but it wouldn't cripple us!

[alirebco]

For maybe a day or two... but it wouldn't cripple us!

See I think that by Monday, things will be mostly fine, which will be a day or two considering that it just stopped snowing here.

[KrisM]

The UP is it's own special place ;) I've been there a few times, but never in winter. It's something I'd LOVE to do!!! My cousin went to Lake Superior State and he has quite a few interesting stories. We rented a place in the Paradise/Whitefish Pt. area a few years back and unfortunately DH didn't listen to me that we should stock up in the Detroit or at least Saginaw area. We ended up driving an hour to the Soo that first night for groceries!

I went to Michigan Tech, in Houghton. Loved it. I got there in 1988 and it's a lot different now. The big thing was to drive to Marquette for Taco Bell - it was 99 miles away. Nuts. Not much around Paradise, is there?

When Lake Superior freezes, it's really neat. It looks like it froze in waves.

I have fond memories of going sledding in shorts, because it was 65 deg and there was still a foot of snow on the ground in May!

[KrisM]

We have 3 feet here in my MD suburbs. Really, 3 feet of snow wouldn't affect you guys at all? I find that a bit hard to believe!

My husband did tell me that if he was still living in CO, they would just walk on over to the ski lift with this amount of snow - only 60 feet away from their house.

In Detroit, it definitely would slow/stop things for a day or so.

In the UP, no it wouldn't. But, there aren't suburbs or big populated areas and people would just go out on their snowmobiles. My freshman year in college, we got 333 inches (over 27 feet) of snow that season, so they are used to it. And, that 333 did not set a record.

[Twoboos]

For maybe a day or two... but it wouldn't cripple us!

:yeahthat:

The weathermen would be apologizing to all the kids since they'd still have school Monday - plenty of time to cleanup over the weekend!

[MontrealMum]

We have 3 feet here in my MD suburbs. Really, 3 feet of snow wouldn't affect you guys at all? I find that a bit hard to believe!

.
Nope. We had at least that much 2 weeks ago before our odd mid-winter thaw. They'd just plow and haul it away. Then sand or spread gravel, since it's usually too cold for salt to do any good. You dig yourself out if you use street parking. You dress warmly and wear high boots. And you get used to driving in it.

I've lived here through 15 winters now and the city's been crippled by weather twice in that time. During the Ice Storm of '98 which other NEers, and SW Ontarians will remember (and that was due to danger from falling ice, branches and lack of power), and about 4 years ago when there was a drastic thaw/freeze cycle that made some of the more mountainous streets too slippery to walk up and down. They closed the two hillside universities to classes for the upper buildings for that one and the fire department installed ropes to help people get down from the Law and Med. Schools. But life went on as usual in the rest of the city.

If you think Quebec's bad, you should see pictures of Newfoundland in the winter. It's so cold there that they don't plow anywhere near all the way down to the pavement. The cars just drive in the ruts made by heavier vehicles and are probably driving in 1-2 ft. of snow by the end of winter. Which is in May.

Here's a pic of our street last month...the car in the foreground pulled out of that spot later that day. It's not unusual to have to park in snowbanks like that, or to have to dig yourself a space before pulling in.

[MontrealMum]

I went to Michigan Tech, in Houghton. Loved it. I got there in 1988 and it's a lot different now. The big thing was to drive to Marquette for Taco Bell - it was 99 miles away. Nuts. Not much around Paradise, is there?

When Lake Superior freezes, it's really neat. It looks like it froze in waves.

I have fond memories of going sledding in shorts, because it was 65 deg and there was still a foot of snow on the ground in May!

Yeah, Paradise is pretty deserted...which is why we'd chosen it. I guess poor DH - who is Canadian, mind you - did not *get* that Northern MI and the UP can be just as remote as parts of Canada. We're going back when DS is a little older :boogie:

I've seen Lake Michigan in the winter lots since my dad lives on the lakeshore. It's pretty eerie to hear the "waves" still rolling under the ice which isn't quite totally frozen. It sounds like a giant slushie.

North of here where they get even more snow, and SE of here in the mountains, they have routes called "skidoo highways". It's not just for fun - it's necessary. You can take your skidoo from home and pull it right into the grocery store.

[gatorsmom]

Ugh jealous. They made a big snow mound across the street instead of in front of our driveway (for a change), but they also got nowhere NEAR the end of our driveway, so there is a small-ish mound at the end of the driveway left in the wake of the plow.

I remember in the years before hand-pushed snow-blowers my mother would get so mad at the local snowplow. She'd spend hours shoveling the driveway and said that it was always as she was finishing up that the snowplow would come along and leave a mound at the end of the driveway. I remember her complaining about it every year. LOL