cellio: (lilac)
Monica ([personal profile] cellio) wrote2003-02-16 08:59 pm
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snow

Whee. Snow. Lots of snow. Lots of drivers who aren't quite sure what to do about that, too. We went out this afternoon to visit a sick friend and encountered a bunch of vehicles we decided to stay well away from. The one that was pointed at a 45-degree angle off, but moving straight (more or less), was particularly curious.

I'm not sure how much snow we currently have, but I think it's more than a foot (based on inspection of the front yard). The afternoon shovelling did not solve the problem, because snow is still falling, but it will be better than nothing. I have seen no plowed or salted roads. I wonder how much of a challenge it will be to get to work in the morning.
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geekosaur: orange tabby with head canted 90 degrees, giving impression of "maybe it'll make more sense if I look at it this way?" (Default)

[personal profile] geekosaur 2003-02-16 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Supposedly the plows are just finally getting out and around now. (I chose to enjoy it from inside the apartment instead of on the roads. :)

[personal profile] rectangularcat 2003-02-16 06:18 pm (UTC)(link)
If you were in Vancouver, the city would be closed. I think that they have a couple salt trucks and no snowploughs... talk about non-stereotypical Canada!

We have no snow on the mountains. I would gladly take some of yours to be able to ski in the local mountains. The upside of this is that it has been sunny this winter. When I moved to the Pacific Northwest in 98 that was the year of 89 days of rain in 90 days and the remaining day was cloudy...
cellio: (moon)

[personal profile] cellio 2003-02-16 08:06 pm (UTC)(link)
What's funny is all the relative newcomers to the city, who think the snow we've gotten this year is a freak occurrence. I've been here for a few decades; I think the last ten years or so have been the freak occurrence, and this year's snows resemble what I remember from before then. And maybe old age muddles the brain, but I really don't remember people making really big deals out of storms that dropped a foot over a day or two. They were noteworthy, sure, but you didn't shut down the city for them, or so I thought. And there tended to be some amount of snow on the ground for much of the winter -- not the snow-melt cycles we've been getting.

[identity profile] tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com 2003-02-16 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Tell me about it. You should hear the Brazillians at my office who've only been here four or five years. At least most of the other newcomers to Pittsburgh had some experience with snow (besides traveling to it to go skiing) before they moved here...

[identity profile] tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com 2003-02-16 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
The plows are out. Eldridge (which is not especially high priority) was most recently plowed hours ago. Although Pam (who didn't know about the storm and just got back, having left her Dad's in Youngstown around 6) couldn't tell.

Officially, we're not up to a foot yet, although there's a lot of drifting that's piling higher. The most recent forecasts are calling for 12-15 inches before this actually stops late tomorrow. The overwhelming consensus I've heard from the news is that Pittsburgh will be pretty well shut down for Monday. DC is even worse - they were calling for up to two feet earlier, and have generally been tweaking the numbers upward as the night goes on.

Now, if the weather forecast is to be believed, we drive hard into above-freezing temperatures Tuesday through Friday, so all of this promptly melts and hits the rivers. I haven't seen anyone doing that math out loud yet.

Snow math

[identity profile] magid.livejournal.com 2003-02-17 09:02 am (UTC)(link)
Depending on the kind of snow, the estimates I've seen are 8-10 inches of snow = 1 inch of rain. Not that a couple of inches of water aren't rather a lot in a short amount of time, but likely not flooding or anything, though I suppose it depends on your location.

Re: Snow math

[identity profile] estherchaya.livejournal.com 2003-02-17 09:31 am (UTC)(link)
When I was living in Boston (actually, Salem...17 miles North of Boston) a 4 or five years ago, we had one snowfall that was probably about a foot, maybe less. When it melted, the river (stream? who knows) near my apartment flooded so badly that you couldn't drive on the road within about half a mile in either direction of the river. It was a problem throughout the town.

I think that when snow melts it hits the waterways faster because it happens all at once instead of over the course of as many hours as it would take that much rain to fall. It also might be more concentrated in areas because of plowing and such. So my understanding is that although that much snow is equal to far less rain, it still poses more of a problem if it melts quickly.
geekosaur: orange tabby with head canted 90 degrees, giving impression of "maybe it'll make more sense if I look at it this way?" (Default)

[personal profile] geekosaur 2003-02-16 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
clamen@CS(weather.dc@CS)::
PennDOT has stopped salting because the snow is falling too fast

hm.
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