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Dee
02-11-2007, 04:19 AM
:eek:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/02/10/upstate-snow.html

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Communities along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario in upstate New York had to cope with more snow on Saturday as they were still trying to dig out from as much as 2½ metres dumped earlier in the week.

The U.S. National Weather Service issued a snow warning on Saturday that remains in effect until early Monday for parts of Jefferson, Lewis and Oswego counties.

Oswego County has been hit hardest by the storms, leading New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to declare a state of emergency and the New York National Guard to volunteer its help if needed.

Terry Grimshaw, the mayor of Mexico in Oswego County, north of Syracuse, told CBC News on Saturday that people in the village located are exhausted after a week of non-stop snow.

The village, which has a population of about 5,400, has received more than 254 centimetres (254 cm = 100 in).

"This has been a seven-day storm," Grimshaw said.

Grimshaw said he has not seen this much snow since 1966, when it snowed for about three days straight and the village received about 228 centimetres of snow.

People have not only been trying to dig out their vehicles but also climbing up onto their roofs to shovel off snow, Grimshaw said.

The buildup of snow caused the roofs of a garage and a family home to cave in, but Grimshaw said there were no injuries because nobody was home.

Steep snowbanks make sidewalks look like small canyons, while some people have so much snow on their front lawns that the mounds resemble ski hills, Grimshaw said.

"We just try to pile it up and move it away from the streets. But right now, we can't move it because there's so much of it," he said.

Meanwhile, schools cancelled classes for five days and people have been urged not to travel unless necessary.

The state transportation department has loaned several pieces of equipment to municipalities as crews work round the clock to remove snow from streets and sidewalks. The state was also expected to send workers to help in the removal.

Mexico has managed to clear snow from its streets but Grimshaw said it is getting more difficult to do so.

U.s. authorities said more than a week of bitterly cold temperatures has contributed to at least 20 deaths in the U.S, with five dead in Ohio, four in Illinois, four in Indiana, two in Kentucky, two in Michigan, and one each in Wisconsin, New York and Maryland.

paularoid
02-11-2007, 04:33 AM
Send some of that my way if you can. No,... send a LOT of it my way. We could sure use a bunch out here in the west or we're going to dry up, burn up, and blow away this coming summer. As much as I don't like winter these past few years I sure miss the resulting water that we don't have when we don't have much snow the previous winter.

I've been watching the coverage on the TV here lately and I've been thinking to myself that people my age and older out here are used to that much snow and we'd probably welcome it without a problem. People younger than me probably don't remember much about the copious quatities of snow that we -used- to get and we haven't had a real big storm since the winter of '83/'84 when it snowed 11 3/4 inches in one fell swoop overnight. I remember that storm because I was running a snowplow that night and I had to go back to each place five different times just to stay ahead of the stuff. Snowplows are great pieces of equipment but they don't do miracles. :p

I made between ten and eleven thousand dollars that winter, all in the space of a month.

Rickster
02-11-2007, 10:13 AM
Dee, The storm is coming my way! Should be here by Tuesday night.

Dee
02-11-2007, 10:40 AM
Hopefully by the time it arrives it will have spent most of itself, Rickster!


* * * * *

Rkitko
02-11-2007, 12:12 PM
Send some of that my way if you can. No,... send a LOT of it my way. We could sure use a bunch out here in the west or we're going to dry up, burn up, and blow away this coming summer. As much as I don't like winter these past few years I sure miss the resulting water that we don't have when we don't have much snow the previous winter.

Even with this dry weather over here in Washington, I believe we're on about average snowpack for the Cascades. But it could stand to rain a bit more. Guess you haven't gotten as much snow this year over yonder?

paularoid
02-11-2007, 01:14 PM
Even with this dry weather over here in Washington, I believe we're on about average snowpack for the Cascades. But it could stand to rain a bit more. Guess you haven't gotten as much snow this year over yonder?
Nope, not really. Right now it's raining lightly. I should point out that last year we weren't dry but that was due to a particularly wet spring. I hope (for the sake of our water table) that we have the same this year since we haven't gotten the snow. We've been in a serious drought for quite a few years and just one wet spring isn't going to end it. We'll need several wet years or winters of heavy snow pack to end it in any meaningful way. We could use all the snow we can get.

Rkitko
02-11-2007, 02:22 PM
hehe, speaking of the Cascades and Washington, did you ever hear about the proposal in the Washington state legislature that would split the state in two pieces right along the peaks of the Cascade range? I figure they'd call my part, "West Washington." But the eastern part doesn't really like being associated with Washington at all, since the politics are so different. Could they, perhaps, call it "Cascadaho"? ;)

Wildflower Fever
02-11-2007, 04:07 PM
Never thought I'd say it, but thank goodness for all the below average temps around here of late. Thank you as well for the bitter skin-biting wind chills. Because of these, 100" of snow is not possible here right now, only light fluffy dustings, occasionally.

DaveM
02-11-2007, 04:36 PM
It sounds as if they're getting the snow we used brag about....

Dee
02-11-2007, 04:38 PM
It's pretty much the same here in Ottawa Wildflower Fever, ironically.

The "Great White North" my foot! :p

Oak Kitten
02-11-2007, 06:58 PM
We are supposed to get sleet and freezing rain starting tomorrow afternoon and THEN snow on top of it in the DC area. A particularly nasty combination - especially heah in the south where people don't have a clue about how to drive in snow.

The only sane rule for driving in sleet and freezing rain is DON'T - but inevitably there will be those boneheads in their 4-wheel drive SUVs that will end up in ditches because they think the technology will transcend the absence of traction.

- Just a curmudgeonly weather-related rant from a transplanted New Englander.

Oak

Wildflower Fever
02-11-2007, 07:58 PM
Best Rush song, ever!:D This may sound odd to many, Dee, but I'll take this somewhat brief subzero temp. plunge with glee. There's less messy snow to deal with, as I'm sure in Ottawa you're familiar with "snirt": the lovely mass of petrified street ice heaves consisting of snow, sand, salt, and every imaginable street-level pollutant known to man. They also are the last remnants of winter to melt away. Besides, I've already got my "winter skin" back, and I can handle the cold.;)

Dee
02-12-2007, 02:36 AM
Snirt is a new one to me, Darlene. There are, however, always the vast amounts of too much road salt laying about. That stuff is murder to the planet (not to mention your boots).

"The conclusion is that road salts are toxic to the environment especially to streams, small lake ecosystems and to groundwater because of their widespread use and should be added to the List of Toxic Substances under CEPA. Road salts enter the environment from storage facilities, through their applications to roads, streets and sidewalks and through the disposal of waste snow." (source (http://www.ec.gc.ca/press/000811_b_e.htm))

Your winter driver comments made me chuckle, Oak. Every year we get the same sorts of fools who end up in ditches or worse when a bad patch of weather hits, like a comedy of errors. O humanity, where is thy common sense?

DaveM
02-12-2007, 02:22 PM
It's quite true, though--some people cannot seem to get it through their heads that having four wheel drive does not improve your braking capability one bit. When it gets slippery, you simply have to SLOW DOWN. Plenty of people ignore the speed limit, but ignoring gravity and inertia is a really bad idea.

My grandfather used to snort at four wheel drive trucks (this decades before they were "in"), invariably saying: "that just means you'll get stuck farther back in the woods".