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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2019 20:41:04 GMT -5
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Post by Clipper on Nov 22, 2019 9:31:26 GMT -5
It looks like a great year for skiers and snowmobilers, but is 120 inches of snow really that unusual for the area? I guess I don't find it that earth shattering having lived mostly North and West of the city for most of my adult life, where snowfall is normally heavier.
Of course heavy snowfall brings a bigger problem for urban areas and brings about snow emergencies and problems for the city's crews to clear the streets quickly. It is that time of year. That time that I used to dread. I am not a winter sports person. In my younger days I snowmobiled and spent time sliding downhill on a toboggan with my kids, but as I aged I grew to dislike those days when the wind was blowing the snow around and I had to button my jacket up tight under my chin, and pull a ski hat down over my ears.
I chuckle when I think about that amount of snow ever falling here. Last winter we had one snowfall that totaled about 10-12 inches, with a bit more falling in the mountains. It was called a "blizzard" by tv weather persons, and it brought everything to a dead stop for a couple of days. Some schools didn't open for a week. The grocery store shelves emptied a day or so before the storm, and nobody moved for a couple of days during and after. I went to the store the morning after the snowstorm and there was hardly anyone in the store and only a very few cars in the parking lot.
My neighbor, who is a Tennessee native and has never been up North was fascinated by some of the stories I told him about REAL snowstorms, such as the storm that occurred when I lived in Point Rock and had to exit the house through the cellar door on the back of the house and shovel my way to the front door because the snow was drifted almost to the top of the storm door, preventing us from exiting the house through the front door.
I do miss the beauty of a freshly fallen snow, and watching the deer come across Kayuta lake and up the bank to eat from the feeder in our front yard, with large fluffy flakes falling, but I don't miss the driving in it, or the nasty trash filled snowbanks when the snow melts, and darned sure don't miss bundling up to run the snow blower at 6 in the morning so I could get out of the driveway to go to work.
In the North you suffer through that cold and snow, and here in the South we suffer through sweltering summer days and tornado watches. I get cold now if the temperatures drop into the 40's and often wear a sweater to watch television. I think part of it is that I take a blood thinner, but I don't think I could take the cold Utica winters anymore. I would probably have to hibernate, haha.
It is a gloomy cool day here today with a steady drizzle and temperatures in the low 50's. It is supposed to drizzle on and off all day. A good day to hide in my workshop with some country tunes on the CD player and to make a little bit of "man glitter" (sawdust). I need to get some little truck and car shapes cut out on the scroll saw so I can get moving on getting some simple little toys built in time to get them painted and ready to donate to the Salvation Army and the local Sherriff's department for their toy drive. It is truly relaxing to roll down the overhead door, relax, turn on the music and leave the world outside the door. I can make a lot of the little toys and get a lot of cheap entertainment out of an 8 foot 2x10, and 8 foot 1x6, a couple of pieces of dowel, and some inexpensive little wooden wheels from Hobby Lobby.
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Post by BHU on Nov 22, 2019 12:52:53 GMT -5
Yep, we've had our share of brutal winters up here! I was in grade school during the storm of '66 so i dont remember much of it. What does stand out for me is the Christmas Day storm in I think 2001 or was it 2002 when we were nailed with over 2 feet of snow. I remember that around 11:00 a.m. it haden't even started to snow yet so i figured the storm would miss us. Wrong again! By 3 I couldn't get out of my driveway. We were all supposed to meet at my Mom's for dinner but nobody could get there. I lived about 4-5 blocks from her so about 6 I took a walk over to check on things & by the time i got there i looked like a snowman. I was renting an appt. at the time & the landlord was a stiff who wouldn't plow the driveway. Boy, did i bust my hump shoveling the next day! Memories.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Nov 22, 2019 13:07:12 GMT -5
Glad you are having fun. At least the days are gone when I had to watch the weather forecast and then decide how early I had to set my alarm so Barb could be at the hospital by 7.
120 inches of snow is above average but not off the charts and higher elevations always get more. I remember one year when our daughter had gone with the Girl Scouts to spend the weekend at one of the cabins at Camp Glengara near Camden. Of course there was an unexpected snowfall. She called the next day to say that they had found the car after an hour of probing the snowbanks but it would be a day or so before they could get out.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Nov 22, 2019 13:37:56 GMT -5
I lived in Duluth in the early 70s. Even though I was studying atmospheric physics I don't ever remember hearing the term "lake effect snow." Everyone understood the concept however. Wind came from the lake hit the 600 foot hillside of the city and dropped tons of snow. Barb worked nights then. Getting to work was never a problem. Getting home was sometimes.
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Post by Clipper on Nov 22, 2019 22:19:42 GMT -5
I know the feeling CB. More than once during the winter that I lived there I came in from Chicago, parked my truck at the Monson Bros. yard on the North shore, came back into the city and could not make it up the hill out of downtown to get to Pike Lake, Twig, and home. A couple of times I simply went back to the yard and slept in my tractor until the next morning. I could get into town on London Rd, but could not make the hill up to Miller Trunk on Trinity Rd. When we came from Chicago came into town from Wisconsin side and often with an empty trailer. When the wind blew off the lake and the roads were snowy crossing the high bridge from Superior into Duluth would also get your attention and sit a person up straight in their seat. One winter driving a semi in that part of the country and hauling paper out of Canada down into the Midwest was enough for me. The treacherous winter driving was not worth the pleasures of great fishing and beautiful scenery in the summer.
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