Snow Emergency! Panic! Panic! The Sky is Falling!

[ellyssian]

Well, seeing how others are reporting decent snowfalls, I won't be too harsh on the forecasters. I will say that our Biggest Storm of the Year is, well, not. And, for the benefit of municipalities and their victimscitizens, I offer you:

Everett's Guide to Snowfall in the Northeast US

• 0-4" : Non-event. Shouldn't even be a minor inconvenience. Use care when driving, but if roads aren't clear you should get your tax money back, because they're obviously spending it on catering local government get-togethers instead of where it should be going.


• 4-8" : Snow. Nothing more, nothing less. Expect delays, but it should be cleared within a couple of hours.


• 8-16" : Moderate snowfall. Snow warning. Consider not going out unless you have to, and allow a four hour window for clearing things up.


• 16-24" : Heavy snowfall. Snow storm. Don't go out, especially if you own a 4WD or AWD vehicle and think you're so damn cool doing donuts down the road. Six to eight hours before things are cleared.


• 24"+ : Blizzard. Snow emergency. Definitely a day off, add another day for every foot of snow beyond.

Please note that this applies mostly to an area from Massachusetts down to Pennsylvania: Cow Hickshire and points north should adjust for more tolerance and areas to the south should panic somewhat sooner. Certain locations, such as Buffalo, should be ashamed if they consider anything under 3' as anything but "Snow," because, well, they should be used to it by now.

~ ~ ~

For the record, my experiences in January in Massachusetts have helped me verify that they are capable of keeping the roads cleaner in a rapid, healthy amount of snow than Pennsylvania is able to do with amounts barely above a dusting (this applies especially to Bethlehem - safer to drive through 6" in Boston than 1/2" in Bethlehem.)

~ ~ ~

Also, for the record, our Biggest Snowfall of the Year is currently maxed out at 1.5 inches or thereabouts. And it's melting.

Comments

[celticess.livejournal.com]

hehehe 24" is an emergency? My sister gets snow as much as 14-15 feet once or twice a year in northern BC. It's not really a big deal. 2ft of snow in central BC isn't a big deal normally they get 4 or so depending on where they live. Up to 2 ft isn't unheard of in spots in southern BC. But in the Vancouver area it's been unusual last 10 yrs or so to get more than 4-8 inches. We call it more of an emergency if the wind is 90KMPH or more with snow, hail or rain. Actually not quite an emergency but it does take out power for up to 4 hrs where I am and does do damage(tree's into houses, etc)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Yep - it has to scale for the area. I mean, in the Bahamas, an inch or so would be a disaster! =)

Which reminds me of the story about my aunt, touring an island in that balmy region, and, upon looking up and seeing long, mountainside driveways, she exclaimed something like: "Wow! Those must be a pain to shovel in the winter!"

Then again, she also pointed out the pelicans and said, "Look! Penguins!"

Truth.

[lab-rattus.livejournal.com]

Then there is the urban vs rural.

When I was living in rural Colorado lots of snow was great. I lived very close to Crested Butte, I was a skiing junkie. Lots of snow in Denver was bad, very bad.

Re: Truth.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

But lots of snow in Denver isn't an inch or two - and I'm pretty sure they can clear it relatively competently. More will take longer to clear, but I'm guessing they get some practice.

Bethlehem seems particularly bad - not sure what the yearly average snowfall is, but snow is frequent enough that they should have some ability to handle it. I can recall more than one time when I was living there that the neighbors had to go shovel our street because the city waits until it gets packed down before pretending to plow (packing it down further.) They also don't enforce overnight parking bans, if they even have any in place, so the streets aren't 100% cleared until temperatures warm enough to melt it.

To be fair on that point, the area was designed to house a lot of steel workers who were not expected to max out the very scarce off-street parking. I'm guessing the city was designed for 1 car for every 5 households. Not 5 adults, or driving age folks, but 5 entire households - these days, there are probably 2-4 cars per household, especially when a household consists of families with teenagers or groups of singles.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

We actually got a snowstorm - when it stopped this morning there was about 8 inches on the ground and a foot in places where the first several inches didn't melt as they hit the warmer ground.

I think you'd better amend the point at which SUVs should not go out. When I was out walking last night, the only vehicles I saw actually having trouble driving were SUVs. The worst was one that was spinning its wheels like crazy on the street around the corner from me. (At that point, maybe three or four inches had fallen, but there wasn't more than an inch anywhere on the streets.) I think actually knowing how to drive is a lot more useful than having a four-wheel drive vehicle most of the time around here. Having decent tires helps a lot too. What's the point of having four-wheel drive if your tires have no traction anyway?

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Well, for some drivers SUVs can go out at any point or time. Others, should just check themselves into the emergency room and save everyone else the trouble of being hit by them.

4WD/AWD on ice doesn't do help - or, as you say, with bald tires. All that means is you have four wheels spinning instead of two...

[nightwind292.livejournal.com]

I like telling the vermont school day joke myself.

if you've never heard it, I'll reply to your request with it.

Weather down here dosen't bother me, i have spent time in vermont, i've crashed in vermont...

I remember a night so cols (-30 below) that the dog refused to be brought in...
and you try telling a wolf hybred to do something he dosen't want to do if your not his alpha

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Go for the Vermont joke - don't think I've heard it!

[nightwind292.livejournal.com]

you have to be able to keep a deadpan face, completely strait line the entire way though..

snow, you really call this snow, i can't belive kids are getting off for (insert snow amount here). Why back in vermont, this would hardly count as snow. I mean it, you want to know how we tell if there's a snow day up north?

Well, you see, there's a caretaker on site at the school. How if he can''t see out the first floor windows, he gets a ten foot pole and his snowshows and walks off the balcony on the seccond floor. Then he starts poking arround with the pole.

At this point it's a one hour delay. And if he can't find the busses within that hour, they call off school.

Vermont can be substitued with any place further north enough that the audance would belive it.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we used to hardly ever get snow days in MA - they still call them less frequently than they do down here. For comparison, during the time Deb was up in MA with the kids (Sunday to Tuesday the following week): Watertown had more snow on more days than Lehighton; Watertown never cancelled or delayed school; Lehighton had 2 snow days and one 2 hour delay.

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

We had 3 snow days from the time I was in first grade until Sophmore year in highschool. Then we got a new super and we had 12 my last two years.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he might want to risk being sued less than the other guy - that and, over time, the likelihood of legal trouble from lawsuits has grown over the years.

The New American Dream: lawsuits galore!

hehe, t'aint nothing :)

[slamlander.livejournal.com]

The western slopes of the Sierra Nevada sometimes get 60 inches in a week :)

By the same token, 4WD owners mostly forget that everyone has 4W brakes. 4WD only get you up to brake failure point faster (car is going too fast for the brakes to work, think I-25 from Denver to Colorado Springs).

I used to take a "Garden of the Gods" to work, at MCI, regularly because no one else was on it. Of cours that could be because of the 2-3 inches of solid ice on the pavement. No, they never plowed that road and I was driving a CJ5 with studded 10.5x15 mud&snows, in 4w-high (4-low presents too much torsion to the tires and will break them loose).

Creeping through that canyon at 5-7 mph was a little slow but it sure was pretty and I didn't have to worry about some 1D10T'er hitting me with their ignorance (not that any car can hurt a CJ5 much).

Re: hehe, t'aint nothing :)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I bet you get a decent snowfall where you're at now... do they handle things better or worse (plowing/road clearing/treatment wise) over there?

I was out at Garden of the Gods once - nice area; not much snow when I was there (September? October? Maybe even March or April? Probably 1984 or 1985) Only a quick day visit, and some equipment-less climbing, but we spent a week or so in Colorado Springs.

Re: hehe, t'aint nothing :)

[slamlander.livejournal.com]

They get most of their snow between Jan and Mar with the worst bit in end Feb. :)

BTW,

[slamlander.livejournal.com]

we haven't had much snow here, only a few inches for the whole season. It's a warm winter.

Re: BTW,

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Mostly been warm here, too - there were a few days of pretty-close-to-t-shirt-and-shorts weather, lots of pretty good late-fall/early-spring bits, all wedged in by a handful of more seasonal cold stuff.

[dreadpiratetait.livejournal.com]

How sad that your "snow" fell so short!

I think we got somewhere around 20". I'm not totally sure though. But in the non-drift area it was somewhere between ankles and knees.

[opakele.livejournal.com]

In Washington state 2" is a panic. We have some snow plows and everybody Freaks out if they have to drive. They don't understand the basics of no applying brakes going up hills and slowing down. We have school outages frequently.

Coming from Kansas City, I curl my lip in contempt. But, I've been here 20 years now and may be an idiot myself.

[jenjiyana.livejournal.com]

philly people panic at 1 inch...they are start parking under I-95... because you know they needed to buy that SUV for city driving lol...at worst, south jersey driving which is basically philly with some more trees

[nhmetalchick.livejournal.com]

Whimps, whimps, WHIMPS I tell ya! Driving in 16-20 inches of snow is nothing! Oops sorry, I'm one of them there peeps that just toss the SUV into 4 wheel drive, although, I'm not an idiot and know that we still need to STOP, and that when driving on ice that doesn't make it an easier or safer task. And to set the record straight, the only cow I see in my neck of the woods is my neighbors wooden one (sad looking to if you ask me)that leans against her house!