h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A massive snowstorm that is coming our way -- 20 to 30 inches between Monday night and Wednesday morning. I will probably need to climb the ladder several times, rake in hand, to pull snow away from my furnace vent so it can get oxygen and not shut down. Gusts of 60 to 70 miles an hour are likely near the coast in addition to the heavy snow. The record for snow was set in the Blizzard of 1978, which shut down the whole state for a week.

I will be holed up in my house for days. If I'm lucky, I can get DVDs from the library tomorrow afternoon and play them on my computer. trouble is, almost everyone else will have he same thing in mind. The selection may be meager.

For exercise I will likely be shoveling snow every two or three hours so it doesn't pile up too much.

Good Luck, Paul


See you on the other side of the drifts


lil x

Thanks, lil.

Tomorrow morning I will lean the ladder up against the side of the house so it will be ready to climb when needed. If the drifting works to my advantage, the roof won't be covered all that much, but I can't know in advance what will happen. I remember one time when my furnace went off at four in the morning, and I had to climb up to pull snow from the vent.

My roof has held up well under heavy snow, but before I had it rebuilt I would have to climb up on it with a shovel, hoping I wouldn't fall through.

please be careful out there!

GB

just saw this on our news and your thread beat me to posting to you, to say take care and hope that your dad'll be ok as well

I wish I could label that storm "Somebody Else's Problem"

Take care, my friend

It's the climbing on the roof that is the worst. Not only the risks involved, but just the unpleasantness of having to go out in those conditions.

Hold on in there. Will you have internet or is there a chance that you'll be cut off?

I hope your vent stays clear, Paul, so you can stay in and be cozy. It doesn't sound like it'll be fun to be out in it. Take care.

Deb

I once had to climb a ladder to attend to a vent on the roof.

He wouldn't come down without a gottle of geer.

My furnace needs electricity to run, so power outages could be tricky.

Colleague of mine is in NY right now, but judging from the view from his flat he should be in the clear. Looks like he's living on the 20th floor or something similar

Mind you that won't help him much if The Apple turns out of juice

We had the worst snowstorm here in the winter 1978/79. People in the countryside were snowed in for days, some even for weeks. Hope you have better luck, paulh

1978 was our second-worst blizzard of all time.

I'm back from lunch with my father. On the way back, I picked up two books and a Japanese anime DVD from the Library, and then wrestled with other shoppers at the supermarket. As expected, supplies of bread and spring water and milk were very low. There were plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, though. Don't people eat fruits and veggies during snowstorms?

Paul, I hope that your vents will keep clear and that the storms will not last long.

The winter in the UK in 1978/1979 when the country was blasted by a blizzard and severe cold temperatures. The temperatures start getting colder from a very warm October the 24th of November 1978 and December became mild with very wet and windy weather but by the 28th if gets colder from Scotland and Northern Ireland with bitterly cold air through North East Scotland which comes from Scandinavia. The cold air is now pushing through the rest of the country and on New Years Eve where a blizzard appeared, gale force easterly wind with drifting snow. -3C or -4C. I was at boarding school at the time and I was told by my teacher that there were 6ft drifts of snow in Much Hadam in Hertfordshire. It was a very cold month with heavy snow showers with many blizzards throughout the country even in Eastern England. The snow lasted until mid February.

Buffalo, New York got around six feet of snow in a single storm around Thanksgiving this season. There's something called a "lake effect," which means that moisture from the Great Lakes can get recycled as snow by powerful storm systems. The storm systems go from western Canada across lake Erie and right over Buffalo, dumping vast quantities of snow across upstate New York. Syracuse is maybe a hundred miles further east along the same storm track. I knew a couple who lived in Syracuse. They got very tired of all that snow. They said it was possible to have a flurry as late as early July.

From my radio I gather that neither NY nor Boston was hit quite as hard as feared and that people should wake up to a quiet day. I hope you can confirm this, paulh?

Be careful shoveling and climbing paulh! Hope you're safe and warm

I can confirm those reports, Pierce. At around an inch an hour, we should have had around 14 inches by now, but only seem to have 7 or 8. Local forecasters insist that 18 more inches are still possible, though. To give the forecasters their due, they got the timing right" the storm did hit around 7:00 p.m. last night, as expected. The winds seem to be less fierce than expected, and the size of snowflakes is much smaller -- probably a sign of colder temps than expected.

The wind is keeping snow off the branches of trees. There's very little snow on roofs [roves?].

My power is still on, and my furnace is doing nicely.

So far so good. Think I'll celebrate these good news with some

Relieved to hear our correspondent from Boston is holding out.

I underestimated the overnight snowfall. I think it was closer to twelve inches. We've had a few more since. No sooner do I clear snow off the porch than the wind puts it right back there.