From: THNC [#2] 5 Feb 22:11 To: Brian (BRIAN11767) [#1] 5 Feb 22:14
Cousin sent a text saying he's expecting 30-36" tonight and tomorrow 15 miles north of DC. Nice.... that's after getting 22-24" about what... 3 weeks ago.
How's the golf?
From: mike (M_ROMATOWSKI) [#3] 5 Feb 22:20 To: THNC [#2] 5 Feb 22:35
<Cousin sent a text saying he's expecting 30-36" tonight and tomorrow 15 miles north of DC.>
He might be joshing you a bit... I'm north of Baltimore and I think we're getting about 20-24 inches. At least I THINK he's joshing you >:-(
Mike
p.s. I live on a farm... when I look outside right now there is nothing but a blanket of white as far as the eye can see. If it wasn't such a pain in the ass, I might have to admit it's beautiful.
From: halnorth [#4] 5 Feb 22:21 To: Brian (BRIAN11767) [#1] 5 Feb 22:47
That is an ENORMOUS amount of snow. Living in Canada, we do get large snowfalls here on the prairies. In 1997, we received 48 cm of wet snow in one night, on top of a large ground base already.....our city was shut down for a day or two and then after melting, we experienced a record flood (also caused by snowfall south of the border flowing north).
But, in coastal regions, the moisture content of the snow is just that much more...I was in Vancouver one winter when we received a foot in just a few hours. Completely paralyzed the region for several days...moving WET snow is very difficult. Even moderately fit people have suffered heart attacks under these conditions.
The fortunate aspect is that the temps in DC are near freezing...that will at least allow for some melting as the snow is falling. Nonetheless, it will be an interesting weekend for the Beltway crowd to say the least.
Stay warm, stay safe and we will see you on the other side of snow bound!
From: mike (M_ROMATOWSKI) [#6] 5 Feb 22:31 To: halnorth [#4] 6 Feb 9:00
I'm shocked that my power hasn't gone out yet (hope I don't jinx myself). I think there will be quite a few people in DC/Baltimore who will have no power during the Super Bowl.
From: Gurg [#10] 6 Feb 1:17 To: mike (M_ROMATOWSKI) [#8] 6 Feb 2:27
I lived in Winchester VA in the valley in the 1996 storm when we got 3' of snow. My wife was working at the hospital and had to stay there 4 nights. Then a National Guard Humvee dropped her off half a mile from home on Rt 50 because he couldn't get into our neighborhood. Something told me to look out the window and I saw her in the distance trying to make it through snow up to her waist without a coat in the sweater she was wearing when I dropped her off and made my way to her with her coat and broke the snow so she could make it home.
Good thing we went to the store before the storm hit as food started running short. School was closed for my four kids for a month.
I've been through a few blizzards of around 3' and its a lot of snow. After the last Denver snow of that depth I finally bought a pretty powerful snow blower.
GOD is telling the Washington DC politicians that he causes the weather not people driving SUVs and burning coal in power plants. So far the DEMOs and Obama still haven't got the message.
From: mike (M_ROMATOWSKI) [#11] 6 Feb 2:29 To: Gurg [#10] 6 Feb 19:18
Good lord! Woke up at 2am and looked outside... holy crap! Never seen a storm like this one. More snow than I've ever seen with the wind howling. Not sure I can even get out my front door. YIKES!
From: RayRay (JEFF) [#12] 6 Feb 2:36 To: Brian (BRIAN11767) [#1] 6 Feb 7:28
In the mid-80's, I was stationed at a USAF base in the upper penninsula of Michigan, about 18 miles inland from Lake Superior. The annual "St. Patty's Day" storm (always happened within 48 hours of St. Patrick's Day) was good for "2 to 4"......anything from 2 inches to 4 feet, depending on the "lake effect".
I was on my tri-weekly stint in the "mole hole" on SAC alert (I was a KC-135 boom operator) when the annual event started one night. I remember sitting in our chow hall at one of the 3 big picture windows overlooking the two aircraft parking areas, watching 42 inches of snow pile up on the wings of the B-52's and KC-135's, drinking coffee and thinking to myself.....
"####!!! I don't guess we'll be rotating out of here as scheduled tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day, or....."
The base was shut down to a "Work Reduction Level" that required only the command staff and a couple of handfuls of other necessary support folks to be in place. We quickly realized that particular "WRL" meant we didn't have any cooks in our kitchen....and all the vittles were locked in secured storage and coolers. I guess they knew better than to trust a mix of 76% officer/24% enlisted who had Top Secret/Personal Reliability Program status........but it was justified because none of us were "qualified" to operate a griddle or stove-top boil pot......
The next day, after being denied breakfast (Oh! the inhumanity of it all! Where's the national media when you need it the most?), our flying squadrons/sky-cop/maintenance comanders showed up in a track-cats with enough box-meals put together by one of the "essential chow halls" to feed us a mid-day snack, promising to return with more such delicacies later that evening.
Fortunately, every military operation has a back-up plan for every back-up plan. We watched 20' tall snow mountains pile up on the edges of the tarmac as the snow crews worked an extraordinary amount of overtime moving mega-tons of snow with huge articulated Oshkosh snowblowing/ plow/dump trucks. Our week-long stint in "the hole" was extended by 2 days, and then we found our parking lot outside the "perimeter" was low on the list of priorities....I think the last car was dug out sometime in July.....
From: MaxLife711 [#15] 6 Feb 8:32 To: mike (M_ROMATOWSKI) [#3] 6 Feb 12:25
Surprisingly the southern area is/was supposed to get more snow than the northern areas of Maryland. I don't know how much we have gotten
Here is a couple of pics from my balcony. The first one showing the snow on the table, that table is actually under cover as there is a roof about 9 feet above it that reaches to the railing. In the second pic (first too) note the ice in the water, The water is brackish and there is a fairly significant tide that keeps ice from forming, and also bubblers around the piers, so all of that contributes to no ice til now.
I have lived here 6 years and there has never been ice in the water.In fact that ice was actually across the creek and covered with snowwhen I went to bed, but the tide broke it up and pushed it into the bulkhead. It is hard to tell because the shrinkwrap protecting the boats is also white, but the boat in the foreground is not shrinkwrapped and is covered with snow.
From: gregh729 (MHOSS) [#18] 6 Feb 8:56 To: Snap Slice (MRHACKERMAN) [#17] 6 Feb 10:49
I'm in Damascus, MD 45 minutes north of DC, 45 min west of Balt. 28" at 9AM. Just dug a trench to a bush so my dog can do his stuff. They are saying up to 8" more before it ends. Yeesh!
From: tosh is as awesome as marley (BUSHDOCDA) [#20] 6 Feb 11:30 To: Brian (BRIAN11767) [#1] 6 Feb 11:33
This is more snow than the last blizzard about 6 weeks ago in Baltimore.
We are snowed in something fierce and they get to our side street after they've handled the primary, secondary, tertiary, and quadrentary roads. Plus an F 150 and Cherokee are stuck in the middle of the road that comes to the one my garage is on so I'll drink and shovel for a few days.
