Wall of Snow

[MoonCat]

Just to give everyone an idea of the magnitude of the storm that occurred in WNY this week, here are a couple of images from the paper's website:






These literally show the storm coming in across the lake. The weird thing is that only the south side of the city got hammered. The rest of the town only got about 6 to 8 inches or so, while the south side and the suburbs nearest got about 6 to 7 ft. of snow.

In the second photo you can see some windmills. I believe they're still standing

[AccountingDrone]

Eh, the last year I lived in western NY, I had a house on the 'beach' in Hilton [nicknamed Concrete Beach because it had a seawall and concrete patio and no sand in sight] and Lake Ontario was frozen out for about half a mile. It was the big blizzard of 1985 ... snowed me in for a week and screwed my vacation plans. We were supposed to head down to visit friends in Virginia Beach, and the day before we were heading down we woke up to the infamous wall of snow. <shrug> Weather was actually worse in the 60s and 70s and early 80s than the 90s and 2000s. It is finally getting back to what I grew up with. I still normally only wear a windbreaker in the winter. I have an arctic survival suit in the car in case of an accident, but if I am just going from building to vehicle and back again, my car has heat and heated seats. I really don't need a heavier coat as I rarely go outside for shits and giggles any longer.

[MoonCat]

Yeah I remember the '85 storm. In 2001 though we had a storm that lasted for a week. It literally just kept on snowing, starting on Christmas Eve, and didn't stop for 7 days. My mom was snowed in at a friend's house. That was a weird holiday. We had 7 ft of snow that time.

This one, though--it's bad in the areas that got hit hard. 12 or 13 people dead (two were found in their cars under a lot of snow), a bunch of building collapses, some people lost power. Some of the farmers further out lost greenhouses and barns; a Christmas shop in the city lost their entire inventory when the roof caved in. And now it's melting, which will cause flooding in some areas. Just a mess.

Doesn't compare to someplace getting hit by a hurricane, of course. I've always been glad we don't get those here.

ETA: So far, 70,000 tons of snow have been moved to empty lots around the old Central Terminal.

[AccountingDrone]

Yeah I remember the '85 storm.

...

ETA: So far, 70,000 tons of snow have been moved to empty lots around the old Central Terminal.

And it sucks because they can no longer just haul dumptrucksful of snow to the piers and dump them into the lake ... it would pollute the lake [despite that is where the storm drains empty when it all melts *sigh*]

I can remember being stuck on the road down near Perry NY one winter, my BF of the time and I decided to take the 3 man bubble tent and the rest of our emergency gear and camp in the pine trees of the treeline. It was actually fairly ideal - we didn't want to be stuck in the car because we were afraid the plow would simply slam into us. We set up on dry pine needles, the snow buried us and the trees and insulated us well. We had a gallon of water, a roll of toilet paper and made a latrine hole behind the tent and had one of the battery camp lanterns. Combined with a heap of pine needles as a mattress, and a couple sleeping bags we were cozy for the night.

I wouldn't have considered it, but our family had a habit of winter camping, and I knew what we were doing, and we really were worried about sleeping in the car. When we dug out in the morning, the car was a barely visible slash of red under a mound of snow. We cleared an area and built a fire and hung out for another 6 or so hours until the plow came, barely missed the damned car and we pottered back the way we came, and Keith didn't get to go home for vacation.

Having a previous history for primative camping, it really doesn't bother me too much to lose power - I can haul water to flush, I have a wood stove to heat and cook with, and I have a small pressureized tank for showering. Add my little solar charger for the smartphone, I am good to go - though we do actually have a generator for the refrigeration =)

[MoonCat]

Sounds like you really know how to prepare!

[Sapphire Silk]

Holy . . . .

It looks like scene from the Mummy; you know, that desert scene when the Mummy whips up a sandstorm?