Updates From The Storm
Posted on February 3, 2022 Posted by John Scalzi 32 Comments
Well, it is a storm, and once it started snowing (sometime in the wee hours of the morning) it hasn’t once stopped, so the accumulation is real and substantial, and the wind is pretty whippy much of the time. I’m not planning to drive anywhere for a day or two at least. That said, where we are is just north of the “ice and frozen rain” line of this particular storm, which means neither our power lines nor our trees are in imminent danger of collapsing, and we’re likely to keep power through this whole thing. And it’s nice to see the neighborhood kids taking a chance to break out the sleighs. So that’s good! Kind of a best-case-scenario for “massive winter storm.”
(knocks on wood)
If you’re caught in this storm, how is it playing out for you so far?
— JS
About 30 cm here (again). We are on the Lake Erie North Shore. Very pretty. The horses don’t care for the blowing part, but the snow is better than yesterday’s rain.
…send some to CA! : )
I am reading”The Berrybender Narratives” by Larry McMurtry. I hope your storm is not as bad as the one he describes!
Near Montréal and barely a couple snowflakes here. Very disappointing as snow storms go.
Here in Meigs County, we’ve had rain for just about 24 hours. I look for it to turn to ice within the next few hours. It’s going to be very pretty, but so damaging.
On the southern shore of Lake Ontario here. We’ve had about 4 inches so far with lots more to come, hours and hours of it.
Here in CT it’s supposed to be sleet and freezing rain on Friday. Right now it’s just rain, and maybe melting all the ice we had already. Or maybe just making it wet ice, and deadlier.
I am firmly in the “ice and frozen rain” part of the storm, so it’s going to get really fun later, once the snow moves in and piles up on top of the ice. Right now, it’s a bit painful getting the mail or salting the walks due to getting pinged in the head by ice falling from the skies, but otherwise not too bad yet.
We’re about 20-25 minutes south of Scalzi (SOS?), well into the freezing rain band. Freezing rain most of the morning, shading to a mix with tiny ice balls, and now we’ve got some actual snow coming down. Our two boys are hoping that the snow keeps up and makes it perfect for sledding… fluff atop icepack.
Just north of you in Sidney and the conditions are equally sucky. Fortunately, I can work from home. I have shoveled my driveway twice and likely have to keep doing that.
We’re here in a northern Columbus suburb, and we’ve still got mostly sleet and freezing rain. We’re hunkered down, just hanging out.
The great thing is the squirrels are enjoying this, so our Golden Retriever Annie is dying to go out again and again . . .
Freezing rain and strong winds are a serious bitch.
But you call that snow? I hope you get enough that the kids enjoy the sledding.
We are just south of the ice line( in Columbus). Luckily AEP did a major tree trimming a month ago. Power works. Fiber works.
Umm..65 degrees here in south Louisiana. No snow or ice, obvs, but lots of rain. Lots and lots of rain.
We are in the Willamette Valley in Oregon and we got our dumping of snow the day after Christmas 2021.
When this storm passed over us we got a massive dose of rain. Otherwise it’s been unseasonably cold and dry. Many days with inversion layers (at or below freezing on the valley floor and as much as 20°F warmer 1000ft above that).
I’m in Omaha and outside of frigid temps we missed any snow. It’s been a very mild winter, Monday we were in the mid 50s.
Not caught in the storm. Here in the Carolinas they are predicting snow and frack if that isn’t the apocalypse. They have no clue. I used to live in Connecticut. They don’t remember the snowstorms and ice storms of the of the late 70s. Or the 19 blizzards in 1994. One inch here and it’s OMG! You better have milk, eggs, bread, and toilet paper or surely* you shall perish!
Living where I do I keep supplies on hand and even have a little sterno stove I’ve cooked on. Once a Girl Scout, Always a Girl Scout. Be prepared.
*Stop calling me Shirley!
Hope you’re able to get to your DJing gig. Have fun, wish I was there.
I work night shift here in the northern burbs of Cincinnati (about an hour South of Scalzi). I got off at 6:30am, so I was able to make it home before the real ice hit the roads. Fortunately, I have the next three nights off, and am now hunkered down. Power still on (knock wood!).
BTW, I think South of Scalzi would be an excellent name for an 80s cover band.
We had the freezing rain all night here in south central Indiana (The Stupid State) and when we got up this morning we had no Internet (Noooooo!!!!). Didn’t take long to discover a large, ice-coated maple limb had fallen onto and snapped our fiber optic cable.
Fortunately, my wife still has some nice perks even a decade after retiring from a 37 year career at a major “media/telegraph” company and “her boys” bumped her to the top of a repair queue of hundreds of calls to get us back online. We were rolling again by 11:00 am. “Family & Friends!” Oh yeah!
(Apologies to everyone else in the queue who had an hour or two delay because of a bit of favoritism!)
Freezing rain just ended in Austin Texas. Temperatures plummet tonight. Tomorrow morning is first test of Texas power grid since February 2021 when statewide system came within minutes of total shutdown. In November 2021 the Texas governor guaranteed there would not be any grid related power outages. He walked back that guarantee earlier this week.
Staying home—got about 4″ the past couple of days.
Snowing like mad, ice has passed on south. We’re staying in. Not that we have any choice, this is a side street and we may not get plowed till Saturday or Sunday.
Who all remembers the Blizzard of 1978? (If you don’t, be reassured; the Storm of 2022 isn’t even close.). In 1978, there was 3 feet of snow. It got packed down by pedestrians; I remember walking down the sidewalk (snow-walk?) looking down at people’s hedges.
Princess, I lived in Boston during the 1978 Nor’easter blizzard. The hill I lived on drifted over 6 feet deep. When we descended the porch stairs to the sidewalk, we started shoveling at shoulder level. 5 days of no traffic or industry meant the clearest skies I had ever seen. It was a True Adventure. Luckily we were warm and safe and had sufficient heating oil. Now I live in Southern California and do not miss the mess.
Kids are excited about two snow days, but disappointed in the lack of actual snow. Midwestern DH and I both looked at the 5 day weather forecast yesterday and were like… why are they cancelling anything? Sure, there’s rain and a few hours of freezing, but it’s not like sustained or anything.
“We are in the Willamette Valley in Oregon and we got our dumping of snow the day after Christmas 2021.
When this storm passed over us we got a massive dose of rain. Otherwise it’s been unseasonably cold and dry.”
Same in the Seattle area. In this part of the country, we tend to keep our snow on mountaintops where it belongs.
Spent yesterday driving lengthwise through the howling rainstorm from Tennessee back home to Louisiana to avoid being standed behind the incoming icestorm. It’s been pouring rain most of the day down here, and the temperature is finally dropping.
Two words: Hot Chocolate.
Two sentences: Hello, boss? I think I’ll take that unused vacation now.
Here in New Brunswick, Canada the temperature started rising last night, causing the snow from the last nor’easter to avalanche off our metal roof. The warm weather (5 C this afternoon) along with rain continued through this afternoon. We had a relatively short period of freezing rain as the temperature began sliding down this evening to its regular winter below zero temps. Now the snow is coming down — and it’s expected to keep coming down until sometime Friday. We are bracing for 20 – 30 cm of snow tomorrow and have stocked the house accordingly.
I’m sorry, Scalzi, but those 2 round red things are sleds, not sleighs. Sleighs require horses or some other 4-legged draft animal, not children from Ohio.
We’re in the DMV, and it’s been “hey, ho, the wind and the rain”. Temperature is dropping but it should be mostly done with precip before we get to ice temps.
I’ve been thinking that meteorologists should start taking a cue from financial journalism: “The Weather failed to meet analysts’ expectations.”