12-18 inches coming. I find that the weight of the snow matters more to me than the height of it. I don't know if we should learn to think of snow more in that way, but it matters. If the snowthrower won't even clear it a foot away from the machine, you might have to shovel wet cement. But if it's light and it does throw, a foot of snow ain't much.
Update: this was as bad as I have seen. Shoveling slush here.
Years ago I noticed that every year people talk about what a strange winter it's been. It became a standing joke with a psych nurse who came over the same mountain I did to get to work, once I mentioned it to her. She told her husband, and her children grew up with it, and it has even come back to me a few times from other avenues. "Yeah, but we always say it's a strange winter." If it ever catches on and becomes my legacy to NH I will consider that an honor.
Which reminds me. Someone else passed on another meme making fun of the Live Free or Die motto. There are people in NH who are deeply embarrassed by the saying, but most of us make fun of the people making fun of us at this point. We are just saying the quiet part out loud. Lots of states have the same sentiment - Alabama, Massachusetts, and Virginia off the top of my head - but a bit more implied. Maybe the NH motto, like my heading, should be "Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud."
The weight and stickiness of the snow is also pretty important to how much damage it will do to evergreen trees (and hence local powerlines). And with large accumulations, the weight is key to how much damage it could do to roof structures.
ReplyDeleteI'm away from our home, and would find it quite convenient if circumstances allowed the sump-pump to keep operating, the heating system to keep the plumbing from freezing, and the roof to refrain from collapsing.
There are rules-of-thumb for sizing rafters, I think the previous owner who built lean-to additions onto our place (before permits and inspections were required) had a personal rule of thumb to go down one or two sizes from whatever the lumber-yard's span-table suggested.
Weather... no matter where you live, it can wreak havoc. I do not miss the good ole days of my youth in Colorado when we couldn't go anywhere in winter without chains, blankets, food and water. It was mostly a dry snow, but 3 feet of that is cumbersome.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do prefer 'Southern' weather overall, I think it can be more destructive but in more 'targeted' but widespread areas... ie, no way to adequately prepare because one cannot know exactly what to prepare for. That may be true for your region as well.
"We are just saying the quiet part out loud."
ReplyDeleteWest Virginia, too. The motto is "Mountaineers are always free." And the unspoken part is, "So the rest of you bastards better leave us alone." That attitude helps explain how WV shifted so completely from blue to red, and so quickly.