Blizzard Tips

We're in the middle of a fairly good blizzard at the moment, so I thought I'd share a few things that I'd overlooked this morning.

1) Don't let your spouse take the four wheel drive to work until you've retrieved your snow boots out of it first.

2) Don't misplace the weather radio. (Internet was out for several hours.)

3) Slide the back screen door over BEFORE the storm, so it won't freeze solid.

4) Even with lots of preparation, you'll always forget at least one item. Today it was fresh cream for the coffee. Guess I'll have to rough it.

what would be your comment on the "should you buy three of everything" thread, leaving cost aside, based on this recent experience?

Always a good idea, dweste. I fortunately had another pair of snow boots (not as warm, but they worked) and I can almost guarantee we'll be sharing a couple extra snow shovels with the new neighbors...

If not too windy that it will be blown away, treat paved areas the night before if you have advance warning. If you have to wait until the next day wait until your done shoveling so you dont toss your salt aside. Salting ice is obviously ok.

Make sure you have a straight hoe for chopping ice.

Plug your car in if it has an engine block heater.

Turn heat up in house in the event it goes out at a later time and does not return quickly, thus taking it longer for the heat to bleed out.

Do not take direct paths outside which will bleed heat even faster. IE, go out through attached garage if you have one.

Count on getting up early to shovel so your not leaving last minute to try and fly to work in bad conditions. Also packed snow can become slick and thats not fun when parking multiple vehicles in the same driveway.

Even if you don't shovel out all the driveway at least get rid of the tire tracks and the ridge the town's plough pushes into the end from the road.
When packed snow freezes it turns to concrete.

Go to work EARLY EARLY EARLY EARLY. Having the roads to yourself is better than having your own snowplow.

(listening to the scanner now. Chaos set in all over the area during the last 30 minutes. I'm here safe and warm at my desk just sipping my tea :-)

Really useful tips, all. I can attest I've used most of them in the past 24 hours.

Here's another one from last night: keep a warm set of winter clothing and flashlight by the bed, as well as extra blankets/sleeping bags, in case the power goes out. Also, it's nice to have a drying rack for soggy wool hats, gloves, etc.

And -- a non-stick cooking spray like PAM can be applied to a shovel so the snow will slide off easier.

On a "lesson learned" note: freshly applied duct tape doesn't appear to work well in sub-zero temperatures. Anyone else have this experience?

Genius - pure genius! I have made a note of that one



Yes. Sub-zero temperatures really bring out the quality differences between different duck tape flavors. I really can't say I've discovered a brand that can be said to work really well in the cold, but some of the better qualities are at least halfway decent. If you tape it to itself and apply pressure+heat with your hand, the good tape sticks (at least to itself), but not as good as you're used too. Another problem is that the cheaper brands will fray and split. They do that anyway, but the problem magnifies in the cold.

I have some rather high expectation to gorilla tape, but it remains to prove itself. My first winter season with the stuff...

Elastic -- like in bungee cords -- stop recoiling somewhere between 0 and -10 F.

Aluminum tent poles with bungee cord become interesting to assemble when winter camping.

Yes, I know how to build a quinzee -- not for me due to one of following:
- Late arrival at camp by troop.
- Lack of snow. (though one troop did gather snow from approximatly 1000' around them to build theirs.)
- Scouts in the quinzee, leaders in tents.

Medowlark,

When I was training for mey WEMT when ever we used duct tape it was always reminded that ductape looses it's effectiveness when cold.

Nice!

Thanks

Good tip.

PAM works to on snow shovels and also on aluminum tent poles and other things in extreme cold which might use a bit of lubrication. Wax will also work. But if temperatures are highly variable both wax and PAM can melt, smear and stain. Worse if you got carried away and used too much.

An alternative that works to keep things sliding in all temperatures is silicone. The spray is easiest to find but liquid that comes in a bottle with a cotton swab inside lasts longer and is cheaper in the long run.

Silicone works almost as well as PAM in extreme cold but doesn't melt or run in heat and won't attract dust or grit. Applied to cloth it is a fair water repellent. If you really soak it the cloth will slow or prevent corrosion of metals you wrap in it.