New England Blizzard

Lots of snow envy among my friends in DC.

I hope all ETSers in the path of this storm are prepared and are not hit by power outages.

Best wishes. Take lots of photos.

Looks like this could be one of Boston's most notable storms in recorded history.

http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/travelkit/...storm-1B8290274


'Stay Off The Roads:' East Coast residents warned to stay home as storm approaches




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One of the big banks (BOA, Citi?) was recommending folks to hit the ATM's in front of the storm due to the likelihood of a power outage and peeps needing cash. If you always pay with plastic, it still makes sense to have cash around as a back-up.

Other than that, top off the fuel tank and hit the grocery store, before the roads get to the point that driving is not an option. Do all that ahead of time and then you can enjoy the snow.

Yeah, if this storm isn't all hype it sounds like it's going to be a big one. I live in Iowa, and the most snow I can ever remember getting in one storm was like 16 inches back in like 1994. Getting two or three feet at once (w/high winds) would be pretty epic... or.... just another day in Minnesota.

Hopefully everyone stays safe there. They've definately gotten their fair share of bad weather this year.

I visited Boston several years ago, and I loved all the history in that city. I spent a couple of days just walking through the historic areas.

I've seen predictions for 3'. Which usually means 2'. But still that can shut down a city, if not a whole region.

Here in Syracuse, NY I was out doing some homework at a national bookstore. It looked fine when I did a casual glance. Then, about 20 minutes later, it was getting really froggy. The trip home (~3 miles) was slippy. My son and I just finished our first assault on the driveway. I'm sure I'll be out there in about two hours for Round 2.

Any ETSers or your family in the path of this storm, stay safe.

This is the same type of storm that hit in my hometown in 78 (I'm pretty sure some peeps here may also remember that storm). Started as rain, turned to ice and then to snow ... LOTS of snow. Needless to say the combined weight of the ice and snow on the power lines snapped them apart all around. Our subdivision had to be evacuated, the snow was so deep the only way they could do it was to hook up a school bus to be towed in by a HUGE farm tractor. We stayed in town at a local church where they did have power, ate soup and other fare that was provided by the local grocery store owner. After a few days there we were able to get to my aunt and uncle's house in town, where we could shower and have a real meal. A day or so later we were able to return home. A very traumatic and scary time for an 8 year old boy, still have many memories from that time. I believe this is a picture of the county road that we lived off at the time.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=...elevant_count=1

Need I say again, anyone in the path of this storm stock up and stay safe.

It would be great to hear how our Yankee and Canadian Members are doing. I hope everyone is experiencing a good preparation drill only.

Just a tad late to be stocking up now. Hopefully readers of this site stocked up before the storm hit and are now having fun in the snow, waiting for the power to come back on, but having a back-up to heat their homes and cook food. Plan B...

No big deal here in CT.

I stayed at work overnight. Came home afterwards.

Driveway plowed but snowdrifts are a problem.

No power outage.

One neighbor with some sort of frozen water pipe (I'm a little surprised since it isn't that cold and it has only been cold for a few hours).

Conway Yee

Not sure what the official total is here, but I know Portland got 32" and we must be somewhere close to that much (it's not that far away). I didn't lose power at my house...happens to be on the same grid as the local hospital (where I work). Not that big a deal right around here other than the usual digging out, and I know some people had trouble getting into work--I was supposed to be off this week but filled in yesterday and today for someone who lives 45 minutes away and couldn't get in. I have a ten minute walk to get there so would not have felt right about not pitching in. There were a few nurses who stayed overnight in empty patient rooms but all in all things went pretty smoothly. Hope everyone else can say the same! Definitely planning on some good snowshoeing tomorrow after church.

I got about 24-30". People responded well and stayed off the streets. You couldn't have asked for better timing for the storm, Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. Some schools are still closed for tomorrow to give those crews an extra day to clean up before the kids start walking again. My area held onto power, but I think closer to the coast, they had hurricane level gusts, so they lost power. This snow is so light and fluffy, I am tempted to try skiing.

May I ask why people put their windscreen wipers in a vertical position whilst parked and expecting snow?

They don't get frozen onto the windshield in that position. It's tougher to break the ice off the windshield when your windshield wipers are in their normal position.

We must have different snow in the UK. I have never seen it done here. I have never had that problem, whatever clears the windscreen frees the wipers even at -20ºC, dry snow, wet snow, ice and so on.

I will try it next time we get snow and see if there is any advantage to be had.

It doesn't do anything for me, personally. I have a large and robust ice-scraper/snow brush/squeegee implement -- when my car is covered by a hard candy shell, I start it, run the defrosters, scrape and brush as appropriate. It always seems to work for me.

The explanation I have heard is this:

You don´t necesserely know that the wipers are frozen to the windshield. And if you in that case try to use the wipers their electric motor might break.

If you run the wipers when they are frozen you might not burn the motor out, but you can cause the blades to jump off the screw pivot. Our Toyota Highlander had this happen last month--didn't realize the blades were frozen, and when I flipped the toggle one blade came free while the other stayed in place. Fortunately I did not strip the screw that held the nut that secured the blade, and could just retighten it, but it was not enough and my fix failed at a bad time (later while the vehicle was in motion). The dealership fixed it for free when I asked them for the proper setting for my torque wrench so I could do it. Lesson learned.

I can see the value in raising the wipers in a maritime freezing rain event, which can generate an impressive shell of rock-hard ice.

But in my part of the world, it's basically not worth doing. A couple of taps from the scraper end of a long-handled snow brush breaks the wipers free. And if it's just loose, dry snow, they don't freeze down at all.

I go along with with the "it doesn't stick to windshield" group. But, it also helps keep those annoying chunks from sticking to the wipers that cause those miserable bands of water and snow on the windshield.