Story Notes: Bay Breeze Gest Eighteen Inches (of snow) · 4:43am Feb 18th, 2021
If you thought this was about something different, that’s your fault.
Ponies love snow.
Tuesday (technically, it started Monday night), we got snow. It wasn’t eighteen inches, but it was a respectable amount. And we also got cold to go along with it; I don’t remember what the temperature was Tuesday morning (the fact that my van was doing a snowdrift impression prior to my morning commute was more of a concern), but this morning it was -12F (-24C) and the snow was crunchy.
And I’ll be honest, up here in the frozen north, we’ve got plow trucks and salt trucks and winter packages on our vehicles; this is just the price of living here sometimes. Y’all in Texas and other southern states that don’t normally have to deal with copious amounts of snow and cold, I hope you’re okay. We got enough that the parking lot got plowed by a backhoe with a snow blade and a wheel loader, and it was a couple hours inconvenience as we moved cars around so they could get all the parking lot, and I had to take two runs down my (unshoveled) driveway to get my van—with snow tires—out.
Back in was lining up with the wheel ruts and gunning it over the mound the plow left. Still haven’t shoveled, ‘cause it’s not much above bumper height.
You can see drag marks in the snow, and yes I legit lined up with the ruts I made as I left for work in the morning ‘cause that’s what you do when there’s a lot of snow.
Weather forecasts are a best-guess, based on computer modeling and experience; pre-storm predictions were between eight and eighteen inches, and we fell on the lower end of that, I think. I don’t have a snow gauge, and given my location and prevailing winds there was some drifting. As in the story, my first observation that we’d gotten a lot was that the chair on my porch was buried enough I could only see the back.
Weather forecasts for my area is 2 storms in the next 2 days , 10 inches from the first and 12 from the second.
but it is warmer here 22.
Only about half an inch of snow today, but the last week and a half has barely gotten to 0 during the daytime and -30 at night. Only now is it getting back up to the normal positive teens during the day.
Been sleeping under a half-unzipped sleeping bag so the feet are enclosed and a 20 pound weighted blanket on top of it. Wish I had a cute pony to cuddle and share body heat with.
If the pegasus wants 18 inches of snow, she can make sure there is 18 inches of snow, at least over her home.
Love the first pic
We got a couple feet here and it's been minus double digits most of that. We got a balmy -6 or so for the high today (all celcius since we're civilized) And the forecast has been all over the place as to how much (if any) snow we're in for tonight... This week has given us more snow than the rest of the season by 2 or 3 times.
When I was still living with my mother I tried to gauge how much snow we got based on the height of the snow on top of her porch railing (it was like, ten inches wide so it could hold the snow like that). I don't have that luxury in my apartment, but we're supposed to get between 5 and 9 inches here between now and the end of Friday. In other words, not much for the NY 'burbs.
Poor Bay Breeze! There, a month behind the gest when snow awaits!
We got a light dusting today of snow. Yesterday we got above zero in Freedom units after spending 130+ hours below zero. This weather can be typical for where I live. However it seems a few people forget how to drive and I saw in impressive spin out because some guy in a truck was going to fast and couldn’t make his turn.
Great pics.
Work's shut today! Don't know how much actual snow we got, I haven't looked outside yet.
We're not quite at whiteout conditions at the moment, but it does look like there's about as much snow as air. Just when the last was starting to melt, of course. Of course, I've been working from home since last March, so this will only effect my commute if the power goes out. Hasn't yet, knock on wood, but we'll see what happens.
A pony would definitely help.
We dont know how cold it got here last week, the new Duracell Alkalie batteries in the remote weather sensor, temperature wind etc, froze solid and lost all power. Put new ones in yesterday, got it all set back up, got windy overnight, had a look at the data history.
just under 40 mph average, with one gust of 100mph. The 15 foot extending pole isnt gyed and only braced by the shed roof, so after flexing and vectorial compensation, I have no idea what teh hell speed it actually was, just that this was the middle of a housing estate at approx ridgeline level.
Over the weekend, the temperature around here dipped as low as -20F. That is my truck's limit; it will not start at that temperature. I did manage to get it started on Saturday, albeit barely. The engine even cut out when I tried backing out, but I managed to start it up again. If my shift had started 15-20 minutes later, I would have been forced to take the day off. On Sunday, I didn't even bother trying.
If you thought the title of this blog would be free of spelling errors,
You gest wrong.
5456160
I was actually expecting her to do just that.
I really enjoyed this story. I'm in texas and it was really needed after this week. Fortunately I avoided the worst of it. I still find it absolutely hilarious that the first time it snowed where I was, it's in texas.
I wish we had snow. We have ice instead. With 4 cm of ice covering our truck, it felt like we were helping it hatch from a frozen egg when we cracked and peeled off the ice sheets
5456156
I prefer snow depth to cold, if that makes sense. A few inches (or a few dozen) are better than negative Fahrenheits IMHO.
5456157
We’ve mostly stayed in the positive, and I prefer that. Snow I can deal with, cold is a problem.
I have had to resort to sleeping with socks on to stay warm. I also wish I had a cute (or just warm) pony to cuddle with. Sadly, I do not.
5456160
This is true. This also probably breaks some human rules, but if the pegasus wants snow the pegasus gets snow, full stop.
5456161
Some ponies really love the feel of a snowflake on their tongue, that’s what I’m assuming.
5456162
I don’t know what our snow totals were, I do know that from the perspective of a guy who used to live in a lake-effect area, ‘eh, it could be worse’ was on my mind. Only a couple hours to clear the parking lot, all told, and I think only a day or two of negative Dumb Units (TM) cold. Got some fresh snow today, but only a dusting (as far as I know, I haven’t been outside to check).
5456812
i want to see one storm for the hole year, 6 feet in 7 days then cold so it stays around for a few weeks.
5456163
I usually judge by how deep the car’s buried. Normal winds where I live throw it off, though; as you can see by the van pic, one side’s more covered than the other.
When I lived in more lake-effect territory, there usually wasn’t wind with deep snowfalls, and that’s my excuse.
5456817
Most lake effect goes around us but when the wind came from the Northeast for a bit we got hit hard from it off Lake Ontario.
I live in Horn Lake and man oh, man we had so much snow and it was all powder. You couldn't tell where the street or sidewalks was. But, I was excited all the same.
In Chicago, there's a lot of snow. Most of the driveways and alleys near my shop have snow piled so high on the corners that you can't see oncoming traffic as you're pulling out. Tuesday - I think it was Tuesday - I did nothing but move snow all day long. At home, then at work, then at home again. Fortunately I have many snowblowers at my disposal, but when you have 2 feet of snow, even the big snowblowers need to be fought with.
We also got some snow & wind, near Koktebel (Crimea region). i don't, walk well, so i stay at home with cat and dog. We had some powerdown at morning but now everything is working again. But this house tend to stay cold (a bit of surprize for me, who def. not used to more country-style living), and water supply only work sporadically. But at least we can boil water for tea and coffe. And Hara (dog) tend to sleep with, so.. it is warm, even. But reason why I'm here is another dog, and I'm not sure I'll be up to providing everything I should...
My housemate has a saying: as I recall, something to the effect of "Every car is a snowplow" (at least, referring to the sort of snow we get around here and the short distance to the street). :)
5456818
I wouldn’t mind that either, to be honest. Or maybe a couple of them, with significant melting in between so it doesn’t get out of hand—that’s what we often got in Kalamazoo, with the lake effect. A big snowstorm, a week later most of it’s gone, and a week or two after that another big storm rolls in.
5456825
I’m at the extreme end of normal lake effect; most of our weather here comes out of the prairie. An hour drive west, and it’s a totally different animal.
5456866
Yeah, there’s nothing like the guessing game of ‘where’s the road?’ Luckily, I live on a state highway, and it’s got rumble strips in the middle and the edge so you can at least hear if you’re in your lane or not.
The worst thing is when there’s big ditches on the side of the road and they get filled in with drifting snow. Get too far off the road, and you’re going on an adventure whether you want to or not.
5456867
They’ve been moving some of those in town, for safety reasons. They made a big snowpile in our parking lot and later on moved it, and yesterday (I think), I saw the village’s backhoe hauling around bucketfuls of snow. Honestly not sure where they’re dumping them.
Weirdly, I haven’t seen the dump truck. They just spend several thousand dollars getting new hydraulic lines and brake lines put on it (I was the one that did the brake lines).
I got lucky in that we’ve got new idiots to do that for us (and some local who showed up with a wheel loader). There was one year where the snow drifted around the corner of our building high enough to bury a HHR to its roof. The owner called at the end of the day asking if it was done, and we told him that we’d extracted it from the drift and it was in the shop melting the rest of the way.
We borrowed my manager’s mom’s little snowblower (just a sidewalk model, TBH), and it actually did a heck of a job. Had to kind of shovel a path for it to get started, then just nibble at the edges of the snow, but it did manage to eventually clear our part of the lot.
5457005
Staying home is the best thing in weather like this, IMHO. Usually snow doesn’t take out the power, but ice storms will.
Mine’s not bad unless it gets really cold, and I’ve got some insulated curtains for some of the windows, and some storm windows. Next year I’ll probably re-insulate the back room (needs the walls fixed), and that will help. There are a few other spots that could use attention but I just haven’t gotten to them.
Dogs are great sleeping companions, I’ve heard. Warm and fluffy . . . not unlike a pony.
5457044
Yeah, the trick is having tires that’ll get traction. There’s enough heavy wet stuff right now that lining up to get into the previous ruts is vital, else I get caught at the end of the driveway and have to try again. Getting out in the morning isn’t bad, though; just follow the ruts to the road and I’m golden.
5457528
Well, glad you're making it work. :)
5457514
I don't know a truer statement there. I don't think anyone went to a ditch at not that I know about. Most people in my town walked anywhere that wanted to go. So very few cars went on the roads. Most stayed indoors, a lot of the businesses closed down from how much snow we got.
Anyway, I hope everything is going well on your end.
5458431
Walking is a good option in the snow if you can; unfortunately, I’m in a more rural area and unless I want to slog a couple miles through the snow to get to work, I’ve got no choice but to drive, and I’m hardly the only one in that boat. At least for me it’s only a couple miles and not tens or more.
That’s something that rarely happens in areas that normally get snow, as long as it’s not a completely unreasonable amount (for us, I’d say probably more than three feet in one storm would be enough to start shutting things down).
It is, thank you!
I'm in central Oklahoma and while we fared better than Texas utilitywise, we still had enough snow that people in small cars (or who just didn't know how to drive in snow) couldn't go anywhere. I work in construction and my jobsite was closed Mon-Thurs but that was fine by me because I wanted to drive in the once-per-decade "massive" snowfall.
I drive this thing and, as an excuse to spend as much time driving in the snow as possible, I put out a message on my social media offering rides to/from work, and an extrication service for stuck vehicles. I think I ended up with 10 taxi rides, 5 vehicles pushed out by hand, and 5 pulled out with the Jeep. The best two recoveries were a Lincoln Navigator in a 2ft ditch that was filled to the top with snow and a Ram 4500 based wrecker that was stuck in the berm that the plow trucks made at a parking lot entrance.
I'm not sharing this to try to get people to tell me I'm a good person, so lease don't. I did this because it was fun and am sharing it because someone else might think it's interesting too.
Here's a video of me doing donuts and plowing through snowdrifts in the Jeep.
5459440
I think the only thing that happened where I live was that school got cancelled. Otherwise, a few hours digging and it was business as usual. I used to live in Kalamazoo where we got more lake-effect snow, so this wasn’t that bad all things considered.
I’ve done that before. Some years ago, my co-worker and I decided to pay in the snow. He’s got a heavily-modified Suzuki Samuri (4.3L, Suburban axles, a winch...) and I had an Astrovan with four snow tires. We drove around and he pulled people out who needed it and I helped (with cables and such, my minivan wasn’t going to be much use getting them unstuck).
Also, cool Jeep! I’ve got one of those although it isn’t very nice or reliable or lifted and it also currently doesn’t have brakes or heat, which makes it a poor choice of winter vehicle.
i.imgur.com/5JptWpO.jpeg
Hey, it’s okay to do good things which are also fun.
I'm mainly just wondering why you gave this such an obviously double-entendre name, on a story that otherwise seems like it could perfectly have an all-ages rating.
In fact, I doubt literal sleeping with a pony is even enough to raise that rating.
5459862
Mostly ‘cause that’s how it came into my mind, so that’s what I went with.
As long as you’re not graphic, yeah.
5460115
I was referring to the fact it's still rated Teen, not Everyone
PS: you misspelled the blog title
"18 inches on snow"
*Laughs in Canadian*
5498082
So funny story, some years ago my sister-in-law was visiting the family over Christmas. She and my brother live in California. It was a mild winter, as we get sometimes in Michigan (especially near Lake Michigan), and everybody was telling her how this isn’t normal winter weather and hinting that she wouldn’t know how to cope in normal winter weather and she just nodded politely and never let on that she’s from Edmonton.
5499302
That's hilarious! Never judge a book by it's cover, I guess!
You know, now that I think about it, the most snow I've ever seen in one day in this city was 37cm (about 14.5 inches) so 18 inches in one day is genuinely a lot
That being said, that 37cm was when we already had about a meter and a half on the ground (almost 5 feet) so it was a fun time