MetaChat - Hey, midwestern and northeastern bunnies: Where you gonna put all that snow?

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31 January 2011

Hey, midwestern and northeastern bunnies: Where you gonna put all that snow? You've got so much already, it's not like you need any extra, amirite?

post by: msali at: 11:41 | 28 comments

Another 12" due here in Boston in the next few days. %)

posted by Melismata 31 January | 12:07

ENOUGH ALREADY

I'm taking it kinda personally. Winter and I got started off on the wrong foot when I got stuck in the NJ blizzart for three solid days. Since then, I see a flake, I flinch. Daily activities - especially commuting - are extra hard. Walking is hard. Plans keep getting cancelled and re-scheduled, disrupting the schedule, and we've missed two full work days and had some chaotic late starts and early endings. I'm not sure which is worse, shit getting cancelled or shit not getting cancelled, because if it's not cancelled you have to decide whether to risk life and limb and try to get there. And we're running out of things to do that take place in the house, or within a few block walking radius of the house.

posted by Miko 31 January | 12:10

Can snow be repurposed? What else can you do with snow besides make snowmen, snow forts, snowballs and the like? Is there anything else you can do except pile it up on the side of the roads higher and higher? I am here for you, midwest and northeast, to give you a big mildly warm mid-Atlantic hug if you need one.

posted by msali 31 January | 12:17

I imagine it'll go on top of the snow that's already here. A good amount of snow melted the past few days- the piles outside my house are 3-4 feet tall instead of 4-5 feet. Bring it on, Mother Nature!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 31 January | 12:30

We haven't had very much in Toronto so far — but then the snow doesn't usually come to stay until after Christmas. So we've got room for some. Of course we soon do run out of room to put it.

posted by Orange Swan 31 January | 12:37

Haven't had that much in Pittsburgh yet. An inch or so every few days but no real accumulation. Weird that we're not far from the east coast and they keep getting creamed by snow and it keeps missing us. We are due for an ice storm tonight so that should be fun.

posted by octothorpe 31 January | 13:35

This is how much snow I had after the last big storm. Not much of it has gone away since then. My little house will soon be buried . . . .

posted by JanetLand 31 January | 13:57

Oddly enough, though, towns DO have to find somewhere to "put the snow." We have a couple lots that belong to the city and the piles are very high. You can't push snow into the river, or in fact do a whole lot else with it, because it's ...polluted.

posted by Miko 31 January | 14:04

If my condo parking lot is anything to go by--people put it into someone else's space. (No, I'm not bitter at all that the person with the garage next to me shoveled off their car and put it all in my freshly-cleared space, dickwad.)

posted by sperose 31 January | 14:06

It's getting hard to drive around here (central and south Jersey) -- the piles of snow at corners are often so high that you can't see around them to see if traffic is coming when you're trying to make a turn.

posted by amro 31 January | 15:04

Or trying to go straight through an intersection, for that matter.

posted by amro 31 January | 15:04

We haven't had much snow in Chicago this year so I'm looking forward to our own snowpocalypse. Everyone's rooting for a snow day Wednesday.

posted by misskaz 31 January | 15:07

We're expecting somewhere between 8"-13" in NE Oklahoma. Less than 48 hours ago, it was sunny and in the 70's. At my job, we've already had work cancelled for tomorrow, meaning we'll be working Friday instead (we do 4*10 shifts Mon-Thu).

Figures I spent all of Sunday afternoon diligently doing my Physics homework and now I'll be bored tomorrow and class will likely be cancelled anyhow.

posted by ufez 31 January | 15:22

Over a decade ago I lived in a scary roominghouse in Forest Hill, which is one of the more affluent areas of Toronto. One winter morning I was walking down a street and I saw a guy take a shovelful of his snow from his driveway, walk across the street, and dump it on his neighbour's lawn. I got a little further down the street and saw a guy from the other side of the street walk over the road and dump it on his neighbour's lawn. It was like playing hot potato, only with snow.

posted by Orange Swan 31 January | 15:37

Here in Minneapolis/St. Paul, they are pros at this. Those big trucks roll around sucking up the snow on corners like vacuums and then dumping it in vacant lots and little snowblower caterpillars go around brushing the sidewalks. But yeah, it's one helluva lot of snow. My roof looks like whip cream and my landscaping bushes and lights have been buried for over a month. Tired of winter! Reminds me of the one big snowfall back in TX as a child-thirteen inches. We all stood around and waited for it to melt. Those were the good old days-when that was the most snow I'd ever seen in my life.

posted by supercapitalist 31 January | 16:21

Can snow be repurposed? What else can you do with snow besides make snowmen, snow forts, snowballs and the like?

Snow ice cream!

Avoid the "lemon" sherbet, though.

posted by amyms 31 January | 17:03

The snow is only half of it. Here in Muncie, we're expected to get at least an inch of ice on everything before the snow starts falling. Fun times ahead. I fully expect to lose power at some point over the next couple of days.

posted by Thorzdad 31 January | 17:30

We've been upgraded! Now looks like 12-18" of snow and Tulsa just received it's second blizzard warning ever. I'm about to pop into a windowless classroom for an hour and a half or so. No sign of precipitation right now, but I imagine by the time I get out, it'll look completely different.

posted by ufez 31 January | 18:13

Haven't lost power yet this winter. I kind of miss it; it's really cozy with the wood stove and lanterns for reading, and nooooo teevee. Maine has had plenty of snow, but not as bad as some years. My driveway guy uses a ginormous snowthrower. Too soon to do the snowday dance for Weds., but many people are canceling stuff already. yipppppeeeee!

posted by theora55 31 January | 18:23

I will say, however, that it's entirely Too Cold. No one should have to go outside in subzero temps, except maybe in Lower AntArctica. Tired Of Cold.

posted by theora55 31 January | 18:25

We've only had 1 significant accumulation in Raleigh so far this year, & that was about 7". Yesterday it was 66, today was 44. Wednesday is supposed to be 71! WTF?!

posted by chewatadistance 31 January | 20:08

We don't have any right now. It was in the 50s today. Tomorrow starts with thunderstorms, then an early dip below freezing leading to sleet, freezing rain and eventually snow. The NWS has moved my area from the Winter Storm Watch to Warning area, and our expected accumulation has gone up from trace to 1", to 2-4". The snow? Meh. The ice under it? Scary. Especially since they don't use salt on the roads here, only sand.

On the plus side, ESPN is setup downtown in anticipation of the coming Super Bowl, and we are all looking forward to Chris Berman's first reference to "The Frozen Tundra of Sundance Square."

;-)

posted by Doohickie 31 January | 21:21

Shit got delayed, meaning I had no trouble getting gas/smokes/beers and had plenty of time to walk the dog, so yay.

Radar ain't pretty though.

posted by ufez 31 January | 23:40

Yeah. This system can go straight to hell. I am right in the middle of the narrow band that is supposed to get ice before the heavy snow and I have NO DESIRE AT ALL for another ice storm. The one in 2009 caused me to lose numerous trees and large shrubs, made most of the trees in Northwest Arkansas look like complete crap (they still do) and I had no power for over a week. Plus it is going to drop below zero for a couple of nights, in the last ten years I think we have dropped below zero 2 or 3 times at most. I HATE winter.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 01 February | 04:02

Is it wrong that I'm actually kind of excited about the first big snowstorm of the winter here (Toronto)? It's similar to looking forward to thunderstorms in the summer, in that kind of "wow, nature is awesome" way.

And I actually like driving in the snow, which is weird.

We haven't had to do much shovelling yet this winter. If we have several storms over the next month or two, I'll get tired of that, no doubt.

posted by FishBike 01 February | 09:38

I don't mind the actual snow so much, just the associated inconvenience. A dear friend has had to cancel her working visit from Boston (because the people she was planning to meet didn't want to risk their flights) several times, which means she's also had to cancel our ritual I-am-coming-to-town visits at my place, with dinner and drinks and friends. She's starting to feel like it's never going to happen.

And every time it snows, we have a parking ban and have to stash the car in a safe spot --- usually a parking garage a mile away. It gets old.

I also notice that the city plows have more or less given up on our narrow street... which is getting narrower with every snowfall.

posted by Elsa 01 February | 09:50

Bah, we didn't even get ice. It's 36 degrees and raining.

posted by octothorpe 01 February | 11:42

I'm POd. Made the drive in to work, based on forecasts of snow beginning in the afternoon, and it started coming down during my drive. Parking ban in town, garage full - finally parked in the hotel that lets us do some overflow. Had two rushed meetings, then got word that work is closing. Now to trundle back home and I hear the driving is terrible. And it's pretty certain we won't be opening up tomorrow. Much as I love a good snow day, and I do, this will be about the 5th workday impacted by weather in the last month. And it stinks because we can't get anything DONE. We keep getting interrupted.

posted by Miko 01 February | 12:12

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