It is being reported over here that 16m Americans have been affected by the severe and unusually early snow in Eastern parts. I’m not quite sure where though.
I guess a fair few of our members here are affected.
So, what’s it like, chaps?
Seems pretty clear here in the Eastern parts of San Diego.
I’m even farther North than MTGuru, and there’s no snow here.
The snippet I saw said Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Strictly East Coast. Did it happen?
here’s a meteorologist’s explanation of an east coast nor’easters…
Eastern Canada may get a bit of rain now and then, but mostly we’re expecting sun and clouds, with no snow in sight. http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/canada_e.html
Sounds like your media are giving you a snow job.
The mountains in western Virginia got snow and I saw numerous vehicles in that part of the state with upwards to four inches still on top. Parts of Massachusetts got over 19 inches.
I was looking forward to a little snow here in the southern bowels of New Jersey. Just got pelted with alot of sleet. Winter is my favorite time of the year… Bob.
This corner of Connecticut was lucky, just getting an inch or so of slushy snow. Most of Connecticut lost power, though - high winds and heavy, wet snow exacerbated by trees still full of leaves, so lots of trees falling on power lines. I heard it may be till Friday before everyone gets their power back (especially bad for those who heat with electricity, since it’s stayed cold since the storm). Friends in New Hampshire and in western and northeastern Massachusetts also lost power.
Colorado got hit last week. 8-12 inches of wet heavy snow in the foothills corridor. Brought down many trees. $1.6 million clean up costs in my little town of Fort Collins alone.
Massachusetts got nailed pretty well, particularly in the western part. Boston’s fine.
I saw on the TV that the town my niece lives in in New Hampshire got 32". That’s a whole lotta snow for October. My brother recently moved from there to NW Connecticut, so “only” got like 16". We didn’t get anything noticeable here, but less than 40 miles away, there was up to a foot.
How on earth does it cost that much? I suppose it’s the tree clearance, plus restoration of power lines, where the money gets soaked up.
Localities could possibly begin to recoup some of that loss if they established urban tree milling to help handle all that bio-mass that has fallen. When Irene hit here we had over 100,000 cubic yards of tree material to dispose of. Much of it was mill-able either for dimensional lumber or firewood, but instead it was mass burned, mulched, or landfilled. The mulch will be sold by the city but likely before it is properly composted so it will cause more damage than help to residential landscapes. We had to get trucks from all over the USA just to transport the waste in a reasonable amount of time. Our citywide(pop. 180,000) damage cost was one life of a child and 7.9 million dollars.
What a waste! And there I thought Americans love their wood fires and stoves…
Out walking the dunes in t-shirt today.
There was a shark attack reported just along the coast, apparently the first in UK waters, and we are 57 degrees North. The hardy swimmers are scared.
The snow was very variable from place to place-- even places not that far from each other. Here in Clifton Park NY (between Albany and Saratoga) we got a whopping 1". Our power went out for 4 hours after the storm ended. Go figure.
Other people I work with reported snow up to 24" (Pittsfield MA) with just about everything in between.
We have a place that works with the tree removal companies to make simple products like cutting boards and picture frames from local trees. They came by while some trees with Dutch elm disease were being removed outside.
I can understand transportation being messed up, due to not having things ramped up for winter snow yet, but was the snow that far out of the ordinary to cause the amount of damage to the electric lines?The fact that most trees are still full of leaves made them much easier to get weighed down with the wet snow, so there were a lot more downed trees than would be the case in a similar wintertime storm. Also, there were probably a lot of standing trees that were 1) weakened but not downed by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene and 2) oversaturated from the unusually rainy autumn. This storm cut power to more people in CT than Irene did.
What a waste! And there I thought Americans love their wood fires and stoves…
I love burning firewood but the thrill gets old very fast. Down trees around here go to the pallet mill for pallets or to the mulch guys who grind up the whole tree even the roots get used. I convert some of it into musical instruments. I planted 300 trees this year it gives me the incentive to live another 150 years so I can make good use of them… Bob.