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Southwest Virginia still lies within the Snow Belt. Bristol, which lies on the Virginia and Tennessee border, received 15 inches of snow per year. Not a huge amount but enough for a few snowstorms. The more mountainous areas of southwestern Virginia get more (around 20-25 inches). I would say that from if you draw a straight horizontal line at Atlanta, that would roughly be your snow line. Atlanta averages two inches of snow per year and snow is rare in most of Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida and Texas.
Southwest Virginia still lies within the Snow Belt. Bristol, which lies on the Virginia and Tennessee border, received 15 inches of snow per year. Not a huge amount but enough for a few snowstorms. The more mountainous areas of southwestern Virginia get more (around 20-25 inches). I would say that from if you draw a straight horizontal line at Atlanta, that would roughly be your snow line. Atlanta averages two inches of snow per year and snow is rare in most of Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida and Texas.
Okay, maybe it's an American term I've never heard before. What is the "Snow Belt?" I've always pictured places where a different way of life is often necessary during winter.
For us it's being prepared to wake up an hour early in case we have to shovel our driveway and chip ice off our cars to be able get to work on time, because we know everyone else will still show up too. (or at least try to) In Canada we only have one small place that doesn't have to "deal with it", north of Seattle along the Pacific coast. They still average up to 20 inches annually, but their winters are still considered predominantly rainy. (and they are the fortunate few Canadians who don't have to know how to drive the snow or ice either )
What is the "Snow Belt?" I've always pictured places where a different way of life is often necessary during winter.
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That is probably the better definition, if you don't change lifestyle, you ain't in the Snow Belt in winter.
The Snow Belt really is the Northern US where you get serious amounts at once.
All the rest of those places are what they call getting a "Dusting". Except you don't want to be down South in a one inch Blizzard. They are not prepared to handle it and drive like demons that believe radial tires have some sort of magic gripping power.
Plus it makes a huge difference if you are in a densely settled urban environments. The Blizzard of 78' in the Northeast was mind boggling. I still got my sweat shirt that says I survived, (barely ) Glad I missed the last one, two is too many in one lifetime.
I've heard of definitions of what winter's can be like in the southern Appalaichians. "...Cold raw weather with snow staying on the ground can last for weeks at times..." Well, where I live it can last months; snow cover can be on the ground for 2-3 months straight.
I figure even places like WV that average 30 plus inches of snow, it still probably doesn't last very long compared to here. Perhaps those places just see heavier snows but it's probably goes away almost as quick as the areas that see lighter amounts in the South. I know they have ski resorts that stay open all winter, but that's largely attributed snow making machines. I hear they are quite effective as long as it's below 45 F.
A snowbelt is an region, many of which lie downwind of the Great Lakes, where heavy snowfall is particularly common. Near the Great Lakes, a particular form of snowbelt is lake-effect snow, caused by cold air picking up moisture while crossing the lake and then releasing it as snow when the air cools over land. The Great Lakes produce lake-effect snow and continuous cloudy skies throughout the winter months, as long as air temperatures are colder than the lake water temperatures.
Well known snow belts exist southeast of Lake Erie from Cleveland, Ohio to Buffalo, New York and south of Lake Ontario stretching roughly from Rochester, New York, to Syracuse, New York, and northward to Watertown, New York. Similar snow belts exist on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan in Michigan and Indiana, and on the eastern shores of Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Lake Erie is the smallest of the five Great Lakes and the most shallow. It can completely freeze over during winter. Once frozen, lake-effect snow over land to the east and south of Lake Erie is temporarily alleviated.
Okay, maybe it's an American term I've never heard before. What is the "Snow Belt?" I've always pictured places where a different way of life is often necessary during winter.
For us it's being prepared to wake up an hour early in case we have to shovel our driveway and chip ice off our cars to be able get to work on time, because we know everyone else will still show up too. (or at least try to) In Canada we only have one small place that doesn't have to "deal with it", north of Seattle along the Pacific coast. They still average up to 20 inches annually, but their winters are still considered predominantly rainy. (and they are the fortunate few Canadians who don't have to know how to drive the snow or ice either )
The Snowbelt is anywhere where snow is expected and part of the normal or typical winter precipitation. Where I live, we get 'typically' 18-20" a year, mostly in 2-3" doses which isn't a big deal to drive in. Blizzards are rare, but they happen in a big way every five years or so, I mean 12" or so of a snowfall event. Those paralyze the city. Worse still are icestorms where the air near the surface is freezing or colder, but aloft it's above freezing, so the rain falls and freezes as it hits trees, powerlines, houses, cars, roads, etc. No one, no matter how talented and experienced, can drive on that. Those are true boogers. Last winter we got very little snow. I doubt we passed the 5" total mark. Where my dad lived in Minnesota, if you don't plug your car in when it's parked in the garage, it won't start the next day. You also have to keep your air pressure up as if it's partially flat, enough to have a flatedge, it can freeze like that and then it's a Fred Flintstone Mobile.
Oh wow! Okay, by southern Ontario definitions I don't live in a snow belt. But snow is very much a part of life here. West of Lake Ontario we are spared most of the brutal dumpings. In the Toronto area we only average about 40-50 inches.
In OUR snowbelt areas, annual average accumulations start at maybe 65 inches and go as high as 155 inches, (folks, that's almost 13 feet!) maybe higher!
MoMark, we get snowfalls above 12 inches every year! That only slows our city down for a few hours. And I don't even live in the "snow belt" I've never seen more than 24 inches in 24 hours however. That kind of snow semi-paralyzes us for a day. Places a few hours west of here can see more than double that and they get snowed in for several days at a time most winters. I believe you on that Flintstone Mobile, though I have never seen or hear of it before. Sounds hilarious!
Well the Blizzard of 78' had drifts up to 16 feet high in a major city. My front porch was way up high. I could barely get the front door open. I got some plywood and some old high top shoes and bolted the plywood on to make snowshoes.
Walked over the tops of things, snow in the street was 6 to 8 feet deep. All the snow in the back of my house blew into the street. Something like 55 inches fell. I went around and shoveled the doorways of the neighbors so they could get out. There was no food in the markets after a day. I was one of the first to get over to the market with a sled and got a lot for everybody. Milk, bread and eggs were the biggy's. Many cars roofs collasped if they had snow blown over them.
Another Blizzard last year but apparently not as big. I was not there. They deserved this one, no place to put it, lots of building on every scrap of land.
Trenches in 1978 were 3 or 4 times what that ladies is standing in the first picture. It looked like trench warfare of WWI. It was so deep and packed they could not plow it. Brought in huge snowblowers to blow it into people's yards. In them days there were enough empty lots around to put it somewhere. Didn't go to work for an entire week. Didn't melt until like June. It did change a lot of people's habits before a snow storm.
Somewhere I got a picture of my old retriever up on a snow bank taking his daily relief. Yes, it really does roll downhill.
There was also a Big Blizzard in Ohio in 1954. I was just a kid and we lived on a farm. Lots of wild animals died in the woods, etc. The one in 1978 in Boston was the worse in a big city in many people's memory. Was one in New York City way, way back that might have been in the same range.
After a few of those, snow is definitely not fun anymore.
Everyone here has given me excellent and thorough informatio. It will take me a bit to get all of this and apply it to our lives. I seriously appreciate all of your time. Thanks so, so much!
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