Oswego County snow storm (Buffalo, Rochester: house, live in, stores)

[NYTom]

I heard on the news that Parish NY got dumped with 88'' of snow!
I just can't even imagine getting hit with more than seven feet of snow!
How do you even shovel your driveway? where do you put it? How do you even get out of your house?
Anyone up there care to share what their experiences are with this storm?
Would love to see some pictures.

I hope you get an early spring!

[Sgoldie]

Yeah, we got wacked. I'm in Oswego just south of the city on the river. I'll attach some photos I put on another thread a couple of days ago. It's quite a bit higher now. We've had more since and it's not suppose to end till the weekend. I'm guessing we should have anywhere from 10-12 feet for the week if projections are correct. I'll let you know later.

It took three guys eight hours today to shovel off the roof which was about three feet deep in snow, so now it's piled up over my head off the front porch and along the driveway. They had to shovel down far enough for the snowblower to be able to work to clear that. Been out, heck no! The roads have all been shut down except for emergency traffic and snow clearing, plus there's no place to walk and the stores are mostly closed anyway.

We all keep survival gear on hand and stocks of food. So unless the electricity goes off we'll be in good shape. I think there's some punky wood in the garage if necessary. I'll venture outside tomorrow and add new picts.

Sure glad I don't live back in the woods anymore. Our driveway there was a quarter mile long and it would take all day just to clear the thing, and then you were too exhausted to go anywhere.

The city dumps snow into the river. They also truck it off to a municipal lot which gets so high it doesn't melt till June/July. --- The photos fell off for some reason? I posted them already under the US Section - "This weeks weather where you live".

[homeward bound]

Never even been to Oswego--will get there when we can--but did survive the Buffalo Blizzard of '77. We had, I think, a total of 190 inches of snow that winter. Much of it came in one continuous, weeks-long blast. As I recall, the National Guard was sent to try to help out, but got stuck in Rochester and didn't make it for a week or more.

"How do you shovel your driveway?" Snowblowers couldn't keep up, especially with the wind moving the snow around on you. You'd need a truck with a plowblade. But these were either enlisted in trying to create access to people needing insulin, giving birth, etc.--the radio stations relayed endless "Please help so-and-so" bulletins--or were themselves snowed in. People moved around during the storm mostly by snowmobile, and mostly on rescue/medicine delivery missions. So: you don't. Until the storm ends, anyway. Then you get the kids to shovel because you're afraid of having a heart attack. The easiest way is to shovel just two tracks the right distance apart for your vehicle's tires, and to shave down the snow between them so the bottom of the vehicle doesn't get caught. Then, though, the finally-moving-again snowplows come along and push all the road snow against the foot of your driveway, and you've got to dig and crash through a snow-wall that may be four or five feet high anyway.

"Where do you put it?" Wherever the wind lets you, and wherever your back says, "Drop it here, NOW, fool!" But tossing it into the street is silly because the plows will put it right back against the foot of your driveway. After a bad storm/snowy winter, the piled walls of snow alongside your driveway may still be there and still be melting for weeks after all the other snow in your yard has melted. Be careful about not slipping on the repeatedly refreezing streams of water coming from the base of the driveway snow-walls, too. Winter only *plays* dead.

"How do you even get out of your house?" We went out second-story windows, slid down the snow that the wind has pushed up against our house, trudged around front, gauged where the invisible front door must be, and chose the right distance out from the door to begin a trench down to it at a walk-up-able angle. As you thought you were nearing the door, you had people inside yell to guide you to it.

Smart people moved their cars FROM their garages before the storm or early in it and parked them toward the foot of their driveways far enough from the street so the plows wouldn't bury them in snow or damage them with flying ice-chunks, yet close enough so you didn't have to shovel too much to get them onto the roads.

But with snowfall this intense, even Upstate gets paralyzed, so there's nowhere to drive anyway. You make a fire in the fireplace, a bit pot of soup from leftovers and all the frozen veggies you thought you'd eat but didn't all year long, hot chocolate for the kids, whiskey or wine for the grownups, you tell stories, play cards, give the neglected dog some attention, read, catch up on housecleaning, try not to think of the heating bill, make babies if you're young enough or not over-baby-ed already, and think of moving to Florida---until you realize: "I live in a special place with many rare virtues. Including the fact that, here, anyway, Winter still happens, and much of the time, even in its brutal indifference to Man, it is still uniquely beautiful."

And when Spring and Summer finally *do* happen, you realize that you cherish them deeply exactly because of the brutal winter. And you say, "Thank you, winter." And you're proud, again, that you survived it without throwing your most-irritating family member into the wind.

[Glen NY]

June and July? Are you serious? I'm in B'ville about 30 miles south of you never heard of snow piles in June or July, I guess anything is possible. Oh by the way we didn't get anything close to that. Interesting how the lake effect works. The paper had Mexico, NY getting 5'4" since Sunday and Hancock airport in Syracuse, just 35 miles south got 2.4" (inches that is not feet) since Sunday. That was their report on the cover of the Syracuse paper

[Sgoldie]

Good think I'm a hermit or else all this would get to me. We are still getting the paper, don't ask me how, as the mailbox which got knocked down by the plow last week is merely shoved into the middle of a snowbank.

So far it's not as bad as the '66 storm where I was able to 'roll' out to the telephone pole and sit on top of it. If you laid down on your stomach you could see the cars pass by down below on the narrow lane that had been plowed. That took a week, and it was a main state highway.

I can see Homeward Bound that you're familiar with lake effect snow too. Glen, I'm talking about the municipal snow pile where they take excess snow. Apparently it can get 30ft high. Interesting that you only got a couple of inches. I can only tell you what I see from immediately around the house at the moment. You'll have to come up here and see us.

[MoMark]

I'd be afraid of the roof collapsing

[Sgoldie]

That's why it was shoveled off today, cause more is coming.

[Sgoldie]

I goofed, the picts from a few days ago are under "Other Topics" - This week's weather... pg#3 as attachments. Not under US Section. The program wouldn't let me post them in two different threads.

[bellafinzi]

Crazy weather year in Upstate NY.

-Temperatures in September and October were way below normal
-Temperatures in November and December were way above normal
-First half of January was way above normal, second half way below normal
-February so far is way below normal

I don't remember anything like this weather pattern. Recently, I've never seen it this cold for this many weeks. The arctic outbreaks usually only last a few days before going back to normal. This arctic outbreak is going on for weeks with no end in site. Just crazy.

[nomoresnow]

Neat photos, sgoldie. I've been stuck in lake effect a couple of times, but nothing like that! The whole area must be shut down completely, like the ice storm a few years back. Hang in there!