Nasty Weather !!

[Pat Barry]

I know winter hits hard in certain areas and Boston sure seems to have been on the receiving end a lot this year... but thought I would share this just to put things a little more into perspective.

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You guys need a CNN stormwatcher team up there. Unfortunately its too far from the big news centers out east.

[Steve Schlumpf]

You guys need a CNN stormwatcher team up there. Unfortunately its too far from the big news centers out east.

You got that right!

[Lee Schierer]

It was -23 here last night. Some of our out door thermometers don't even go that low. Erie broke a 150 year old record for the coldest temperature. To top it off we lost power about 2:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. The house had cooled down to 55 before the power came back. Technically we had extreme low voltage. It read 48 volts on my volt meter. I pulled the main breaker to protect motors and such.

We have at least 30" on the ground. More in drifts, but we are in fifth place for snowiest US cities over 100,000 population. We're only 4-1/2" behind Boston.

[Jim Matthews]

This storm has hit those dependent on mass transit, hardest.
Boston commerce doesn't depend on the "T" but the support
staff for markets, hospitals and day labor jobs do.

You can't have a rail service when your electrified rail is under 2 feet of snow.
There's just no place to put it, in old cities like Boston.

I can remember a Philadelphia Winter like this in the late 1990s.
Everything just stopped.

There's gonna be a lot of leaky roofs need fixin' by Spring,
including mine. Guess who will drop a heating wire along their 2nd story gutters?

[Jason Roehl]

I hope this helps some of you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmN9xf8WUnc

[Pat Barry]

This storm has hit those dependent on mass transit, hardest.
Boston commerce doesn't depend on the "T" but the support
staff for markets, hospitals and day labor jobs do.

You can't have a rail service when your electrified rail is under 2 feet of snow.
There's just no place to put it, in old cities like Boston.

I can remember a Philadelphia Winter like this in the late 1990s.
Everything just stopped.

There's gonna be a lot of leaky roofs need fixin' by Spring,
including mine. Guess who will drop a heating wire along their 2nd story gutters?

Jim,
Those heating wires can do more damage than the snow.
Not to mention the gigantic icicles they can create.

PS - I hope you are not on your roof like the Boston area guy with a gas snowblower I saw on TV

[Jason Roehl]

PS - I hope you are not on your roof like the Boston area guy with a gas snowblower I saw on TV

I caught that, too. I got a chuckle out of that. Desperate times...

[Rick Moyer]

I hope this helps some of you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmN9xf8WUnc

Don't think I'd try that on a shingled roof, at least not mine anyway.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

How would you like to come to work only in February and March? By the guide, it was reported this guy takes 6 weeks each year working 8 hours a day to eliminate the snow from the rooftops in Yellowstone National Park. All this at an elevation probably over 7,000 feet above sea level.

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Notice his saw with a shovel handle sticking in the snow "bank". He cuts a block and leads it to the edge with his shovel by just tipping up the down hill leading edge. Then he pushes it over the edge.

Check out the tracks on the tour van in the first photo.

[John Coloccia]

It's about 10 degrees here at the moment. I was out in my leather jacket, and it felt downright warm and mild. LOL.

[Mike Cutler]

Pat Barry
" I hope you are not on your roof like the Boston area guy with a gas snowblower I saw on TV."

He was doing it wrong. You start at the top so that you have the snow below you for foot anchorage. The last section is done with a snow rake. If you start at the bottom you will be slipping all the way to the top. It's also safer by far with an electric snowblower.

Seriously though, it's pretty foolish to do it on a pitched roof. It's very common on flat roofs. BTDT.

[Dan Hintz]

Temps actually made it into the teens this morning... yesterday I drove to work in 7 degree "warm" air. The forecaster can't seem to get it right, though. Two days ago they claimed 6", we got 1, yesterday was supposed to be 6-9", and we got 3. Not complaining about the lack of snow, mind you, just that I know when they say 1" we'll get 12 to even out the averages.

I decided not to try out my new Ariens blower and just shoveled... it was really light and airy (a nice change from the usual wet and heavy stuff), and I needed the workout. I just wish the snowplow would clear the driveways of people who pay by dumping the load in front of ours.

[Jason Roehl]

Don't think I'd try that on a shingled roof, at least not mine anyway.

I don't think it would be that big of an engineering challenge to keep it from catching the layers of shingles on its way up. There's no need to clear the last 1-2" of snow off a roof, just the several feet above that. I'd say probably a couple small caster wheels on the leading edge of the device would hold it up enough to make it work as demonstrated on a shingled roof.