The big winter storm a comin!

[markiver54]

We already have about 5 inches, and it's still coming down very heavily.

[Hatchdog]

It’s a backward year weather wise. Here in the Inland Pacific Northwest we have had hardly any snow and our temps have been way above average. While some of you in the SE are experiencing snow, ice, cold temps and other winter malady’s. Hand on, spring’s coming.

[Mags]

You can maybe rest easy.

down here dump truck with blade = snow plow

Yes that is the typical description of a snow plow. There are also heavy duty weighted pickups and deicer tankers that are also 'snow plows'.
So now I'm confused as to why "...there isn't a "snow plow" in this state...". There are also pictures of snow plows on the NCDOT website.

[JEBar]

So now I'm confused as to why "...there isn't a "snow plow" in this state

historically, the reason is purely the fact that our norm is we don't have all that much snow .... economically it makes sense to purchase multi use vehicles .... like a dump truck and put a blade on it .... years ago they had rigs built to only use for snow removal .... so far as I know they still do

[clovishound]

Well, it's started here. It that small flake stuff, although it's coming down pretty heavily for that type of snow. It's already starting to stick on the lawn a little, and very well on the cars. Air temp is just below freezing. If this keeps up we will likely get the 3" promised, if not more.

[CT_Shooter]

CT is probably going to be spared all but the wind and cold air from this system. It could have been a whole lot worse, so I'm not complaining. It was -1° at my house this morning; not safe to be outside for too long in the wind, but we'll likely avoid the treacherous, icy snowfall that's happening just a few hundred miles south of here.

Good luck to everyone on the southern east coast. It looks like it's going to be a very challenging few days. Take good care and be safe.

[Sir Henry]

It’s finally warm enough to plow with my tractor. It’s not enclosed so I’m out in the elements. Today was sunny and it felt good.

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[daytime dave]

Gene, that tractor sure does a good job. My step son uses my Mahindra with a back blade to do his driveway. I still prefer a snow blower. Many fewer rocks in the lawn in the spring.
There are plenty of real snow plows in the north east. NY State has snow plows that pull a trailer plow on interstates near cities. They are bizarre. Some places have dedicated sidewalk snow plows and blowers. They are specially built to the width of the sidewalk. I'm sure they are expensive, but fill a role.
We have many private operators who have expensive plows on the front of their trucks. My neighbor has a nice plow on his 2500 Chevrolet. He goes all over plowing before and after his regular job.
The town I used to live in allowed the DPW plows to plow out all churches after the roads were done. Then one person complained and that was the end of that.
As far as white outs Jim, you don't want to be in one while driving. Visibility is non existent. You have to know the road or you can run off of it. They usually come with the "lake effect" bands of snow.

[Sir Henry]

Gene, that tractor sure does a good job. My step son uses my Mahindra with a back blade to do his driveway. I still prefer a snow blower. Many fewer rocks in the lawn in the spring.
There are plenty of real snow plows in the north east. NY State has snow plows that pull a trailer plow on interstates near cities. They are bizarre. Some places have dedicated sidewalk snow plows and blowers. They are specially built to the width of the sidewalk. I'm sure they are expensive, but fill a role.
We have many private operators who have expensive plows on the front of their trucks. My neighbor has a nice plow on his 2500 Chevrolet. He goes all over plowing before and after his regular job.
The town I used to live in allowed the DPW plows to plow out all churches after the roads were done. Then one person complained and that was the end of that.
As far as white outs Jim, you don't want to be in one while driving. Visibility is non existent. You have to know the road or you can run off of it. They usually come with the "lake effect" bands of snow.

Yes I see them when I go to the big city of Medford ( population 4,349). But here in the town of Hill with a population 333 spread out over 37.5 square miles a big dump truck and plow aren’t to be seen unless you are on a county road. Most township roads are gravel and need to be graded in the summer and we can’t afford both a big dump truck plow and a grader. I know the graders name. I see him at ballgames.

[clovishound]

Here is our pathetic 2-3 inches of snow. The roads in the neighborhood aren't too bad, but there are some very slick patches here and there. I almost slipped and busted my Nikon on my walk through the neighborhood this morning. I decided not to try and drive to downtown Summerville to take some pictures.

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[JEBar]

Sunday Feb 1st .... for us, measurable snow happens but not too often .... our snow is heavy, wet icy and does make good snowballs .... fluffy dry snow is rare .... last night we had 2 - 3" dry powdery snow ..... first time I remember being able to take a broom and sweep snow off of our steps ..... they say our low tonight will be 7 degrees .... for us that is really cold, as a side note, our temp has only fallen below 0 four times in recorded history .... in the 3rd picture Maureen can be seen walking Zena

[Hatchdog]

Great pics all, I kinda forgot what snow looks like.

[Ernie]

Got to do a little touch up with the blower. Down to 2 neighbors to help as the couple behind me went to Florida for a week.

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[dave77]

We have many private operators who have expensive plows on the front of their trucks. My neighbor has a nice plow on his 2500 Chevrolet. He goes all over plowing before and after his regular job.
The town I used to live in allowed the DPW plows to plow out all churches after the roads were done. Then one person complained and that was the end of that.

The school district I worked for had snow plows on most of the maintenance trucks, they'd have to start plowing around 3 AM to get all the parking lots cleared before people started arriving. I didn't have to start until around 5AM to get the sidewalks, ramps, etc. cleared.

The district was funny about purchasing trucks for maintenance. When the district across the river needed a truck they would go buy a new one. Our's would go buy a surplus truck somewhere that would have 150k miles on it. I remember one of the guys telling me that when he went to get one of the new Boss V-blade plows installed on his truck the guy said "you know the plow were putting on this truck is worth 3 times more than the truck is worth".

[JEBar]

I remember one of the guys telling me that when he went to get one of the new Boss V-blade plows installed on his truck the guy said "you know the plow were putting on this truck is worth 3 times more than the truck is worth".

based on 30+ years working for the state of North Carolina, that sounds pretty much like they do here .... well not exactly, I don't recall them going to the expense of buying a V-blade plow .....

[dave77]

I remember one of the guys telling me that when he went to get one of the new Boss V-blade plows installed on his truck the guy said "you know the plow were putting on this truck is worth 3 times more than the truck is worth".

based on 30+ years working for the state of North Carolina, that sounds pretty much like they do here .... well not exactly, I don't recall them going to the expense of buying a V-blade plow .....

I think they only bought it because the way a new school's parking lot was set up pretty much required it for efficient plowing. When I started working there I had floor care equipment that was over 30 years old. I only had a small rubber blade snow blower, the only reason I got upgraded to a heavy duty track drive snowblower was because the city changed from plowing the street snow to the center of the road to plowing it to the side of the road so I needed something powerful enough to blow plowed snow off the sidewalk onto the playground. Couldn't leave a berm of snow on the street as that was where the buses picked up and dropped off the kids.

[Hatchdog]

Got to do a little touch up with the blower. Down to 2 neighbors to help as the couple behind me went to Florida for a week.IMG_0900.jpeg

Bad week to travel to Florida. Brrrrrrr

[fortyshooter]

Time to celebrate around here....the temp has hit 39F !!! Hope more of our ice will melt away from last week storm. Can't wait to see sunny 60+ degrees again!

[JEBar]

this latest winter storm has come and gone .... during the coldest temps, the water in our daughter's home apparently froze .... we shut off the breaker to the well pump and called our local plumber .... he already had a stack of calls and put us on his list .... yesterday they came by and immediately started diagnosing the problem .... it turned out to have no relationship with the single digit temps .... would you believe that the well's submersible pump had gone bad .... today he returned with a replacement, the pictures pretty much tell the story .... once the pump was operational they did a thorough inspection (including pressure testing) in and under her home .... happy to report, the freezing temps didn't cause any related issues

[dave77]

Hate to think about the submersible pump in my well. Put in in 1986 so it could go anytime. It's at 320 feet and on galvanized pipe. I've been told it will be several thousand dollars to replace, a lot of the cost in labor. Hopefully won't take too long to replace, I had to haul water for a few months but I was much younger then and I could still shower and do laundry at my mom's.