Biggest storm of the season ....

[czac]

....they are talking 8-12" snow and ice and my trike is in the Garage up on blocks with no rear end in it!! Booo!

Anyhow, I just got an email ( "Storm bulletin") from the National Weather Service.

ATTENTION
The National Weather Service in Upton Has Issued A Winter Storm Advisory..........

A Winter storm warning is in effect for the entire Northeast.

Snow with Ice and gusty winds are expected for late Wednesday evening until Friday night

Snow accumulations could reach 8" With 12" possible in inland areas

Rain / sleet / freezing rain is also expected as are disruptions in power due to
ice laden tree branches and wires.

Winds out of the North / Northeast at 10-15 MPH gusting from 25 to 35 Mph... higher on the shoreline.

Heavy delays in travel along the I95 Corridor in CT and RI are to be expected

The National Weather Service advises that in these types of situations you should:
Freak the hell out
Run around in circles screaming
Sob heavily into a blanket or pillow
Gather loved ones and be sure to tell them how much you love them all

Rush off to the store for supplies like:
bread
milk
eggs
cigarettes and other necessities. Get enough that can last a family of 15 - 20 about 6 weeks

Weather officials also advise you to be aware you may be spending extended amounts of time in your house with your family waiting for
the plows to dig out the roads
We are very sorry for this inconvenience
Expect these delays to last anywhere from 2 to 4 hours before road travel can resume.

:D:D:D

[trike savior]

I always liked the tornado drill in school. Put you head between your legs and kiss your arse goodbye.

On a more serious note good luck to all of you under This storm. Sounds like it will cause a lot of destruction. Be prepared and be safe.

[Ghostv2]

I like the part where they tell you to go out and buy cigarettes, an essential survival tool in case of an emergency.

[kb0nly]

I like the part where they tell you to go out and buy cigarettes, an essential survival tool in case of an emergency.

Thats because when there is no value to cash money cigarettes are good as gold and can get you anything! LOL

[tri again]

Earthquake prep kit?
food and water but EVERYone would take a cigarette over a can o' beans for sure.
especially when there are none around.
Trade 'em for gas and propane.

We got iced out for 3 or 4 days.
Lucky enuf to have tons of firewood and virtually unlimited hot water.
One of those 58$ hf 12 volt jump boxes ran a 7" tv with a roof antenna for a few days and is rechargable in the truck and the wall.
Also ran the farm truck near the barn with 50 feet of wire for more 12 volt power.
800 watt 2 stroke generator, yas, again, harbor freight, 89 bucks, and I'd run the fridge for an hour or so 2 - 3x a day to keep the freezer portion at 10 degrees F.
Yesterday was a neighborhood wide bbq with all the steaks and chops that sorta thawed a little.

Phone lines are buried so I actually plugged a phone line into this sillylaptop and went back in time to dialup land.
Kinda fun but sad to see so many people unprepared and going WHERE? and for WHAT freakin' reason? with black ice and nothin' but trouble on the roads.

[bigdaddyvw185]

....they are talking 8-12" snow and ice and my trike is in the Garage up on blocks with no rear end in it!! Booo!

cigarettes and other necessities. Get enough that can last a family of 15 - 20 about 6 weeks


:D:D:D

Well first off.... Make your way over to my house during this storm and ill have the 200s here waiting for ya! Ill be out plowing with the quad so you can get your riding Fix with the 200s :D

I was out buying the necessities tonight... 2 packs of cigarettes and GAS lol.

Everyone have some fun in the snow! :D and most importantly be safe!

[Thorpe]

You non snow states make us "Northerners" chuckle... You know what we do to prep for a big storm up here...? Wash the truck and fill it with gas! Gotta go to work in the morning!

[kb0nly]

You non snow states make us "Northerners" chuckle... You know what we do to prep for a big storm up here...? Wash the truck and fill it with gas! Gotta go to work in the morning!

I was about to say the same thing Thorpe... But i will add one item to the list, check the toilet paper supply, not fun ripping apart newspaper when the store runs out because some people panicked and raided the store... LOL

What i do, check the gas in the Jeep and the 200ES, check the 5 gal jugs, check oil in the generator, and buy bread. Why bread? Because our grocery store gets its bread from a bakery a good drive from here, so its usually the first to sell out and the last to get stocked if we get snowed or iced in a few days. So i always keep a half dozen or so loaves in the freezer, but i can make my own to with my bread machine.

I will say one thing, snow is one problem, but ice sucks no matter where you live. Over reacting for an inch of snow makes me laugh, but crying about an inch of ice i can relate!

[trike savior]

you guys need to remember that some of these states, like Georgia, have 5 plows in the whole state. they just cannot deal with this weather the way we can with each township having a whole fleet.

[tri again]

you guys need to remember that some of these states, like Georgia, have 5 plows in the whole state. they just cannot deal with this weather the way we can with each township having a whole fleet.
CNN said Atlanta got 90 million $ worth of snow equip after their last episode but it never seemed to get out.
Most importantly, it's very easy to get used to predictable weather but many got blindsided with more on the way.
People make fun of the clothes in my car and water tanks around my woodstove, UNTIL they need a shower after a week.
That earthquake prep is the worst because,: a) no warnings at all and b) time flys and stuff gets old. At least bad weather is cyclic and you know it will happen at least once a season, so food and fuels get rotated.
For some reason, my 220v well pump generator fired up FIRST pull after 2 years. Non ethanol and mystery oil in the gas...a discontinued coleman that they say is not worth having or fixing as parts are unavailable.

Been lots of fun around here, especially trike runs with chainsaws but sad when people get hurt for no good reason.

[Mosh]

I don't care who you are or where you live or how accustomed you are to winter weather. This has by far been the worst winter I can recall in over 20 years. It has been wide spread cold with huge snow amounts. We have gone through 2 times as much wood and propane than ever before only 2 weeks into February.
The west had major drought then followed by heavy rains, the south is getting hammered and southeren crops are being destroyed.
Even if you are used to snow and cold in the north it has been too cold to go out and enjoy it.
It is almost like we are being punished by nature for something. I am ready for it to end.

[shovelryder]

I don't care who you are or where you live or how accustomed you are to winter weather. This has by far been the worst winter I can recall in over 20 years. It has been wide spread cold with huge snow amounts. We have gone through 2 times as much wood and propane than ever before only 2 weeks into February.
The west had major drought then followed by heavy rains, the south is getting hammered and southeren crops are being destroyed.
Even if you are used to snow and cold in the north it has been too cold to go out and enjoy it.
It is almost like we are being punished by nature for something. I am ready for it to end. Lol.....Ours is just a plain old winter as far as Im concerned.....I remember being a kid in Georgia.....The statewide panic when a snowflake fell.....It was an event!

[atc500x]

It's funny how a snow storm is different for you and us in quebec.The 8-12 inch of snow is a question of 1-2 days and it's cleaned,no need to stress with it.But this year the snow is in the US,almost nothing in quebec,boooooooorrrriiinnnggggg.

[dickieg89]

The great thing about CT when I lived in Middletown and Higganum was that the state shut down when these storms hit and grounded the semis. They aren't setup for the snow in WNY and it saved a lot of accidents and lives.

[Caminofeld]

My GF and I barhopped around town last night then terrorized my parent's town (ripping through the courthouse park, etc...) til the wee hours of the morning. I needed more, so I rode into work this AM.

186668

[kb0nly]

I think those folks down south just need to do what we do when a storm hits, stay inside, watch tv, play games with the kids, tinker in the workshop, clean house... Etc... LOL

The only thing that makes a storm epic bad is how the people react to it, going out trying to drive in that stuff is a recipe for disaster no matter where you are from or live. My motto has always been if i need 4wd to go anywhere then i don't need to go anywhere. Not that i can't, just don't want to.

Even here in MN when we get a foot of snow or drifting there is still the idiots that go out and get stuck in the middle of nowhere, keeps MNDOT and MSP busy rescuing them all. Even when they issue no travel advisories the overconfident or just plain stupid end up going out and causing troubles. Can't be helped no matter where you live. I have the luxury of living in a small town, stores within three blocks of home, kids in local school, work in town, so storm hits i just stay put.

[kb0nly]

My GF and I barhopped around town last night then terrorized my parent's town (ripping through the courthouse park, etc...) til the wee hours of the morning. I needed more, so I rode into work this AM.

186668

That picture is HILARIOUS... LOL

[Caminofeld]

What's even funnier is that the pic is our decontamination room in the Emergency Dept. This morning I used the shower hose in the room to wash the road salt residue off my trike:)

[Thorpe]

-30 and blowing snow, I still make the 35 mile drive to work... But don't get me wrong, I would have rather been home with a cup of coffee and the tv remote in hand!

[ColtonGG33]

Last week It said we were supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow, woke up today with 15+ inches of snow -_-

[Scootertrash]

-30 and blowing snow, I still make the 35 mile drive to work... But don't get me wrong, I would have rather been home with a cup of coffee and the tv remote in hand!

I work outside doing construction work and I've had a whoppin 5 days off because of the cold, and it's been friggin cold up here this year. I think we've had like 40+ days of below 0 weather. Granted, we do have heaters available in the lower levels of the building, but that doesn't make it any warmer going back outside after you warm up.

Part of the problem with these weather incidents is people never seem to learn from the previous ones, along with the fact that the media makes a mountain out of a mole hill. Well, aside from hurricanes maybe, but if your area is prone to hurricanes, ummm....

Every time there is a weather "incident" the stores are stripped bare of the necessities (take note-"necessities" water, milk, bread, soup, soap, etc, etc, etc) by by swarming throngs of people.

More people need to go "prepper". Well maybe semi-prepper. A few years ago I convinced my wife that we need to stock up on "necessities". She was convinced that a weeks worth of food was more than enough. Hell, a weeks worth won't even get you thru a good old fashioned F3 tornado catastrophe. So she gradually started stocking up: 4 loaves of bread instead of 2 one week. 12 cans of soup instead of 7 the next week. 10 cans of veggies instead of 5 the next, etc, etc, etc. Make use of coupons and sales, you'd be amazed at how much you can save a week and turn it into you're emergency stash of food. Be sure to rotate your stock as it is used and you buy more.

We started doing this when my wife was unemployed for 2 years, we were sending her to college and I was working limited hours, and we still managed to built up a good stock for emergencies. We scrimped and saved and finally bought a freezer last fall and now we also have a quarter of beef in the freezer and we're planning on getting a side of pork in the spring. The meat is light years better than the store bought stuff.

When we see stories on the news about these mad rushes for food and supplies we just smile. Hell, these aren't even incidents that would be considered a "real" emergency. What would happen if emergency services couldn't get thru, The Red Cross was overloaded, etc for an extended amount of time?

As far as these snow storms and the like:
If you live in a snow prone state, get snow tires. Seriously. "All Season Tires"? Ahhh yea, they're not really "all season". I drive an '03 Impala and the Wife drives an '00 Monte Carlo SS. On the advice of a couple of coworkers, I put Blizzaks on both this year. I was amazed. Night and Day difference. I'm also scraping together the cash for spare rims so I don't have to pay to swap the tires onto and off of the rims every year.
It cost about 600 for the tires new. Expensive you say? How much is your life worth? Or that of your family? My coworkers have gotten 4-5 seasons off of their Blizzaks. (You don't want to use them in the summer, too soft of a rubber compound, they'll wear too fast.)

For you young whippersnappers, there used to be a time when everyone swapped out to snow tires before winter, and at times used tire chains in heavy snow and ice storms.

I apologize for the Barnett length post. ;)


ETA: Don't forget to stock up the liquor cabinet too!!

[El Camexican]

Nothing like you guys have had to deal with up there (a buddy in TX mentioned the other day that they should have had the winter Olympics in Dallas) but I am sick of the weather down here. Since November we’ve been bouncing between mid 30’s and mid 85’s. It ALWAYS rains when it drops below 40 and even when we get into the 80’s the concrete house stays in the 50’s. It’s like walking into a freezer. I’ve been sick so many times I’ve lost count and my electric bill is 5X normal. If this happens again next year I’m going to have to buy a furnace and plumb it into the A/C ducts, or just move to Ecuador. Stay safe and warm guys.

[kb0nly]

Scootertrash nailed it with that post... That's pretty much how we are used to living up here in these parts.

In July 2011 we got hit by a tornado here, trashed my house, had a tarp roof while waiting for materials and repairs. The lumber yards were weeks behind on deliveries of building materials and couldn't truck the stuff in fast enough, the local Menard's got cleaned out of shingles and vinyl siding in a few days after people started getting insurance checks, etc.

It hit on a Friday afternoon, no power until Sunday evening. It was hot, humid, and at the best unbearable without at least a fan and cold water. People were shoveling out their freezers by Saturday night because they were thawing out, lots of spoiled food went into the garbage the next week, i saw the garbage cans on the curbs piled high with wasted food. Can't always be helped, but there was a lot of cases that it could have been. Most people just couldn't get ice or power, every store in 50 miles ran out of generators. Those of us that had them took shifts watching guard over it.

Long story short, my family was safe despite the house being a disaster. We had running water, food, power from the generator, air conditioning for the heat, and the help of friends to clean up. Three days were spent just cleaning up the downed trees on my property, during that time we had plenty of food, hot showers, cold bedrooms, and everyone was happy. Even at the worst weekend of our lives we were happy because we had what we needed, everyone was ok, and we were just astonished at how badly prepared everyone else was. The salvation army came through on Saturday giving people water and ice and food as needed, when they got to me i told them i'm fine, i got everything i need. The gal asked are you sure? I said you look hot from walking around want to come in and cool off? She stepped in my house and saw my kids watching a movie and enjoying the AC as we were taking a break from the heat. She was shocked at how well off and happy we were despite our predicament... LOL

Be prepared, its not just the boy scout motto!