Winter Storm

[bjl584]

All they are talking about here (Pittsburgh) is the coming winter storm.
Looks like we are going to get around a foot or more of snow where I live.
The stores are crazy with people panic buying.

I am loaded up on supplies.
Plenty of food, batteries, gasoline for the generator, diesel for the tractor.

I'll be settled in this weekend watching it snow.

For anyone affected by the coming storm, stay safe out there.

[james.hendrickson]

When is this thing actually supposed to hit?

[ua_guy]

For you Southern folk who aren't used to freezing, get ready... You can save yourself a lot of money and heartache, and potential insurance claims. Your homes may have things like water lines run in attic spaces, HVAC equipment and water heaters in attic spaces or outdoors. You need to winterize those things or make sure they don't freeze.

Boats, RV's, engine blocks that use water as coolant ... make sure water is drained and good antifreeze is where it needs to be.

All things to think about before the storm comes and before power goes out.

Be safe out there. Stay off the roads if you can.

[disneysteve]

It's heading our way, too. It's looking to be our biggest storm in 10+ years. Potentially 6-12" of snow and ice. Doesn't bother us. We'll stay inside. We have someone who does our snow removal so we'll be paying for that happily. My daughter and I both have 3-day shipping on our ebay listings so anything that sells over the weekend doesn't need to go out until Wednesday which will be no problem. As long as the power stays on we'll be fine. If the power goes out and it looks like it will be out for an extended period, we'll pack our bags and go to a hotel. It wouldn't be the first time we've done that.

[bjl584]

When is this thing actually supposed to hit?

Late Saturday night into early Sunday morning

[Fishindude77]

It was 0 degrees here this morning and supposed to stay in that temp range for next week or more. Expecting somewhere around 6" of snow possibly starting tonight.
No big deal. I've got the tractor and UTV on trickle chargers in the barn and a shed full of firewood. We've been burning the woodstove in house for a couple days now.

Just picked up a case of beer and we have enough groceries to last a long time. We've got 4wd vehicles so we can get around.
Just another good old midwestern winter. Looking forward to a good snow storm.

[kork13]

Earlier this week we (in North Japan) had a blizzard that lasted about 3-4 days, shut down some stuff on the worst (2nd) day, but overall not terrible.... Only about 18" of snow. (yes, for us 1½ feet of snow across a couple days is "only" ) It really depends on how common this kind of thing is for an area. For us, we're pretty used to it (as I said at the time when my flight to Hawaii was delayed a couple hours while they cleared the runway, "it's a standard Tuesday") & it's more inconvenient than anything.

Everybody panicking is absurd. Some basic preparations, a reasonable stock of backup food/water (which everyone should have anyway for 1-3 days' worth) & an ability/willingness to be flexible is really all it takes. My brother in OKC & BIL in Tennessee both gratefully have about the same perspective... They'll just stay in the house, then dig out once the storm is past them.

As Steve mentioned, just leaving town is always a decent option as well, assuming your house is reasonably winter-proofed.

[disneysteve]

We were in Trader Joe's today. We don't normally shop there but there are a couple of items that we like and we happened to be passing by so we stopped in. Not only was the place packed, the shelves were bare. I haven't seen them like that since the peak of COVID. The storm isn't expected to hit us until tomorrow night into Sunday but clearly people were stocking up.

I never really understand the panic shopping before a storm. We probably won't be able to get out (or shouldn't) on Sunday and maybe possibly Monday but that's it. By Tuesday things should be back to normal. Do people really not have enough in their houses to last them 2 days without making a mad rush to the store prior to the storm?

The 2 things we picked up today are absolutely not necessities and had nothing to do with the storm coming. It was just convenient to stop when we did. I did our normal grocery shopping on Wednesday and didn't buy anything different or extra because of the impending storm.

I also don't understand the people flooding to stores to buy shovels, ice scrapers, and salt. What did you use last time it snowed? We've already had 3 snowfalls this season that needed to be shoveled. What did all of those people do those times?

[ua_guy]

I think a lot of people are hand-to-mouth in general. Not just finances, but in forethought, planning. Why think about tomorrow when there are fires to put out today? Deal with it when it gets here, kinda thing.

[Jluke]

We just went through a surprise snow event the weekend of Jan 17 in eastern PA. Several rounds of snow (5”, 2”, 2” unofficial).

That could have depleted supplies (I’m low on rock salt). The shovel thing is always interesting. Maybe people only had one in their household and want to add another for others to help shovel out. Or they just let the snow go since it wasn’t a huge amount and could just drive through it whereas 10-16 forecasted means you’re going to have to dig out.


either way it’s the calm before the storm here.

[srblanco7]

Our forecast is for 12" to 18" of snow and wind chill temps at -15 to -25 F. Peak storm is Sunday into Monday. Monday morning commute will certainly be a bit of a mess. Thankfully, that no longer applies to me.

Will fill our gas cans today - and we have a generator that can power our whole house. So we'll just sit back and enjoy a nice winter storm.

[Fishindude77]

Don't overlook the accuracy history of our weathermen.
The whole big scare might not amount to much at all? We will know soon enough.

[ua_guy]

The European ECMWF weather modeling says the South is going to get pounded. It's both more consistent and accurate for this kind of forecasting over the US GFS model.

[Fishindude77]

Wasn't much of a big deal here, we got about 5" of snow. It's still pretty cold (single digits) but some of that is to be expected in January in the midwest.

[bjl584]

We ended up with about a foot of snow
I finished digging everything out this morning.
Now we are bracing for bitter cold temperatures the rest of the week.