What safety precautions should residents take during snowmelt season?

[OmCheeto]

It would be pretty tough getting up that hill! Do you know if the tram can operate under these conditions?

They are recommending to anyone who has to go to work that they park on the waterfront and ride the tram to the hill. I believe it was designed and built by a Swiss company, so I imagine that it's in it's element right now.

After it had been operational for a few months, I found that it was designed to operate in 70 mph sustained winds. They shut it down though when the winds exceed 50 mph. People kept barfing. Quite the e-ticket ride on a windy day.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Quite the e-ticket ride

That's a common expression of mine that not many people understand any more.

 

[OmCheeto]

That's a common expression of mine that not many people understand any more.

According to wiki, they've a new "e-ticket". Although now the 'e' stands for "electronic".

But back to the weather.
The snow is slowing down after dumping another 6" since last night.

Yesterday at 8am:

Today at 8am:

And yes Evo, that's an old bedsheet stapled and bungied to my carport. I did try and use my most christmassy colored one on the front.

 

[hypatia]

I just had to buy a roof shovel, I had over 13 inches on my roof, and ice damns were forming. But on the bright side, shoveling the roof is more fun then the driveway.

 

[Evo]

Wow, I am so glad the snow and ice missed us. The extreme cold is bad enough. Having to dig out is just miserable.

 

[turbo]

I just got back in from digging out of 18" of the stuff. The worst part is that the snow was fine and light, and the wind is howling, switching directions and gusting frequently. No matter what way I wanted to blow the snow, about half the time the wind wanted to drive it back into my face. Brr.

 

[Astronuc]

We have an accumulation of about 12-14 inches (30-35 cm).

Last night the low was 10°F (-12°C), and this afternoon, the high temperature might get to blistering 24°F (-4°C).

Tonight our low temperature is expected to be ~ 5°F (-15°C).

 

[Janus]

My two foot drift was back this morning. Just finished clearing the driveway back out. Unfortunately, I lived on a dead end street that the city hasn't gotten around to plowing yet, and even if I get out of the driveway, I might not be able to get to the main street.

I did walk over to NAPA auto parts and got a new battery. (up to now I was prepared to jump the car by using the battery from the Honda if I really needed to try to get out.)

Here's what it looks like today at 11:00 am, and it's still snowing.
The red car in the fore ground is the Honda, The other car is in the carport.
Portland may recycle, but apparently not in the snow, as our blue recycling container has not been touched.

http://home.earthlink.net/~parvey/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/snow3.jpg P.S. I just heard the the City of Gresham, A suburb just East of the Portland has declared a state of emergency. Also, the The Interstate bridge lift span is frozen and they can't lift it. This means that certain river traffic won't be able to get up or down the Columbia river.

 

[hypatia]

The city informed us that no side streets will be plowed this year, due to cut backs. So I shoveled the front of my house, then put one of the cars out there. THEN a snowplow comes by and ...yup..plows in my car.
As I stand in disbelief, shaking my fist and ..maybe cussing a bit. A neighbor comes out and explains to me that our street will always be plowed. Its a school bus and emergency route.

 

[Evo]

The city informed us that no side streets will be plowed this year, due to cut backs. So I shoveled the front of my house, then put one of the cars out there. THEN a snowplow comes by and ...yup..plows in my car.
As I stand in disbelief, shaking my fist and ..maybe cussing a bit. A neighbor comes out and explains to me that our street will always be plowed. Its a school bus and emergency route.

OH NO!

I remember so many times I would kill myself shoveling my driveway so I could back my car out, and just as soon as I finish, the snow plow would come through and push 3 feet of heavy ice and snow across the bottom of my driveway so I couldn't back out without shoveling again. That plowed snow is like trying to shovel a brick wall.

 

[Andre]

OH NO!

I remember so many times I would kill myself shoveling my driveway so i could back my car out, and just as soon as i finish, the snow plow would come through and push 3 feet of heavy ice and snow across the bottom of my driveway so I could back out without shoveling again. That plowed snow is like trying to shovel a brick wall.

I know all about that. We did have some very friendly county payed professional snow shovelers, who managed to aim their shovel to the next hill, keeping our driveway clear.

It's not cheap though

 

[Borek]

At least now you know you don't have to shovel the street.

Always look at the bright side of life

 

[turbo]

My pet peeve is the way the town applies "sand" to the roads for traction. Often the "sand" contains stones of an inch or more, which are h-e-double hockey sticks on windshields. Then the plow trucks sail through at speed, winging back the snow banks, and tossing the sand and stones onto lawns. Then, when it gets slippery after more traffic has compressed the remaining snow, they "sand" again. I need to start a sand pit! It's a racket.

 

[OmCheeto]

At least now you know you don't have to shovel the street.

Always look at the bright side of life

I hate having OCD. I shoveled my street again this morning after the weatherman said we wouldn't have any more snow.
Now it's snowing buckets again.
I think I'll let the mailman fend for himself.
Gads.

Bright side?
hmmm...
There's a chicken roasting in the oven.
I've got a nice warm fire going.
Fresh coffee.
I got the day off.
And they don't sell roof shovels within 100 miles.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

This is the time of year when I start thinking about Aruba. My wife said we were leaving the country if McCain won, and I said we would leave if Obama won. So it was inevitable that it would come to this, yet another all expenses paid two week vacation to one happy island. While you guys are shovelling the snow out of your driveways, we'll be shovelling the snow out of our Margaritta glasses. Right now I got to go take a look in my driveway. Someone left a lifesize ice scupture of my car there.

 

[turbo]

Right now I got to go take a look in my driveway. Someone left a lifesize ice scupture of my car there.

I just had huge piles of snow. Imagine my joy when I started digging around in the piles and found nice vehicles buried in there.

 

[edward]

Gees, I would hate to think this is all happening because a humming bird saw its Shadow at my house last Friday.

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/147/copyof1001050jpghumminghe9.jpg

We had a freeze warning the night before and I had just uncover the plants when this critter showed up.

 

[Evo]

Oh how cute! This was last week? Where do you live, because I want to be there!

 

[turbo]

Gees, I would hate to think this is all happening because a humming bird saw it's Shadow at my house last Friday.

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/147/copyof1001050jpghumminghe9.jpg

We had a freeze warning the night before and I had just uncover the plants when this critter showed up.

That means 30 more weeks of winter, edward! I'm beginning to feel some animosity toward you - hummingbirds and petunias, indeed!

 

[Astronuc]

P.S. I just heard the the City of Gresham, A suburb just East of the Portland has declared a state of emergency. Also, the The Interstate bridge lift span is frozen and they can't lift it. This means that certain river traffic won't be able to get up or down the Columbia river.

We had a state of emergency on Friday. Cars that we parked on snow emergency routes/streets had to be removed or they were towed.


Janus's post also reminded me of the situation about some (~12-15) years ago when the NE US had record cold weather with temps down around -20 to -10 F. Coal piles on barges and at coal-fired power plants froze, some rivers froze and so barges would deliver oil or coal, natural gas was diverted to heating and away from gas-fired power plants, and the reserve margins on the electrical grid was down to about 0.2%, rather than the normal value (which I don't recall at the moment). If any large plant had gone off-line, much of the NE was at risk of a blackout. The nuclear power plants kept the grid up!

 

[OmCheeto]

Ah haha!
How appropriate.
My neighbors lawn ornament has turned into Rudolf the Rednecked Rainslug.

We are famous for our http://www.slugqueeneugene.com/default.shtml" .

 

[edward]

Oh how cute! This was last week? Where do you live, because I want to be there!

I am In Tucson AZ. We had a freeze warning the night before so I had covered the plants. The humming bird waited around as I was uncovering them.

 

[Astronuc]

Gees, I would hate to think this is all happening because a humming bird saw its Shadow at my house last Friday.

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/147/copyof1001050jpghumminghe9.jpg

We had a freeze warning the night before and I had just uncover the plants when this critter showed up.

Personally, I think Edward and bird faked it with a set of high intensity lamps. How much did you pay the bird?

I bet the bird is on his way to Mexico for the winter.

 

[edward]

Personally, I think Edward and bird faked it with a set of high intensity lamps. How much did you pay the bird?

I bet the bird is on his way to Mexico for the winter.

The bird was happy with a nectar breakfast. The migration patterns have been changing. There were a lot of birds that wintered over here last year instead of flying on down south.

 

[wildman]

Actually two species are quite common here in Tucson in the winter, Anna's and Costa's. In addition, Broad-billed, Magnificent and Blue-Chinned hummers are seen in small numbers in the winter. It is a lot different here than the rest of the country.

 

[Astronuc]

The bird was happy with a nectar breakfast. The migration patterns have been changing. There were a lot of birds that wintered over here last year instead of flying on down south.

Since we've put out suet and keep the bird feeders full, we have a lot of birds that hang out here at winter time. It's 20°F and there will be all sorts of seed eaters out.

We have a neighborhood redbellied woodpecker who visits our birdfeeders. We have chickadees, titmice, goldfinches (with winter plummage), cardinals, various finches who hang out in our yard. I wonder where the heck they go at night.

Yesterday we had a falcon (merlin perhaps) or small hawk sitting on the iron shepherd's hook from which we hang the bird feeders. It just for a couple of minutes and then took off as soon as my wife was about to snap a picture.

I saw a kingfisher about 1 month ago down by the river. It looked like a bluish-grey woodpecker. It's a cool looking bird.

 

[wildman]

Since we've put out suet and keep the bird feeders full, we have a lot of birds that hang out here at winter time. It's 20°F and there will be all sorts of seed eaters out.

We have a neighborhood redbellied woodpecker who visits our birdfeeders. We have chickadees, titmice, goldfinches (with winter plummage), cardinals, various finches who hang out in our yard. I wonder where the heck they go at night.

Yesterday we had a falcon (merlin perhaps) or small hawk sitting on the iron shepherd's hook from which we hang the bird feeders. It just for a couple of minutes and then took off as soon as my wife was about to snap a picture.

I saw a kingfisher about 1 month ago down by the river. It looked like a bluish-grey woodpecker. It's a cool looking bird.

Watching birds is fun! No matter where you go, there they are.

 

[Astronuc]

It was a balmy 0°F (-18°C) at the back of the house at daybreak. At the moment, the temperature has warmed to 18°F (-7.8°C) in the back and slightly warmer 33°F (0.5°C) on the sunnier SE corner of the house.

We are supposed to have snow/sleet/rain tonight, fog with ice then rain tomorrow, but sunny with wind on Thursday.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vPfOjAw5Z0

 

[Redbelly98]

Since it's snowing, why not come to PF chat (open today and tomorrow):
https://www.physicsforums.com/chat/flashchat.php