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New Snowmageddon 2016
The NWS and Wunderground are saying we may get 28" of snow before it's over on Sunday. Farther south in NC, where my dad lives, they're predicting 8-10" of snow and ice. This could be a really hugely disruptive and dangerous storm.

The federal government is shutting down at noon. DC is saying they hope to be dug out in time for Monday's rush hour(s), but that may be very optimistic.

I'll be setting up our generator and getting more gas for it in a bit. I hope we don't need it.

Here's hoping that it's not as bad as it could be!!

Cheers,
Scott.
New Cringers Fossed for you!
New Good luck!
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
New When I was a child in New Jersey . . .
. . I always wished for a deep snow so I could dig tunnels in it - but one never came.

I'm not a child anymore, so I'm glad I live in Southern California.
New an old friend
...who spent his latter childhood in Montreal before moving to Los Angeles, recounted a tale of how he and a chum built a "snow fort" following a heavy blizzard there. Nick went home for lunch; the other kid remained in the fort and was rendered "chum" indeed when a big industrial strength snow-removal vehicle came through the site, which had been erected mid-street.

As a child of the west coast, I have always regarded snow as something to be visited of set purpose, rather than a phenomenon that arrived at one's own neighborhood unbidden (I was twenty the first time I saw snow actually falling one memorably cld December in 1972). May Another Scott and all who sail in Snowmageddon ride this one out in comfort, safety and warmth.

cordially,
New thats a good thing being fully prepared
that usally ends up not being so bad that you will need it.
always look out for number one and don't step in number two
New Nice to be wintering in FL and not where locals don't know how to drive in snow.
Alex

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

-- Isaac Asimov
New If you go out, just after..
couldn't hurt to have some edibles in pocket/car trunk? . Ferals and other critters about ..will be in extremis.

Just sayin.. here: [BBC] "a once in a hundred year spectacular." Bare shelves in stores.

Will be checking in at W.U. ..tryin not to feel guilty because ... California,
(Youse guys get to gloat when ... Acadia. See, it all evens out.)
New I've got 3 suet feeders out, and a couple of shelled sunflower feeders.
Lots of cardinals and the ubiquitous sparrows were busy. There was an owl watching them and the squirrels earlier in the day, but he got chased away by 3 crows that were pestering him. We've also got a couple of small woodpeckers, some chickadees, some doves, and the occasional blue jay at the moment.

I do expect the critters to be hungry. I'm nearly out of sunflower seed (expecting more as soon as UPS starts delivering again), but have more suet I can put out once I'm reasonably sure it won't get buried by snow.



We've got about 12" of snow on the ground now - it's been snowing since about 1 PM. It's been pretty steady all day and all night so far - very powdery. The wind is supposed to pick up and we're supposed to get some stronger bands of snow later.

Looking at the radar, it looks to me like we'll get some heavy stuff overnight but then it will be done. Unless the backend suddenly gets some more moisture somewhere, it sure looks to me like it'll be over here very early tomorrow - about 12 hours sooner than they seem to be projecting. I doubt we'll get over 18" (on the low end of the forecast, but still pretty close!). One of the local TV weather people had a model up saying that Dulles will get 30.1 inches of snow. It must be right, it's got a decimal point!!1 :-/

No problems with the power around here, but the NYTimes says 100,000+ are without power in NC. They got a lot of sleet and ice down there. My dad is doing Ok so far. (whew!)

Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone. So far, it's working!

Cheers,
Scott.
New Re: 100,000+ are without power in NC
Duke Energy folks are idiots when it comes to their distribution network. They are wired out like a tree. Cut a limb, and everything further out is dead too. In upstate New York there was a lot of net wiring. Cut a net strand and the effects were very local. In Charlotte, we had more outages in a year than we did in a decade in NY.

One can be minimalist or one can be a survivalist! :)

Crossing fingers for you!
Alex

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

-- Isaac Asimov
New "Smart Grid" - We need it...
Too many power companies seem to think that their job is to spend as little as possible on their distribution network. The main power company in Maryland was notorious for not trimming trees around their lines. VA would be fine when a storm rolled through, but MD would have tens of thousands without power due to fallen trees. They finally got enough heat to start doing more - when their proposed rate increases were rejected...



I didn't measure the snow this morning, but eyeballing it it seemed like maybe 18 inches. We had about a 3 hour lull, then it started up again a few minutes ago. I just got back from walking Sophie. We walked in the streets that had been plowed and it was fine. I decided to take a shortcut through a park to get back - that was a workout. A few hundred yards of virgin snow nearly up to my knees. Sophie was hopping the whole way. It was a workout for her too - with luck it will keep her from wanting to go in and out every 10 minutes the rest of the day... ;-)

Lots of sidewalks and driveways have been shoveled or cleaned out with a snow blower. I haven't done ours yet. I was thinking of doing so after resting from our walk, but the way it's snowing and blowing now I think I'll wait...

We've had more snow here than this - I can still see railings on our deck that have been buried before (when we had over 2' in the span of a week or so). But it's not quitting...

I hope we don't have too many more weird swings this winter. I'm worried about how the trees are going to survive (it was 70F not that long ago). It looks like we're supposed to get rain and snow on Tuesday... :-/

Here's hoping the rain and snow in the West continues in a way that helps to break the drought!

Cheers,
Scott.
New Hmm. Didn't notice until now that the GIF isn't a snapshot but is "live". Sorry for the dupe.
New No grid is what we need.
Fuel cells in every home. That'd fix it. ;0)
New There is some appeal in that...
Fuel cells need methane or hydrogen to work.

Wikipedia:

It is also important to take losses due to fuel production, transportation, and storage into account. Fuel cell vehicles running on compressed hydrogen may have a power-plant-to-wheel efficiency of 22% if the hydrogen is stored as high-pressure gas, and 17% if it is stored as liquid hydrogen.[62] Fuel cells cannot store energy like a battery,[63] except as hydrogen, but in some applications, such as stand-alone power plants based on discontinuous sources such as solar or wind power, they are combined with electrolyzers and storage systems to form an energy storage system. Most hydrogen, however, is produced by steam methane reforming, and so most hydrogen production emits carbon dioxide.[64] The overall efficiency (electricity to hydrogen and back to electricity) of such plants (known as round-trip efficiency), using pure hydrogen and pure oxygen can be "from 35 up to 50 percent", depending on gas density and other conditions.[65] While a much cheaper lead–acid battery might return about 90%, the electrolyzer/fuel cell system can store indefinite quantities of hydrogen, and is therefore better suited for long-term storage.


I'm a big fan of "all of the above" when it comes to non-fossil fuels. There's still a lot that needs to be done to increase efficiency and bring costs down. We shouldn't optimize "too early" in deciding our preferred new power sources, just as we shouldn't do that in software development. Local generation probably should be a big part of it, but there are efficiency benefits of having larger plants generating power for, say, 1000 homes, also too.

Cheers,
Scott.
     Snowmageddon 2016 - (Another Scott) - (13)
         Cringers Fossed for you! -NT - (mmoffitt)
         Good luck! -NT - (malraux)
         When I was a child in New Jersey . . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (1)
             an old friend - (rcareaga)
         thats a good thing being fully prepared - (boxley)
         Nice to be wintering in FL and not where locals don't know how to drive in snow. -NT - (a6l6e6x)
         If you go out, just after.. - (Ashton) - (6)
             I've got 3 suet feeders out, and a couple of shelled sunflower feeders. - (Another Scott) - (5)
                 Re: 100,000+ are without power in NC - (a6l6e6x) - (4)
                     "Smart Grid" - We need it... - (Another Scott) - (3)
                         Hmm. Didn't notice until now that the GIF isn't a snapshot but is "live". Sorry for the dupe. -NT - (Another Scott)
                         No grid is what we need. - (mmoffitt) - (1)
                             There is some appeal in that... - (Another Scott)

I miss the old days when we used to talk about chocolate.
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