It's the Holiday Season

[mchain]

Our White Christmas arrive a day late.
<snip image>

Our snow has arrived in liquid form, temperatures a bit warm for snow. Yesterday and most of today has been above 7⁰c.  Overcast and miserable.

Better to have some weather than to have none, a.k.a desert weather.  Snow forecast here 7-12 inches, generally sloppy conditions to come soon.  At least Bob's weather changes daily and gives him a reason to get up at dawn everyday.   

[DavidR]

<snip quote>
Our snow has arrived in liquid form, temperatures a bit warm for snow. Yesterday and most of today has been above 7⁰c.  Overcast and miserable.

Better to have some weather than to have none, a.k.a desert weather.  Snow forecast here 7-12 inches, generally sloppy conditions to come soon. 

At least Bob's weather changes daily and gives him a reason to get up at dawn everyday.   

That sounded a bit like last year, a very heavy dump of snow and I woke up to around 6" of snow.  It didn't stop my morning walk though, just dressed for the conditions.

I have something to get up for every day at dawn, usually to go to the loo
Too much information I know.

[bob3160]

It's looking a lot more like winter today and, we're expecting  more tonight.

[bob3160]

[DavidR]

@ Bob
Some would like a 'bit' of snow (not a blizzard)for the beauty of the scenery (when looking out of the window in a warm house) and the kids generally love it.

Are your local services effected in these conditions (roads, power, telecommunications, etc.), our local services are terrible.  They just don't think it is worth the cost of the infrastructure for the amount of snow we get through the winter.  Consequently when it does snow heavily everything grinds to a halt, roads, airports and on occasion power goes out (effecting internet connections).

A couple of months ago had the power off for most of the daytime to do preventative maintenance to power sub-stations, cutting back trees, etc.  followed about a week later with a power outage.

[bob3160]

Our local Government offices are all closed. Senior Center is closed.
Quite a few people have no electricity. I'm lucky, electricity is working and so is the TV.
I have my internet but, a planned trip to the city tonight will not happen.
The roads are all ice covered. The main roads have been plowed but the ice is still there.
Temperatures aren't expected to get anywhere near the thawing state.

[DavidR]

I did some trips to Norway 2 three month sessions, Jan, Feb and March. One for my Arctic Survival training and large NATO exercise above the Arctic Circle.  The second for my Arctic Survival Instructors course followed by my Units Arctic Survival training for those who hadn't done the training before.

Norway and Germany (I was based there for a couple of years each time) and they don't have those problems.  The snow ploughs didn't take it down to the road surface, but left some packed snow.  Almost everyone changed over to winter studded tyres, giving much better grip on the packed snow or ice.

[mchain]

Don't know of anywhere in the USA one can run studded snow tires (Alaska, maybe?) but Bob's problems are the same in the South as well.  No snow plows, no salt, no nothing as a snow event is rare, about once or twice a winter here, so they don't budget or plan for it.  They just wait for it to melt away.  Might take a few days or so.

If we could run studded snow tires, it would be a different story....

[alanb]

Here in Southeast England it's a sunny, windless 12°C.  A world of difference...

[bob3160]

Don't know of anywhere in the USA one can run studded snow tires (Alaska, maybe?) but Bob's problems are the same in the South as well.  No snow plows, no salt, no nothing as a snow event is rare, about once or twice a winter here, so they don't budget or plan for it.  They just wait for it to melt away.  Might take a few days or so.

If we could run studded snow tires, it would be a different story....

I left studded snow tires in New York when we moved to New Mexico back in 1989.
The snow drifts we had here actually got me stuck trying to get the car out of the garage.
That was a lot of fun the day after it happened.

[kls490]

Don't know of anywhere in the USA one can run studded snow tires (Alaska, maybe?) but Bob's problems are the same in the South as well.  No snow plows, no salt, no nothing as a snow event is rare, about once or twice a winter here, so they don't budget or plan for it.  They just wait for it to melt away.  Might take a few days or so.

If we could run studded snow tires, it would be a different story....

Happy Holidays everyone!

For anyone interested about the various U.S. State laws/regulations related to using studded tires - the link below (to the AAA website) shows what the rules are in each state:

https://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/studded-tires/

Here in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, I'm usually able to get around just using the 4-WD in my 17 year old Explorer, with all-season radial tires.  (Although, I generally try to avoid driving during major winter weather events.  Not as young...or as daring as I once was ya' know).

Cheers!