Snow on the Bayou AGAIN

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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BH, that's a very nice place you have there, old or not. As to the snow...well...OK, it is snow...barely. But being a Yankee who was born and raised in Minnesota, I tend to see the picture Sitting Duck posted more along the lines of "measurable accumulation", (back me up here Rickitycrate and Ras). And this climate change business is a topic for a whole 'nother place, but if it IS for real I think I'll take it because we've had a beautiful summer around here and milder winters the last three years with less-than-average snowfall.

 

von Baur, your story about San Antonio is a carbon copy of mine from December of '74 when I was in basic training there. Had a snowfall just like the one BH pictured and the entire town came to a halt. The way everyone disappeared I though we had incoming missiles.

 

Olham, the guys with the bricks are the "Gumbys" from MP. Rather than try to explain it perhaps this will help:

 

Professor Gumby

 

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

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[Olham 164]

Hey, you guys - you got it wrong!

It isn't called "snow competition" but "snowMAN competition".

So where are the pictures of those?

Every Eskimo can show pics of 10 feet of snow!

 

 

Edit: well, maybe not... Do they have cameras? ... Internet? ...

Forget about it.

Edited December 6, 2009 by Olham

[Mr. Lucky 0]

I moved down here to get away from snow, ice and cold! I've put the people here on notice...I better never see snow. Otherwise, there's nothing preventing me moving to Alaska. Except maybe the mosquitos.

[Bullethead 12]

Or if you're familiar with I-70 west out of Denver

 

I drove for KLLM and they'd had so many trucks wrecked on that stretch of road that we weren't allowed to drive that way. They actually paid us to go around either way, I-40 or I-80. Thus, I never saw it. And I never had the road collapse under me, thank the Dark Gods. So to you.

 

I-70 nearly got me once, though, heading west from Liman. This huge blizzard came through in the pre-dawn and somebody immediately lost it just west of the Liman coop, blocking the road. So we stat there for a couple of hours while 4 or 5 feet of snow fell horizontally, then had to dig ourselves out and start going through it. The convoy was led by a snowplow, then 7 trucks, then me, then miles of other trucks that had come along behind us while we waited. The snow was still coming down all this time flat out of the north. Anyway, before we'd gone more than a mile, the snowplow didn't see a turn in the dark and went in the ditch, followed dutifully by the 1st truck. The rest of us went on without them. Over the next 10 miles, the 6 remaining trucks ahead of me all went in the ditch 1 by one, leaving me up front to break trail, and still 70 miles to Denver. I never thought I'd make it, but somehow I guessed right about where the road was--it was really driving by Braille . But by the time I was my turn in the barrel, it was light enough to see somewhat, so I could stay centered more or less between the reflector poles on either side, just barely sticking up above the snow. Also, due to the wind, the snow on the road itself was only 2-3 feet deep so you could kinda make out its outline.

 

My main nightmares in the mountains were on I-84 in Oregon. Once I was heading east through there and it took me 3 whole days just to get from Cabbage to Boise. Here are some pics of that trip, entering the aptly named Farewell Bend and about to start down the infamous 3-Mile Hill. IOW, just before things got really interesting. Strangely, it was no trouble getting up Cabbage that time--the sleet was down in the Gorge and the snow was on top, but the slope itself was bone dry. That stretch of road, especially Cabbage, was always an adventure even in good weather, though.

 

BH, that's a very nice place you have there, old or not. As to the snow...well...OK, it is snow...barely. But being a Yankee who was born and raised in Minnesota, I tend to see the picture Sitting Duck posted more along the lines of "measurable accumulation",

 

Oh, I completely agree. I know what real snow looks like. Most folks in my part of the world can't even imagine it. But that's my point. Even this pathetic excuse for snow was a LOT by local standards, and it's been happening quite often lately.

[Rickitycrate 10]

Lou, surely I support your comments. That dusting in the original pic is nada although I do undestand the point that was being made. Any of you guys up here in Minnesnowda country can thank me for the lack of snow thus far. This fall I got my first "real man" 2 stage snow blower. So of course now that I have it we will not get much snow. You know how it goes, if you want it to rain, wash your car.

[GRUMPYBEAR 1]

The snow missed my part of Mississippi. It stop on the west side of the state between Bullethead and myself. It did snow about 15-20 miles north of the coast. All I got was the wet stuff and 30+ degrees.

 

GB

[von Baur 54]

Yep, Lou, that's what happened in '73. too. Another funny aspect was we were in our fourth week of training, and had gotten used to the TI going home every night. Well, ours was Georgia born and raised and had spent his entire Air Force career in tropical or sub-tropical climates and thus had never experienced snowfall of any kind first-hand. He heard the radio and told us he was staying in the barracks that night rather than risk driving in those treacherous conditions (probably a wise move, considering). Forty-nine hands shot into the air accompanied by cries of , "I'll drive you home!" just for the chance to get behind the wheel for a few minutes. Sadly, he declined all offers.

 

My best accumulation story comes from my three years stationed outside Anchorage. My first winter winter drive around the back side of base I saw that rather than try to clear the roads they had simply driven about five-foot orange stakes into the snow to mark the edges of the road. This seemed like an excellent solution and I was somewhat surprised with its simplicity and logic, considering it was the military. I didn't grasp its true brilliance and foresight until the following Spring, when I realized that those 5' orange stakes were not only left there year-round but were really more like 10 or 12 feet high and only the top four or five feet were painted orange.

[ConradB 0]

I drove for KLLM and they'd had so many trucks wrecked on that stretch of road that we weren't allowed to drive that way. They actually paid us to go around either way, I-40 or I-80. Thus, I never saw it. And I never had the road collapse under me, thank the Dark Gods. So to you.

 

I-70 nearly got me once, though, heading west from Liman. This huge blizzard came through in the pre-dawn and somebody immediately lost it just west of the Liman coop, blocking the road. So we stat there for a couple of hours while 4 or 5 feet of snow fell horizontally, then had to dig ourselves out and start going through it. The convoy was led by a snowplow, then 7 trucks, then me, then miles of other trucks that had come along behind us while we waited. The snow was still coming down all this time flat out of the north. Anyway, before we'd gone more than a mile, the snowplow didn't see a turn in the dark and went in the ditch, followed dutifully by the 1st truck. The rest of us went on without them. Over the next 10 miles, the 6 remaining trucks ahead of me all went in the ditch 1 by one, leaving me up front to break trail, and still 70 miles to Denver. I never thought I'd make it, but somehow I guessed right about where the road was--it was really driving by Braille . But by the time I was my turn in the barrel, it was light enough to see somewhat, so I could stay centered more or less between the reflector poles on either side, just barely sticking up above the snow. Also, due to the wind, the snow on the road itself was only 2-3 feet deep so you could kinda make out its outline.

 

My main nightmares in the mountains were on I-84 in Oregon. Once I was heading east through there and it took me 3 whole days just to get from Cabbage to Boise. Here are some pics of that trip, entering the aptly named Farewell Bend and about to start down the infamous 3-Mile Hill. IOW, just before things got really interesting. Strangely, it was no trouble getting up Cabbage that time--the sleet was down in the Gorge and the snow was on top, but the slope itself was bone dry. That stretch of road, especially Cabbage, was always an adventure even in good weather, though.

 

 

 

Oh, I completely agree. I know what real snow looks like. Most folks in my part of the world can't even imagine it. But that's my point. Even this pathetic excuse for snow was a LOT by local standards, and it's been happening quite often lately.

 

Yep, those pics look very familiar to me, all-be-it lacking the trees of Colorado's mountains. I know the plains can be very dangerous during those nasty blizzards out east of Denver. One year, trucks and 4 wheel drive folks were litterred across the hiway from Denver to Bennett. Something like 200 people stranded waiting for the plow trucks and emergency vehicles to get to them. It was so bad, that even after the storm, it took like 2 or 3 days before they could get choppers airborne to take food and water to the people out there. The snow was just too deep even in and around the city. We were stuck in the house for something like 4 days. Funny thing was, my daughter was born about 9 months later.......

[Flyby PC 23]

Just to drop in a hum drum enquiry about the weather,.... Do you fellas have many stone buildings in your area?

 

Despite what the BBC whines on about, Scotland hasn't an extreme climate in any way. Nevertheless, what winter we do get can still screw up schedules at work. Any frost at all can wreck a lime mortar until it's taken up enough, (they say 100 days for full hardness), and when I see such pictures of deep snow, it strikes me any stonemasons in your area must pack up for the winter and head South, or else find something else to do in the winter. Depending how many months you lose to such winters in a year, I reckon to carry out my trade properly would only be marginally possible.

 

I try to schedule the building work to the Summer months, and dress stone when it's colder, - but it never seems to work out like that. More often than not, come December, I'm stuck fighting the wind and sleet, wrapping blankets round some chimney to keep the frost off. Sods Law I believe it's called, & a much more powerful law than logic...

 

I expect people either avoid stonework altogether, or perhaps use cement based mortars?

 

 

We also get a programme called 'Ice Road Truckers', about Canadian truckers driving seriously big loads over seriously thin ice. I'm game to try anything once,........... but maybe not that.

[ConradB 0]

Just to drop in a hum drum enquiry about the weather,.... Do you fellas have many stone buildings in your area?

 

Despite what the BBC whines on about, Scotland hasn't an extreme climate in any way. Nevertheless, what winter we do get can still screw up schedules at work. Any frost at all can wreck a lime mortar until it's taken up enough, (they say 100 days for full hardness), and when I see such pictures of deep snow, it strikes me any stonemasons in your area must pack up for the winter and head South, or else find something else to do in the winter. Depending how many months you lose to such winters in a year, I reckon to carry out my trade properly would only be marginally possible.

 

I try to schedule the building work to the Summer months, and dress stone when it's colder, - but it never seems to work out like that. More often than not, come December, I'm stuck fighting the wind and sleet, wrapping blankets round some chimney to keep the frost off. Sods Law I believe it's called, & a much more powerful law than logic...

 

I expect people either avoid stonework altogether, or perhaps use cement based mortars?

 

 

We also get a programme called 'Ice Road Truckers', about Canadian truckers driving seriously big loads over seriously thin ice. I'm game to try anything once,........... but maybe not that.

 

Hey Flyby,

 

I've known a couple old stonemasons from the family ties with friends and people you hire. They will still work with the older materials, but they too combat the winter weather, and avoid as you say, wrapping up with blankets, they have learned how to work with the newer mortars that are a poly type base from what I understand. It allows them to work most of the time year 'round, and when it's colder they do as you do, with dressing the stone. It's just a situation of adapting to the elements. But overall, during the winter months, they do slow down as most outdoor work does. Too much time shovelling snow, or plowing it.

 

As for existing stone buildings, there are still quite a few. Some date back to before the War for Independence, so they are considered historical structures that get attention for preservation, where the old techniques and materials are used to keep it authentic. But most of the old structures went by the wayside and were knocked down in the name of progress. But if you go over to Canada, there are a lot more preserved I think there, than we have here. At least from what I've seen. But too, in the colder climes, I think there was a lot more wood construction than stone due to availability of the materials with the vast forests we had.

Edited December 6, 2009 by ConradB

[Ras 0]

Lou, surely I support your comments. That dusting in the original pic is nada although I do undestand the point that was being made. Any of you guys up here in Minnesnowda country can thank me for the lack of snow thus far. This fall I got my first "real man" 2 stage snow blower. So of course now that I have it we will not get much snow. You know how it goes, if you want it to rain, wash your car.

 

Unfortunately is this part of Minnesota we've had about 7" in three snowfalls with the earliest the first week of Oct. But I pity those around Lake Erie and that area of Buffalo. I don't mind the snow, its the cold that is miserable. One year we had 42 inches of ice on our area lakes and wouldn't doubt if there might have been 60 inches along the Canadian border. But in a short 5 weeks, I'll be writing and flying OFF from the warner climates of South Texas. I will have to see Olhams map and see if anyone is near Corpus Christi

[Duce Lewis 3]

Lou, surely I support your comments. That dusting in the original pic is nada although I do undestand the point that was being made. Any of you guys up here in Minnesnowda country can thank me for the lack of snow thus far. This fall I got my first "real man" 2 stage snow blower. So of course now that I have it we will not get much snow. You know how it goes, if you want it to rain, wash your car.

I went to school in Western Michigan in the early eighties

I didn't find the temperature or snow accumulation much different from Connecticut

What shocked me was the wind

I remember be lifted to my tiptoes by a gust from the back once

And having to lean so far forward to walk into it

My winter jacket was quite worthless too

I had to buy one that sealed tightly round the neck

But nothing was worse than skiing on Mt Snow (Vermont)

30 feet up on a chair lift, -35^oF wind chill, and the lift broke down every 100 feet it seemed

[Flyby PC 23]

DANGER! DANGER! WOOOOOOWOOOOOO!!!!!

 

RUN FOR THE HILLS! HIDE!!!! SAVE YOURSELVES!!!!

 

http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=151294978

 

Gimme a break.

[JimAttrill 24]

It last snowed here on 17th September 1981