Central Virginia Storm

[deermanok]

We had a Halloween snow storm here in 1991. Something like 17 inches of heavy, wet snow. Then ice came. Miles of downed power lines and poles. Trees took a severe beating as did gutters. We didn't lose power here at home. My deer season began two days after the storm and that was a mess.

Right now we are under a blizzard warning. 9 degrees right at the moment with some strong, sustained winds and hellish gusts. I don't think its snowing but rather snow being whipped around by the wind.

Hope you don't get too much snow.

 

[toytruck]

me too

You just never know. We were in the mid 60's this past Sunday. Temps dropped Sunday night with snow till midday Monday. Temps are staying around 30* now during the day, teens at night. It actually is good (snow) for the ground, we were in a drought again, dry all summer. At least this should help kill off the bugs for later!

 

[gle3105]

“At least this should help kill off the bugs for later!” Absolutely on the bugs!

 

[user 23626]

As I read this, out of my window, 22" on the level, 8" more forecast. Steady 25+ mph and some gust over 60. VERY low visibility. We have all gravel streets coming off of the hiway and the two young men that work for the town cannot keep them clear. 12"+ on streets. You better have a 4WD as most do. This has been ongoing since the 20th of Dec (My 76th birthday) Wife is the IT dept for Carbon power & Light. 18mi away, called when she got there and said it was a Bit#h with low visi and blowing snow+ icy road surface. Many major hiways closed much of the time so no mail. She carries a overnite bag all winter in case it's too bad to get home and back from Saratoga (WY) . We all have sleeping bags, blankets and candles in our rigs, 16 cords of wood stacked around the house, much of it under patio roof and just step out and grab it. We can make coffee, cook meals, and stay warm for an extended period of time. Also 4 cases of beer LOL. Have a New multi-fuel Generac still in the box. Have a lockable cabinet on the covered back porch and with daytime temps in the teens and 20s we can get by without the Icebox or freezer for awhile. As they say " This is Wyoming. act accordingly"

 

[improman]

Toughen up kittens.... IAM in Maine. 4 wheel drive/generators/woodstoves/chainsaws/personal plow trucks are a way of live

 

[phalanx]

Yeah, we just don't plan for or react well to these kind of storms in eastern VA. I can understand it. To buy more plows, maintenance, crews and salt chemicals and storage areas just isn't worth it. But we sure damn well pay the price! Thanks all, reading some of your stories is making me feel pretty good!
John

 

[MTY]

In the '70's & '80's, I worked on snow shoes a good bit of each winter. This was for a phone company in north ID. It was not unusual to be dropped off where a line crossed an accessible road and snow shoe cross country fixing line until you hit another open road. Most of the lines were 10 party. At that time I also hunted a good bit on snowshoes.

We do not have snow like that any more. I have about a foot on the ground now, maybe a little more. It snowed last night and this morning, but only about 3 inches. The power went out about 6am, but it was restored by 10am. The longest outage I have experienced was 6 or 7 days.

I have 4200 gallons of gravity fed water storage, a backup propane palor stove that does not require electric, and a generator to keep the fridges cold. The propane stove is on a thermostat set a few degrees lower than the heat pump. If power goes out when I am not here the stove will kick on automatically. If you can relax and not worry, it really is more peaceful with the power out.

My bigggest mistake when I built this place was not putting a propane cook stove in the basement kitchen. I have an old wood cook stove stashed, and when I get the shop built I will install that.

For those of you not used to hard winters, it has to be rough.

 

[ENCORE50A]

Just think.............. what might have happened to all those people stuck if they were driving electric vehicles?

 

[MTY]

I can give you a pretty good idea. The undertakers and the tow truck companies would have done a brisk business.

 

[mckbcat2000]

Several of my co-workers were w/out power for 2 days in VA. Bad stuff.

 

[GregK]

Southwest lower Michigan. Very near Lake Michigan and close to the Indiana border. We were supposed to get 1 to 4 inches with 45 mile an hour winds and now it’s a winter storm warning with up to 16 inches and possibly more due to lake effect bands along with the 45 mile an hour winds. Cold air coming across the warmer lake Michigan water creates the lake effect snow and the direction that the air is moving determines where are the long bands set up to dump the snow. Fortunately this will be a cold “dry snow” but the winds will bring down limbs and powerlines. It was an easy winter with bare ground right up until the beginning of the new year then we started getting a little snow and we have our first storm on top of us right now.
In 2017 I had a Generac whole house generator installed. I wanted to add resale value to the house but mostly I put it in for my wife because my health is deteriorating and I didn’t want her to have to worry about dragging out a generator, making sure it had gas, etc….
So by Friday morning unless they extend the storm warning we should know what we’re dealing with. The plow is on the truck and the truck is parked in front of the garage facing the road so it’s ready to push

Greg

 

[phalanx]

Best of luck Greg, sounds like you are as prepared as can be. 2022 coming in with a bang all over the place.

I was able to get out today and get gas for the truck and some propane. Will try again tomorrow with my other truck and see if I can get another tank of propane filled. Grocery stores were empty of milk, bread, eggs, sausage, bacon, soup and tons of other stuff. I have plenty of food so I bought some ice cream

 

[Hausser1]

Glad to hear you're dug out phalanx.
All of this storm dialogue has got me reminiscing...
In the early thru mid 70s I lived just North of Grand Rapids in the small town of Greenville, Michigan. This was also part of the lake effect snow belt Greg is referencing. For those of you who were old enough to remember, late winter/early spring of 1976 brought one of the worst Michigan Ice storms ever recorded (even to this day). We were out of school for 2 straight weeks without power and I kept the fireplace cooking pretty much around the clock. I'll never forget the sounds of crashing branches and falling trees both night and day. As I recall there were lineman electrocutions and others killed by falling/ice ladened branchs. My grandparents, who lived in Sun City, Arizona heard about the storm on one of the national news outlets. They told us a few weeks later that Greenville was declared a destination for the national guard. As I recall there were reports of fatalities to people walking/driving in that stuff.
Some info from back then...


https://www.mlive.com/weather/2016/03/great_ice_storm_of_1976.html
Here in Michigan, we had consecutive major blizzards and ice storms in 1976, 77, and 78.
No wonder many of us old(er) timers state we don't get the winter weather we used too. Personally, I don't miss it. Good riddance!
Stay safe out there.

 

[Hausser1]

It didn't help the wheel was yet to be invented and we walked 5 miles both ways (up hill) to and from school without shoes back then. And the snowflake generation thinks they have it tough!

 

[D55]

It didn't help the wheel was yet to be invented and we walked 5 miles both ways (up hill) to and from school without shoes back then. And the snowflake generation thinks they have it tough!

Snowflakes roughest moments are when they are told (NO).

 

[Shorty]

Or to take away their cell phones. They cannot hold a conversation without one.

 

[Hausser1]

I remember when a cell phone was the device used for your 'one allowed call' after a night of partying. Not that I've ever used one...

 

[mnoland30]

I have a story about generator gas. Our houseboat has a 5000 watt Westerbeke generator that has always been a problem. It finally quit, and we didn't get a replacement for 3 years. The generator is fed by a 50 gal. built in tank. The houseboat manager put Stabil in the gas every year for 3 years. When we installed the generator, we ran it on gas from a small gas can to make sure it was working. Then we hooked it up to the built in gas tank, and it ran just the same. I was amazed.

I wish we'd get some of that snow in NM. It has been really dry here. The ski area hasn't opened.

In 2009, I went down near Carlsbad, NM to hunt aoudad. I took my wall tent, but not my wood stove. It seldom freezes that far south. It got to 20 below for 3 days. We had propane heaters, but not enough propane to heat that big tent. It never got above 20 degrees inside the tent. One of my water jugs froze and split, and we had to chip through ice to get water. I take the wood stove now.

 

[GregK]

Glad to hear you're dug out phalanx.
All of this storm dialogue has got me reminiscing...
In the early thru mid 70s I lived just North of Grand Rapids in the small town of Greenville, Michigan. This was also part of the lake effect snow belt Greg is referencing. For those of you who were old enough to remember, late winter/early spring of 1976 brought one of the worst Michigan Ice storms ever recorded (even to this day). We were out of school for 2 straight weeks without power and I kept the fireplace cooking pretty much around the clock. I'll never forget the sounds of crashing branches and falling trees both night and day. As I recall there were lineman electrocutions and others killed by falling/ice ladened branchs. My grandparents, who lived in Sun City, Arizona heard about the storm on one of the national news outlets. They told us a few weeks later that Greenville was declared a destination for the national guard. As I recall there were reports of fatalities to people walking/driving in that stuff.
Some info from back then...


https://www.mlive.com/weather/2016/03/great_ice_storm_of_1976.html
Here in Michigan, we had consecutive major blizzards and ice storms in 1976, 77, and 78.
No wonder many of us old(er) timers state we don't get the winter weather we used too. Personally, I don't miss it. Good riddance!
Stay safe out there.

I have to agree with everything you said. I remember all of those storms well. My first buzzard was 67 and that was another two weeks out of school and it was the worst blizzard that I have ever seen

Winters definitely are not as bad as they used to be. I’m sure you remember being younger in winter came in October or November and stayed until April. That was back in our family snowmobiling days.

I’m disabled and we’re just waiting for my wife to get to the point of comfortable retirement and then it looks like we’ll be going to Florida so we never have to deal with this crap again

Greg

 

[phalanx]

I will be retiring in Sep 23, and am also waiting on my wife. I'M 65 and she is 61. She needs her 20 with the gov to get max benefits. I am torn about moving further south, she wants Florida also, Ft Meyers/Cape Coral area. I love hunting here in VA and my lifetime friends are here. Been trying to get her to let me buy a Condo in the Chesapeake area so I can stay here from Sep to Jan but she says to just stay in my travel trailer! Its fine for a couple of weeks but 4 months or so and I will go nuts! My compromise, I'll move to St. Augustine area and that way its just a long day drive to my hunting area, stay a couple of weeks and drive back; do like 2 weeks gone, two weeks home type of thing. Two or more day trip from Ft Meyers. She's still not convinced!