Agggghhhh! Snow! OMGWTFBBQ!

Friend and his family are in Nashville, making fun of Tennessee snowplows. Apparently almost everything was closed yesterday.

Friend's tractor broke last week so their farm was in a sorry state. Loaded up my rig and spent 4 hours clearing out their property.

meanwhile, in minnesota, this is literally the most snow we've had on the ground all year. Its pretty cold right now, but this is the worst of the snow.

1988RedT2 wrote: We all knew the end was coming, but who knew it would be like this?

truly is snowmaggeden?

All of the snow you guys are getting reminds me of the lake effect snows we would get in Erie, PA when I was a kid. I swear it seemed the first thing I had to do every day was shovel the walk.

It got so bad one year that my mom half joked but half serious said to our family friend the township manager that if she saw another plow before 8:00 AM she would shoot it's tires out. (she left for work at 7:45) They kept plowing in the driveway right after she would snow blow it out.

And here the winter is so mild the bears are waking up early.

http://mynorthwest.com/11/2712099/Bears-waking-up-early-looking-for-snacks?google_editors_picks=true

We have a lot of snow and are getting more but honestly, I'm a skier. I like snow.

What is pissing me off to no end is that it's been single digits here during the day for two weeks with lows in the negative teens. The wind chills make it just impossible to take a kid skiing. Even with gear... no one wants to drop real money to have the kids whining that they are frozen. And kids freeze faster than normal humans.

Today is to be our first day above 10F in two weeks... and we are getting snow tonight. Good right? No. Tomorrow the high is 8F and it's going to be -11 at night. berkeley you winter. berkeley you right in your frigid ass.

The one day we got out to the mountains, the wind chill was -35 at the summit. Does not make for a particularly enjoyable day (especially when you hit 75mph on the speed runs).

On the other hand, it does make for a convenient excuse for frequent beer breaks in the lodge.

3 or so more inches this morning on top of the 10+ we got on Monday. Yesterday I dug out the driveway enough that I could at least get the Prius onto the road- now I'm even more worried that the snow is too deep between the tire tracks for it to get anywhere.

Temperatures are predicted to plummet tonight and they're predicting as low as 20 below zero tomorrow night. In Central Kentucky. I REALLY wish I could find the keys to the generator- it will not be fun hotwiring it if we lose power and I have to fire it up in -20 weather...

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

I don't care what anyone says no matter how old they are- skiing in 0-to-subzero temps is NOT fun. Call me a Bob Costas, call me a nancy, baby, fairweather lodge bunny, whatever. I'm not willing to sacrifice feeling my toes and facial frostbite for a few sweet runs. I'll be in the bar... I skied sugarbush last month with summit temps hovering at -10 without windchill... I skied all berkeleying day. Trails were mint, perfect 10/10. And I was miserable all day. Just relentless, biting cold all day long.

In reply to golfduke:

We skied Stowe with summit temps in the -20s but there you get a gondola ride up one side of the mountain to keep warm so as long as you don't dawdle around and keep exposed skin covered it's OK. Even if you use the high speed quads to the other side in those temps they have a heated shack at the peak you can dive into for 5 to get enough feeling back to rip down again to the bar at the bottom. It's manageable even for my youngest. Plus, it's GREAT skiing. Here is the whole brood atop Hayride... it had warmed up to about -10 by this time of day.

Here in NEPA all we have all slooooow old-timey doubles and quads that you freeze your berkeleying ass off for 15 minutes to climb a 1000' vertical. It's just not worth even going to the mountain at all.

The worst is the Green Mountain Flyer (Freezer) at Jay Peak. When you come up over that ridge the chairs are noticeably sideways. Not a pleasant experience. I can usually only stand it once a day.

I spend most of my snowboarding time at Burke with SWMBO and her dad - I'm a big fan of that mountain. No lift lines.

Jay is cold, but the coldest I've ever been to was Wildcat 2 weeks ago. -10 summit temps, -45 windchill coming off Mt. Washington. The face was just biting biting cold. They actually closed the mountain at 1pm and issued refunds it was so cold.

Great mountain, but with the downdrafts off of Mt Washington, it can be freaking brutally cold sometimes.

Dang, it's cold!

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

I tend to agree. Maybe it's just what you get used to. I don't really dress that warmly when skiing. My jacket and pants aren't insulated although I usually wear winter cycling clothes as a base layer. Oddly enough, I also wear a pair of thermal bib cycling cycling shorts. The padding in the shorts helps a lot with keeping the plastic seat from sucking the warmth out of your butt. Granted, I'm a tele skier and doing that all the way down the mtn generates a fair amount of heat.

Ask me again how cold it is in a few days when I have to ride my road bike home from my mechanic's shop after dropping off my van. Fortunately only about 3 miles.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

I love Stowe. My parents had a place up there when I was growing up and we used to ski there every year. You could also buy a one time pass up the mountain and ski down to Smuggler's Notch. Smuggler's has good skiing but get's really cold in the afternoons when the sun goes over to the Stowe side of the mountain. But the parties were always better over there.

Occasionally, we'd head down to Sugarbush, which is also a great place to ski.

In reply to mndsm:

Mother Nature is a Seahawks fan apparently..

wbjones wrote:

That's SWEET!!!

If that's real, that's amazing.

Tomorrow's forecast, 31 and freezing rain possible until 12:00. There might actually be an icicle somewhere, but I doubt it. Chicken little will be playing his theme song, "The Sky is Falling," on all TV and radio stations, 24 hours a day, until further notice.

The tricounty area has made a preemptive strike and close the world. All schools, government building and unnecessary people are asked to stay home. FEMA has been contacted and the Governor is expected to declare a state of emergency any second now even though it isn't actually cold. All the bread, milk and beer is gone and the liquor store looks like a F5 went through and emptied the shelves. TP apparently isn't necessary if you are drunk enough.

Me, I'm going to work. Baby needs shoes.

I might spit out the window on the way in, to see how many cars crash behind me.

My daughter begged to go on a school trip to Quebec last month. No way I was spending $950 for my freshman daughter to go to Quebec in the middle of January. She was pissed to say the least. Friday it was minus 12 degrees when we got up. I made both of my kids get their snow gear on a 6:30 AM and sent them outside. Told my freshman "you want Quebec in January, here you go" She lasted 1/2 hour before she came in whining about the cold and admitted I was right. The younger one stayed out for hours and sculpted a giant snow unicorn with an icicle horn.

I had to replace a door sensor on a warehouse sized freezer at Boeing last year. The air coming out of the coils was -20 and blowing on my back. I was dressed in a insulated shirt, cargo pants and a pair of work gloves. I didn't have a hat or my heavy coat, but they probably wouldn't have helped much. I just don't own cloths for that kind of temperature.

What should have been a 15 minute job took me almost an hour. -20 is freaking cold! Anything below 15, y'all can keep.

In reply to Toyman01:

I've paid good money to take boards up a mountain in -20F only stand on them and slide back down again. It is amazing how you can get a sweat going in that with the right gear. The thing you cannot do once you turn on the water works ... is stop before you get to the pub at the bottom. Frost bite on your eyebrows makes the hair fall out so you look like Pink at the end of The Wall.

It's not really a great look IMO.

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

I don't own the gear to do that kind of stuff. I haven't owned a pair of long johns or insulated pants in 20+ years. It just doesn't get that cold around here. That was my only experience with temperatures below 10-15 degrees. When the snot in my nose starts to freeze, I'm done. It's time to fine a warm spot to hang out.

Needless to say, that was not a cheap sensor. Misery costs extra.