SNOW!
If you lived in upstate New York, around say, Williamstown, NY (which is north, northeast of Syracuse), you’d be hunkering down under one of the seasons first lake-effect snow events. Ah, to live on the Tug Hill Plateau*. On a regular basis they get snow that would cripple the east coast, and pretty much just go about normal business. To them, it is normal. Here’s the warning that’s posted for Williamstown, NY for today:
_____________________________________________________________
Lake Effect Snow Warning
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BUFFALO NY
412 AM EST FRI NOV 3 2006
...COLD NORTHWEST FLOW TO PRODUCE MORE LAKE EFFECT SNOW THROUGH
TONIGHT...
.ANOTHER BLAST OF COLD AIR WILL PRODUCE BANDS OF LAKE EFFECT SNOW
EAST AND SOUTHEAST OF LAKE ERIE THROUGH TODAY AND OFF LAKE
ONTARIO THROUGH TONIGHT.
...LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 AM EST
SATURDAY...
A LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 AM EST
SATURDAY.
BANDS OF LAKE EFFECT SNOW WILL CONTINUE TODAY AND TONIGHT. NEW
ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED TO BE IN THE 3 TO 5 INCH RANGE TODAY AND
AGAIN TONIGHT. STORM TOTALS OF A FOOT AND A HALF ARE POSSIBLE BY
SATURDAY MORNING. EXPECT POOR DRIVING CONDITIONS IN THE NARROW
BANDS.
IN LAKE EFFECT SNOW THE WEATHER CAN VARY FROM LOCALLY HEAVY SNOW
IN NARROW BANDS TO CLEAR SKIES JUST A FEW MILES AWAY. IF YOU WILL
BE TRAVELING ACROSS THE REGION BE PREPARED FOR RAPID CHANGES IN
ROAD AND VISIBILITY CONDITIONS. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO
AND OTHER RADIO AND TV STATIONS FOR FURTHER DETAILS OR UPDATES.
_____________________________________________________________
But if you really want to see what bad weather is like, take a look at the Mount Washington Observatory web site. On top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire the current readings are: snow on the ground, wind-blown snow, 10 degrees, winds at 54 gusting to 66 mph producing a wind chills of -17. The picture above is a live shot from the observation deck atop the “rock pile”.
*Tug Hill Plateau: (borrowed from Wikipedia) "One interesting feature that is rarely found in today's camps is a second front door directly above the ground-level front door. This door is only used when so much snow has accumulated that the ground-level door can not be accessed. Tug Hill is known for record levels of snowfall. Levels of snow reaching 200 inches are not uncommon, since Tug Hill has a high elevation and its location in relation to Lake Ontario leads to ideal conditions for accumulation of lake effect snow. The hamlet of Montague located on Tug Hill owns the single day New York State record of snowfall with 78 inches (6 feet, 6 inches). Another Tug Hill hamlet, Hooker, holds the state record for annual snowfall. Hooker also received an extraordinary accumulation of snow in the winter of 1976-77, with a total accumulation of 466.9 inches – approximately 39 feet."
posted by File Boy & D.Tkon at 10:44 AM
5 Comments:
Oh, and why does this make me shoot stuff? Because the average yearly snowfall total for my area is 21 inches.
If people even thought that amount of snow might fall here, Walmart would be out of toilet paper in a second. People would be frantic, would wildly run about desperate to stock up on-- toilet paper. I, however, would be looking forward to it. And the only thing I'd stock up on would be wine and maybe logs for the fireplace.
Lucky for me I have enough logs to last me several deep snows, however I'm always amazed at how fast the booze goes...but when I know its going to snow (and I usually know about 2 weeks prior to) I'll make sure I have all of that beforehand. Then all I have to do on the day of is 1.) Call out of work, 2.) Fire up the tractor, 3.) drive my truck around, 4.) build a fire and finally, 5.) Drink.
How do you know the weather so soon? I usually find out it's going to snow when I walk outside and see everything covered in white. I envy you, File Boy. Someday I, too, will know the weather in advance. I don't watch the news because it's depressing and I can't sit still for all of that just waiting for the weather (hence the name A.D.D.-girl). And I can't watch the weather channel because it's boring. And I can't read the paper because I am morally opposed to their obvious disregard for independent neutrally- and also because it's gets that black stuff all over my hands. And I don't get updates sent to my cell because the headlines are such a tease that I search for more on the internet and when I finally find it I'm disappointed in it. There must be a better way!
I would watch the weather channel nonstop except that my girlfriend would go completely nuts. I do have about 2 dozen weather sites bookmarked on my computer, and I check in on all of them daily. I'm obsessed with weather, but mostly so I can keep up to date on my bigger obsession, snow. I'll be posting the latest predictions for snowfall amounts on this site when snow in on the way.
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