Is it a blizzard or just a snowstorm?
I don’t care what they call it, as long as (a) I’ve got food in the fridge, (b) I don’t lose power, and (c) I don’t have to drive anywhere.
So far all three conditions are being met. But it sure is snowing out there, and it sure is windy. The difference between “a blizzard” and just “a big honking snowstorm” seems to be the wind speed, and I think by that measure we’re having a blizzard right now.
This is one of those storms where the New York City area is being hit harder than northern New England. But it’s plenty bad in New England, too, especially southern New England; see this, where I also learn this storm is called “Hernando.” Doesn’t seem to quite fit.
When I look out my window, it’s hard to tell how much snow has fallen, but it’s a lot. And there already was a lot of snow on the ground. But at the moment I’m snug and cozy.
At the moment.
Hope your power stays on, and you have someone identified to dig you out once it stops snowing.
My daughter in Northern VA has power and a driveway which is sheet ice.
Glad you are safe and well Neo.
Here in NW Wyoming wind is a fact of life. We’re the windiest state in the lower 48, and up by the Montana border is the town of Clark, where they’ve had winds so strong it ripped the blacktop off the roads. Where we are isn’t quite as bad, but 25 to 30 MPH winds are considered to be our “gentle, balmy breezes”. I was sitting on the back deck a few years ago in a slight wind (50 MPH sustained with 70 MPH gusts) and watched somebody’s patio umbrella go by at about 200 feet AGL, heading East at about 40 MPH and gaining altitude as it went by. Lost it behind the trees so I have no idea where it came down…I’ve suggested South Dakota, but that’s an exaggeration.
When we get winter storms the wind is usually out of the north, and the snow goes past our west-facing kitchen window completely sideways. It’s hard to understand how any of it stays around to accumulate, but after a good storm we’ll have a drift about 5 feet high stretching the width of the driveway.
There’s an old joke in Wyoming that, “Snow doesn’t melt here, it just blows around until it wears out.”
Here’s hoping you’ll stay safe and warm.
For those hiding away from Hernando, here’s an amusing song-and-dance number:
–“Cher – Hernando’s Hideaway (The Cher Show, 05/18/1975)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbGopsl-foY
The set is insane and Cher acquits herself better than I would have expected. She has more dance experience than I realized.
Hope that power stays on, Neo. That was always the worst part of any N’oreaster…trying to keep warm by burning wood in the fireplace insert. And our friends in very northern NH hardly got anything out of those coastal storms while we got buried.
We are feeling the effects even down here on the backside with very gusty winds. Several wildfires north of Jax yesterday. I reffed 2 soccer games yesterday and was miserable dealing with constant 30mph winds with gusts to 50. Temp was 63, but there was quite the wind chill with those winds. I was exhausted by the time I got home.
I hate to say this, but the East Coast needs some forced blackouts due to unreliable solar and wind energy. That’s the only way the Left will give up this madness as rates are already much higher than the rest of the country ex CA and HI.
Be safe, and warm
I just emailed a friend outside of Gettysburg. He said they had 2-3 inches of snow.
Not much really
Speaking of bad weather, I am in “Silicon Valley” and…..
Well, never mind.
Rhode Islander on a baseball blog reports 33″-36″ there. That’s a heap.
Just came in from spraying weeds. Some pretty white flowers. Woops wrong blog.
Cornhead:
Not much wind or solar power in the Northeast. I’ve never even seen a wind turbine anywhere in New England, although perhaps they exist. I’ve seen many in California. I’ve seen solar panels on some homes here, but not often at all.
See this.
It’s a Blizzard when the snow has bits of Oreos and candy in it.
I wondered when a ‘Nor’easter started to get named. And shouldn’t it get a Norse name if its a winter storm?
They never used to name winter storms. They were just storms, nor’easters in New York to New England if they come off the ocean with winds from the northeast.
Cornhead,
Fuel prices are high here because our governor is a net zero nut so she won’t let us get cheap gas from Pennsylvania and cheap electricity from hydro Quebec. If only someone told her that she exhales 100 times more carbon dioxide than she inhales she could do us all a favor if she stopped breathing.
As for solar and wind mill farms, there’s no place to put them. New England is a thick forest all the way to Canada. There was supposed to be a big wind farm off the Cape and the Islands but all the rich people didn’t want their ocean views ruined and got them stopped.
It looks like we got about 3 feet of snow by my backyard snow gauge. The city plow is now preparing to drive by and dump it all in my driveway. That why high school students were created.
It was quite a storm last night, I was woken up by “thunder snow”. It’s rare but it does happen. That’s another reason not to put windmills in the North Atlantic, the waves must have been huge as the storm passed over.
But it’s Historically EPIC!
According to the Prophet of Doom, Algorithm, inventor of the interwebs, there is no possibility of snow post 2020. You think you are seeing an abundance of anecdotes. “Winter” is not possible.
Wisconsin winters are why I own an end loader.
Hope your power stays on. I’m more sympathetic to people in snow storms after the Texas “Snowmeggedon ” of 2021. Of course, that storm would not have been a big deal up north. The below zero temperatures and so many sequential 24 hour days and nights below freezing were not something East Texas was used to
My niece had a planned delivery at a NYC hospital last night and was sent home – a couple days delay. Hospital was worried about staff being able to get to work due to road closures. And possible power outages. Emergency deliveries only.
She’s so Disappointed!
But better safe than sorry.
Scott the Badger:
Front end loader? How many cubic yards in the bucket? That’s some serious snow shoveling. :0
May your power be continuous, you heating oil voluminous, and your food supply excessive.
I was in Maui with a lady friend of mine all last week, and the weather there was pretty great, though rarely “hot.” Just got back early yesterday. Exhausted after the fun and an all night flight. But luckily, I missed some rotten Californian weather here on the central coast. Chilly and lots of rain. Some lost power, thought I did not.
Now I’m looking forward to some snow skiing with all that extra show in the Sierras.
New England is a thick forest all the way to Canada
It is now. Pictures from the late 1800s of the MA town I grew up in show rolling fields, which are now covered in trees.
Here in NW Wyoming wind is a fact of life.
I get notably better mileage driving east across the state than driving west. Got caught in an early blizzard once, September IIRC, and barely made it to a motel in Laramie, where I holed up. Was looking through a tiny unfrosted spot of the windshield and could hardly distinguish the road. Blizzards in Wyoming are no joke.
The naming of winter storms is strictly a Weather Channel thing, and started maybe a dozen years ago. It’s unofficial; unlike the names of hurricanes, the National Weather Service has nothing to do with it.
The winter I spent in south central Wyoming, along the Oregon Trail that AesopFan is familiar with, they closed the only road west to Lander to all vehicles because of blizzards more than once. But the mine kept running. It was cold work.
It’s a small John Deere with a Bobcat sized bucket. But it does the job
I’ve long been thankful for my comfy life in Slovakia, but in the last couple years there has started a “cozy girl” aesthetic.
Literally warm & fuzzy clothes & especially sweaters, often with just perfect tea.
Central Europe Bratislava got a couple of big, lovely snow days, followed by snow melting drizzle & much warmer.
The Cher link by Huxley reminded me of the Monty Python words to their Henry Kissinger song:
Nicer legs than Hitler, &
Bigger tits than Cher.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T5vo7jLGOb8&list=RDT5vo7jLGOb8&start_radio=1&pp=ygUcbW9udHkgcHl0aG9uIGhlbnJ5IGtpc3NpbmdlcqAHAQ%3D%3D
But it cleared up by early afternoon here in CT. And I was able to go out and run some errands. The complex was fine, the roads were fine, the complication was the private drive between the complex and the roads.
Is it a blizzard or just a snowstorm
Let’s stay inside and try to stay warm
Tap, tap
Far away from harm
–after Irving Berlin, “Puttin’ On the Ritz”
Tom Grey:
I love the thought of a “cozy girl” aesthetic!
@ om > “The winter I spent in south central Wyoming, along the Oregon Trail that AesopFan is familiar with, they closed the only road west to Lander to all vehicles because of blizzards more than once”
The Handcart Site is between Rawlins and Casper, and the road is closed one direction or another pretty often. In February of 2023, I was told, they had 1 visitor. We didn’t winter over between our 2023-2024 missions, but the snow was still deep when the summer group got there in April.
On the weather maps, that particular area (beginning in Lander IIRC) is the windiest in the country.
I took a picture of our flag pole one day, because there was no wind holding up the flag.
AesopFan:
During the summer in Jeffrey City, WY people on bicycles (one couple was on a tandem) would pass through on their way to Yellowstone Park. I’ve never thought before now how tough that ride must have been for them in that wind. Jeffrey City has been a ghost town since the early 80’s when the bottom fell out of uranium. I’ve fond memories of Pronghorn Antelope all around town;The Great Divide Basin, Sweetwater River, Granite Mountains.