Blizzard 2015 Boston

[tractchores]

Shovelled off my roof over the last few days, which is quite the feet (very big roof area). I think it could take more, but I made an error earlier by putting some 'roof melt' pucks up there, which melted snow and caused an ice dam.

Seems like about 30% of people in my area have shovelled at least some of their roofs. There are a few older and flatter roof houses that haven't done anything. There's a huge amount of weight on some of these roofs.

 

[Paul Thornton]

Just finished snowshoeing into lakefront cottage and shoveling that roof, did the house the other day.

 

[peterc38]

I used to ski in New England but was ruined by exposure to Colorado skiing. Turns out you can ski without near death exposure to cold and ice. Who knew?

I mostly cross country these days in NE.

Ha, reminds me of when I went to Colorado skiing with my brother a few years back. We were on the Gondola at Vail with these rich people. They were going on and on about their house in Malibu and their other house in Hawaii, blah blah blah. One of the woman had on a one piece ski suit that probably Cost thousands.

Then they started complaining about the ski conditions, second worst powder year in the last 25 years one of them said. Me and my brother, two bums from New England with duct tape holding our ski gloves together bred on skiing on ice, rocks, tree stumps etc just taking that all in

 

[DFB]

Me and my brother, two bums from New England with duct tape holding our ski gloves together bred on skiing on ice, rocks, tree stumps etc just taking that all in

You and your brother should meet my buddy

I don't ski but I still have duct tape on my gloves too. :laughing:

I was in a store the other day and set my work gloves down on the checkout counter and somebody just had to say "Don't you think its time for new gloves? I says no...but just maybe some new duct tape!

I wonder if that's a New England thing?

 

[Garandman]

Best "space saver" evah!

With a guy who works for BTD and he's been working with crews from NYC. He thanked them and all they said was, "You were there for us after 9/11."

 

[Pixguy]

I'm flying up to NH this weekend to do some snowmobiling but looking at my side garage this morning, it doesn't look like they've got a ton of snow unless it's been sliding of the metal roof. I know it's been cold enough to freeze so I'm not concerned as I'll have to cross lakes to get to the trails. Has anyone been out sledding?

Edit, I see the footprints, they are the cops who walked around yesterday when my alarm showed a glass break. Nothing found and I'm assuming it was an ice slide off the roof onto the house deck.

 

[Garandman]

Don't know where you are in NH but MT Sunapee just hit 100".

 

[Pixguy]

Don't know where you are in NH but MT Sunapee just hit 100".

Lakes region. Here's another shot of my driveway that hasn't been plowed since Christmas. It appears to be like 2' judging by the reflectors.

I guess I'll find out Friday.

 

[DFB]

Lakes region. Here's another shot of my driveway that hasn't been plowed since Christmas. It appears to be like 2' judging by the reflectors.

I guess I'll find out Friday.

Oh I'm sure there be plenty enough snow still when you get there!

I just cleared out maybe 10" of snow altogether a good 6" which fell last night on top of another 4"-5" that was already down and I didn't bother with earlier in the week. I'm starting to run out places to stack it all!




Hey I think those are my first snow pictures posted this year!

 

[IslandTractor]

33 degrees and sunny! First day above freezing in quite a while. Of course there was also another 2-3 inches of snow this morning. Wet this time. After blowing that off this morning, the afternoon sun has warmed pavement well enough that we can chip out our driveway and walkways. Fun. Of course while it is nice to get rid of the irregular surface of ice, there is enough melted snow/ice that doesn't have anywhere to drain so that we'll almost certainly have dangerous slippery ice tomorrow AM. Time for more salt.

 

[Garandman]

Lakes region. Here's another shot of my driveway that hasn't been plowed since Christmas. It appears to be like 2' judging by the reflectors.

I guess I'll find out Friday.

Snow depth in Bangor was 48". O

 

[Garandman]

Lakes region. Here's another shot of my driveway that hasn't been plowed since Christmas. It appears to be like 2' judging by the reflectors.

I guess I'll find out Friday.

Snow depth in Bangor was 48". O

 

[Pixguy]

Snow depth in Bangor was 48". O

Thanks G man. Friends tell me it's been bad so I'll see for myself and just enjoy the trails and avoid the weekend nuts.

 

[DFB]

Wow intense...the search and rescue of Kate Matrosova

The young woman and the mountain - Metro - The Boston Globe

 

[DFB]

Wow intense...the search and rescue of Kate Matrosova

The young woman and the mountain - Metro - The Boston Globe

 

[Garandman]

It appears she was headed for the tree line but the wind was so strong it blew her off the trail.

Current conditions on Mt Washington are -31 with winds at 72mph. The one time I set out with two friends to do a similar route in winter, we never left our base camp. When the wind gusts sound like cannon shots and the trees are whistling and it's 25 below, I'm not going up there.....My buddy made six attempts at Mt Washington before he made it.

The Back Bay area of Boston is a filled-in area taken from the Charles River Basin. As a result the streets are street and the terrain is pretty flat. This big Oshkosh was at work there over the weekend.

There is an article in the Boston Herald contrasting Boston's response with Montreal. Montreal has about 4X the population and land area of Boston, but budgets $153 million compared to Boston's $18.5 million (actual spending this year is north of $30 million). It is 3.2% of their municipal budget, 4 1/2 times higher. Quebec also has a 9.9% sales tax on top of the national GST of 5%. One of the big challenges for Boston is that the state won't let the city add their own sales or other taxes. So that additional budget would come out of property owners as real estate tax. Personally I'm not interested in giving the city $30 million in extra revenue so commuters can park their Audis, so I hope there's a regional plan in place for next year.

https://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2015/02/montreal_knows_where_to_stick_snow

 

[IslandTractor]

It appears she was headed for the tree line but the wind was so strong it blew her off the trail.

Current conditions on Mt Washington are -31 with winds at 72mph. The one time I set out with two friends to do a similar route in winter, we never left our base camp. When the wind gusts sound like cannon shots and the trees are whistling and it's 25 below, I'm not going up there.....My buddy made six attempts at Mt Washington before he made it.

The Back Bay area of Boston is a filled-in area taken from the Charles River Basin. As a result the streets are street and the terrain is pretty flat. This big Oshkosh was at work there over the weekend.

There is an article in the Boston Herald contrasting Boston's response with Montreal. Montreal has about 4X the population and land area of Boston, but budgets $153 million compared to Boston's $18.5 million (actual spending this year is north of $30 million). It is 3.2% of their municipal budget, 4 1/2 times higher. Quebec also has a 9.9% sales tax on top of the national GST of 5%. One of the big challenges for Boston is that the state won't let the city add their own sales or other taxes. So that additional budget would come out of property owners as real estate tax. Personally I'm not interested in giving the city $30 million in extra revenue so commuters can park their Audis, so I hope there's a regional plan in place for next year.

https://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2015/02/montreal_knows_where_to_stick_snow

1) the woman was out of her mind to attempt that hike alone at this time of year. I'm glad none of the rescue folks was injured. Her husband was just as stupid and he'll have to live with the consequences. It somehow doesn't surprise me that they were both Wall Street bankers. Ever wonder what the mindset was of the jerks who caused the 2008 debacle? This mountaineering episode gives some insight into their tunnel vision and selfishness.

2) the Audis that drive into Boston every day virtually all park inside parking garages for $500+/month. It is the folks who live in Boston who don't have any place to put their cars during bad snow events. I personally don't think Boston does a bad job at all with snow. This year is wildly atypical and it would be stupid to budget (or collect taxes) to manage atypical snow events. What they do need is some flexibility to cost average over 5-10 years or so and smooth out the peaks. Our town (leafy suburb north of Boston) has excellent snow removal because they choose to prioritize that over some other city services. We take our own trash to the dump/transfer station for example. The town also doesn't allow any overnight street parking between Nov1 and May1 just to make the plows work easier and more efficient. Neither of those choices would be reasonable for a major city like Boston however.

 

[Garandman]

The center of a tennis net is three feet so that's what we have for snow pack.

 

[IslandTractor]

Just drove past a big parking lot on Soldiers Field Rd next to Harvard stadium. They are using it as a snow farm. The parking lot is bigger than a football field and is completely filled up to about 15 feet with trucked in snow. It probably won't melt until July but they may need to retruck it before melting as it is full of salt and the parking lot is right on the Charles River. Interesting environmental issues.

 

[Garandman]

Not really snow related but, what the ****. Boston drivers are terrible (and sadly, the rest of the country seems to be following suit) but this is a noteworthy accomplishment. This happened in Brookline, where wealthy Liberals live so they can opine about how to make Boston better without having to associate with people of color.

A woman had a "driving mishap" while backing up, adding a new sculpture to the local library.