Snow

[does it ALL outdoors]

I absolutely LOVE the snow!!

The more the merrier, if we could get 24" of fresh every day and -5, that's my utopia.

I went boarding in the mountains yesterday, taking the sled out tomorrow, might drop a hook or 2 on Monday.

Pulled 2 people off windrows today, both little poopbox cars with tiny tires completely inappropriate for Canadian winters.

But me, IM LOVIN IT!!!

I'm praying for 5' tomorrow

[TreeGuy]

Strathcona Park SW. Over 30 cm fell here.








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[Norwest Alta]

Originally Posted by TreeGuy

Strathcona Park SW. Over 30 cm fell here.








Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow you need a longer handle on the shovel to throw it higher

[graybeard]

Good exercise.........
I have a few older people and a couple people with health issues in my cul-de-sac; in all 6 houses with driveway's that I help out.

I don't measure the snow by inches but rather when I wear out a shovel. I have worn one out already this year.....I look forward to cutting grass now....haha.

[79ford]

The mud this spring will be awesome. That magic time of year when the frost pulls out and the snow is melting while you log gallons per mile trying to tear through it with the boot in the radiator. I bought a 130 gallon per hour fuel pump for my truck since i think the 30 gallon pump starves it at 5000rpm WOT.

[Big Sky]

Originally Posted by Norwest Alta

Wow you need a longer handle on the shovel to throw it higher

What he really needs is a rake.
Get on the other side of that pile and start pulling the snow off of the top. You can knock a pile like that down to a much more manageable size in no time.
Your heart and back will love you for it.

We had over 30cm at our place.

[YYC338]

Originally Posted by calgarygringo

All true but also remember all numbers are based on the airport where they are taken not 30 miles south where we live. We can sometimes have 2 to 3 times more or less this far away. That's what makes Calgary weather stats near meaningless sometimes.

Not disputing that and I don't imagine Calgary is a lot different than a lot of places over 30 miles distant. I've lived here for over 50 years and have seen more weather anomalies here than most folks.

The point I was making was when CBC or some other source makes a big story about record snowfalls for a specific date it's a rather meaningless record and doesn't require getting your knickers in a knot. Just because you set a March 2nd record doesn't mean that the snowfall was all that significant for a March snowfall in Calgary in general as other days in March, over recorded history, may have had significantly more snowfall over a 24hr period but may or may not set any records for those dates.

Conversely, you can have a 5 day storm that dumps 75cm (15/day) and not set any "daily records" but would leave a crap load of snow that would paralyze this town.

Records for a specific day in March mean virtually nothing. Now a 24hr record snowfall for any day ever recorded in the month of March is a different statistic altogether, but that's not what we just went through here.

[Wiz]

La Niña fellas.

Explains the heavy precipitation in Alberta.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/product...-fcsts-web.pdf

[Norwest Alta]

Is anyone calving in this mess? Thought I heard 7 deg days in the forecast.

[calgarygringo]

It is going to be messy by the end of the week.

Originally Posted by Norwest Alta

Is anyone calving in this mess? Thought I heard 7 deg days in the forecast.

[calgarygringo]

I agree and really these amounts are minuscule to a few I was in. We had one in Winnipeg back in the mid 60's we could walk on to the school roof the drifts were so high. They had to bring the big snow blowers down all the streets as the plows could even blast through.
I was in one in Montreal in the early 70's very similar. There was so much snow on our street the plows were taking runs at it and gave up trying. They had to bring the big blowers and cut a patch first. It was several days before things were really moving.
This stuff here is small potatoes in comparison. If we ever got snowfalls like that here we would be shut in for days with out small amount of snow clearing equipment we have in this town.

Originally Posted by YYC338

Not disputing that and I don't imagine Calgary is a lot different than a lot of places over 30 miles distant. I've lived here for over 50 years and have seen more weather anomalies here than most folks.

The point I was making was when CBC or some other source makes a big story about record snowfalls for a specific date it's a rather meaningless record and doesn't require getting your knickers in a knot. Just because you set a March 2nd record doesn't mean that the snowfall was all that significant for a March snowfall in Calgary in general as other days in March, over recorded history, may have had significantly more snowfall over a 24hr period but may or may not set any records for those dates.

Conversely, you can have a 5 day storm that dumps 75cm (15/day) and not set any "daily records" but would leave a crap load of snow that would paralyze this town.

Records for a specific day in March mean virtually nothing. Now a 24hr record snowfall for any day ever recorded in the month of March is a different statistic altogether, but that's not what we just went through here.

[Digger1]

Originally Posted by Norwest Alta

Is anyone calving in this mess? Thought I heard 7 deg days in the forecast.

My good friend by Claresholm has been calving for a couple weeks already, in minus 43 wind chill at the start. He has to sit out all night and watch them, out of the first 100 calves 99 had to be taken in to warm up. He figures the carbon tax has worked very well to stop global warming, and we can get rid of it now.

[Norwest Alta]

Originally Posted by Digger1

My good friend by Claresholm has been calving for a couple weeks already, in minus 43 wind chill at the start. He has to sit out all night and watch them, out of the first 100 calves 99 had to be taken in to warm up. He figures the carbon tax has worked very well to stop global warming, and we can get rid of it now.

The temp fluctuations aren't good for calving.

[Big Grey Wolf]

Guys in the good old days when we walked 5 miles to school uphill both ways we really had snow. However remember living across river from Ft Sask we had snow storm piled roads up with 8 ft snow. My neighbour and I both had tractors could not touch it. We went to work on artic cat snowmobile, to highway and guys from Sherritt would pick us up.

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by TreeGuy

Strathcona Park SW. Over 30 cm fell here.

The trick is to push the tops over so it is easy for the wife to shovel.

[Sundancefisher]

We were lucky this last snow storm didn't come with wind or the drifts would of been huge.

I pushed 2 cars out of plow piles. People in little cars need to realize their limitations better.

[YYC338]

Originally Posted by calgarygringo

I agree and really these amounts are minuscule to a few I was in. We had one in Winnipeg back in the mid 60's we could walk on to the school roof the drifts were so high. They had to bring the big snow blowers down all the streets as the plows could even blast through.
I was in one in Montreal in the early 70's very similar. There was so much snow on our street the plows were taking runs at it and gave up trying. They had to bring the big blowers and cut a patch first. It was several days before things were really moving.
This stuff here is small potatoes in comparison. If we ever got snowfalls like that here we would be shut in for days with out small amount of snow clearing equipment we have in this town.

I completely agree, living here as long as I have, what recent councils and administrations have done to the snow removal capability this city once had is a joke.
I laugh when they interview the 21yr old city roads spokesperson and they proudly say "we've got every available piece of equipment out working" until you realize that statement could apply to just two pieces of equipment.

And of course when council gets asked to improve their snow removal response, they hold the tax gun to your head and say, "well it'll cost you more" when the reality is they just need to reallocate some of the money they waste doing things they have no business doing and put it into snow removal.

One thing I've always wondered about is the amount of salt and chemical that goes on our roads and then directly into the Bow river untreated through the storm drain system. We have a world class trout fishery downstream of town and does this have any adverse effect on that? I remember when salt wasn't used to now when the volume must be tons upon tons of it.

With such a poor removal response time and the expanding use of salt, the city is indirectly responsible for increased accident rates as well as directly responsible for the accelerated rusting of metal structures (including your car) and decay of concrete that the salt comes in contact with. Some of these costs get off-loaded to the consumer/tax payer in the form of increased automobile insurance rates, buy hey, the city's mayor Nancy Spenshee can proudly claim we've kept your property tax increases to a minimum, at least before an election year anyway.

[RBI]

Originally Posted by Norwest Alta

I was lucky. The neighbor come by while I was away with his tractor and snowblower. 100 go sure throws snow. We're gonna have a mess if a fast melt happens. Kinda hoping it does because I'd like to see some of the beaver dams washed out but it could also make for long wait to get out seeding. Guys might have to get out the old seed drills to fit between the mud holes in the fields

I guess a possible solution to that would be some sort of seeding drone

likely be fully automatic with a GPS guidance system , you'd just have be sitting around to change batteries and reload more seed .

I guess you'd also be using it from crop dusting etc.

Hardly a muddy boot in the house .


Opps , I just realized that obviouly wouldn't work. forgot about the plow part

but the crop dusting would still have some possibilities .

[32-40win]

It certainly is interesting watching the cars on the street in front of the house. I live on a tee intersection and can see about 150yds of road in front. It would compete with a lot of seismic trails at the moment. Just watching a van right now, sliding around trying to get out of his parking spot, then gets semi-stuck in the ruts, bounces up and out almost hitting another car, then doesn't know what to do, as he is now 45deg across the ruts and drops a tire in and spins like mad to get back out. Then there are the folk in the AWD SUV's, some are afraid of the road, some are Mario Andretti's. See some pieces of front bumper fairings here and there in the neighborhood.

[YYC338]

Originally Posted by 32-40win

It certainly is interesting watching the cars on the street in front of the house. I live on a tee intersection and can see about 150yds of road in front. It would compete with a lot of seismic trails at the moment. Just watching a van right now, sliding around trying to get out of his parking spot, then gets semi-stuck in the ruts, bounces up and out almost hitting another car, then doesn't know what to do, as he is now 45deg across the ruts and drops a tire in and spins like mad to get back out. Then there are the folk in the AWD SUV's, some are afraid of the road, some are Mario Andretti's. See some pieces of front bumper fairings here and there in the neighborhood.

Try to imagine back in the 60's and 70's when 4wd & Fwd was rare, Awd didn't exist, nor soft compound tires, traction control, collision avoidance technology, anti-lock braking, etc, etc. With these continuous improvements I'll still bet the accident rate /100kms driven hasn't changed much.

Of course there is the issue of driver skill "improvement" that comes into play here.

[32-40win]

I lived in South Burnaby in Vancouver in the 60's, and saw 2ft snowfalls there. People starting at the top of the hill and sliding all the way down past Marine Dr.
and trying to go up and sliding back down. We went down the same roads on our toboggans. And some coming from the side roads and across and thru the barrier, down into the ravine.

[calgarygringo]

We are on a side street and a plow just came thru. We must be special only 1 day after it stops. We never see a plow here.

[TBark]

Been in Aus for 7 months now, 32C average here since we got here.
I don't miss the snow I gotta say.
I'll see u guys in June, ha.

TBark

[logician]

I'm enjoying the snow! Might as well have winter if we're going to have it. Just blew about 8 inches today. It's a winter wonderland out there. I love driving through deep snow too - so much fun as long as you have a good vehicle and tires.

[Norwest Alta]

Cats plowing snow for the graders up here. If a guy had a v plow on his grader get make a mint. First time I've ever seen windrows of snow along the train tracks.

[Elk Chaser]

Get your boats and waders ready Calgarians because if it all melts really fast including the mountain snow pack you will be flooding again this spring.

[Gerry]

I remember one storm in Winnipeg in the early 60's.
Buss's tried to get out and were pushing snow with their windshield by the time they got stopped.
People were digging tunnels along public sidewalks just to get anywhere.
Emergency vehicles were skidoos for police and ambulances.
I'm 5' 8" and the snow was well over my head.
I wouldn't want to see that again.

[elkhunter11]

Something snow related to lighten up the day.

https://www.facebook.com/10000973569...77007917/?t=19

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by Sundancefisher

The trick is to push the tops over so it is easy for the wife to shovel.

EXACTLY!

I have one of those giant snow scoops - when the snow piles get too high along the driveway and sidewalks, the scoop makes short work of them. I push them higher up on my lawn.



I feel for those poor folks in those newer "California Syle" neighborhoods, with zero space to put all the snow. Over the course of the winter, watching the street get oddly narrower as the winter progresses...

[calgarygringo]

Yes I was there too. Even still remember the date. Google March 4 1966 Winnipeg and there are lots of stories pics and videos. It was insane. I saw 38 cm of snow which isnt crazy but was real cold and blew like a hurricane and created amazing drifting snow everywhere. Was in elementary school at the time and the drifts were so big we walked on to the roof. Some amazing pics when I just googled it totally forgot about that one and sure brings old memories.
Had one crazy one when I was a teenager in Montreal in the early 70's too and they brought in the big blowers and dump trucks and took it all away.

Originally Posted by Gerry

I remember one storm in Winnipeg in the early 60's.
Buss's tried to get out and were pushing snow with their windshield by the time they got stopped.
People were digging tunnels along public sidewalks just to get anywhere.
Emergency vehicles were skidoos for police and ambulances.
I'm 5' 8" and the snow was well over my head.
I wouldn't want to see that again.