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Could You Stand Having to Shovel Lake Effect Snow?

Could You Handle Clearing You Driveway Nearly 24/7?

  • Yeah, I could handle it. It's not a big deal.

    Votes: 13 61.9%

  • No, I probably move or kill myself.

    Votes: 8 38.1%
  • Total voters
    21
  • Poll closed .
John Doe 57

John Doe 57

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 26, 2008
1,333
3
Los Angeles, CA
Here is the scenario:

Wednesday Night: 2 to 4 inches of Snow, 2 - 4" Total
Thursday: 10 to 16 inches of Snow, 12 - 20" Total
Thursday Night: 9 to 13 inches of Snow, 21 - 33" Total
Friday: 33 to 39 inches of Snow, 54 - 72" Total (4.5 to 6 Feet)
Friday Night: 16 to 22 inches of Snow, 70 - 94" Total (5.9 to 7.8 Feet)
Saturday: 3 to 7 inches of Snow, 73 - 101" of Snow, (6 to 8.4 Feet)

Not to mention that there will be wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph, so snow drifts will play a HUGE factor in clearing your driveway.


BTW, this is currently happening in the Tug Hill region of New York State. Snow amounts of 5 to 6 inches per hour are being witnessed. This scenario is not made up.
 
Why not wait until it stops? That's what we do in CO. That and have a Jeep that can move it out of the way. Generally we just let the sun melt it ... of course we're over a mile closer and usually have sunny skies and that makes a huge difference.
 
I'd probably bite the bullet and go out and shovel every few hours. I have done that last year when we had a few days of snow in IL. Not fun, but almost necessary so that you can actually dig yourself out.

I always say that I should move, but I never do/will. :eek:
 
I forgot to mention that you probably would/should have to get onto your roof and clear the snow off. 8 feet of snow on a roof can raque havoc on it, especially if you let it sit there and melt from the Sun and the heat your home produces.
 
If we get a couple of inches around here, people freak out. I can't even imagine snow like that. Stuff like that is why I have a geographic cut off on where I will live. I refuse to live anywhere that gets those kind of temps or that amount of snow. In fact, I would really like to get a sys admin job in say, the Bahamas so I won't have to deal with cold weather. :)
 
Lived in Traverse city MI for many years & had more snowfall than that most years. All I had was a standard snow shovel. We used to get snow drifts all the way up to the roofs of 2 story houses. We'd get onto the roof & shovel them off regularly & jump down on the drift side.
Good times......
BRRRRRRR.
 
In 2003-04, Redfield, NY got 299 inches of snow for the entire season (Just over 19 feet). During a huge lake effect snow storm in 2007, Redfield received 141 inches of snow in 10 days. That is 14.1 inches of snow per day, half an inch per hour for 240 hours, 11.75 feet of snow total.

Redfield02112007-3.jpg
http://wintercenter.homestead.com/photoindex.html
 
I've lived in Minot, ND where the wind blows so hard that the house across the street was covered, and I could see the grass on my front lawn. All of the snow that had been there blew across the street. :)

I've also lived in Rome, NY, so I know lake-effect. Not Buffalo lake effect, but heavy nonetheless.

It's nice once in a while if you're prepared. It does get old rapidly. I prefer cold to hot though. You can't get arrested for bundling up in winter. You can get arrested for getting too comfortable in the summer. :D
 
I live in Colden, NY, where the Highway Department has a sign "Snow Capitol of Western NY." And usually it is.

Yesterday I shoveled twice (about 6" the first time, and about a foot the last time) and then at 5 AM today so I could leave, I had to do another foot.

The key is to find a pace you can keep at for a while. My driveway is about 100' long, so it's not a quick job.

When I can't do it anymore, and need a snowblower, I'll move. I am, ahem, an old guy.
 
monokakata said:
I live in Colden, NY, where the Highway Department has a sign "Snow Capitol of Western NY." And usually it is.

Yesterday I shoveled twice (about 6" the first time, and about a foot the last time) and then at 5 AM today so I could leave, I had to do another foot.

The key is to find a pace you can keep at for a while. My driveway is about 100' long, so it's not a quick job.

When I can't do it anymore, and need a snowblower, I'll move. I am, ahem, an old guy.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I lived in Oswego for a number of years and I thought Oswego was the "Snow Capital."
 
I like the cold and snow, so i don't think I would mind it. I probably don't want that much snow, if it happens too often. Once in a while, I think it can be fun, but definitely exhausting.
 
QuarterSwede said:
Why not wait until it stops? That's what we do in CO. That and have a Jeep that can move it out of the way. Generally we just let the sun melt it ... of course we're over a mile closer and usually have sunny skies and that makes a huge difference.
Click to expand...

Um, because it's cold! I used to live in CO also, and it melted away much faster than "back east". I don't think the proximity to the sun is the reason, especially when it's Chinook season.
 
scotty96LSC said:
Interesting. I lived in Oswego for a number of years and I thought Oswego was the "Snow Capital."
Click to expand...

Oswego is the Snow Capitol of Central NY -- Colden is it for Western NY.

But let's face it -- outfits like Highway Departments can and do claim pretty much whatever they want to.
 
Been there done that, Great Lakes RTC north of Chicago winter of 1994/95, the snows in Montana at high altitude were slightly softer in comparison around 1998/99 (of course in MT few people shoveled they just drove on the top)
 
That is an incredible amount of snow.

I think there is something wrong with me. One of the few things I enjoy about winter is shoveling snow. Maybe it's because people who do a half ass job really get to me. It might be my way of feeling just in my disappointment.

I remember the Halloween blizzard of '91 when we got 28" of snow. I was 12 and my old man said. "Well you want to be a man right? Well men shovel snow". That was a great Halloween. That should have made me hate shoveling, but somehow it didn't. Maybe if I dealt with lake effect snow my views would be different.
 
Snow plows are beautiful things. We average less than 100"/year and even with that shoveling is not a game I want to play. We've only had about 12" yet this winter.

If only we could jam a huge mountain next to Buffalo. Limitless and absurd East Coast powder. 10 feet of snow in a few days? It'd be a mecca.
 
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