Wind!

[liralen]

Jet's school is actually closed today because of the wind. Amazing...

20-40mph steady and 80-100 mph gusts expected. Plus the wind is pushing all the loose snow onto the roads, and the plow crews can't keep up as the wind, steadily, does more. Plus some of the snow is polishing the ice that hadn't been cleaned up until it has a mirror-like finish.

The good part to all this is that, this time, the wind is coming from the West, not the East. So it's coming off the mountains and expanding; therefore, it's warming. So we're likely to hit the 50's today, and with the wind it's going to be like a convection current, and I'm already seeing some of the ice/snow banks softening and running with water that... well... can't go anywhere as nearly ALL the street drainage is blocked by, you guessed it, ice and snow...

It's going to be a mess today. *sigh*

The other good parts, though, are that at altitude, 100 mph winds don't hve nearly the force they have at sea level. Plus most of the electricity utilities here are set up to withstand that kind of wind. And, thirdly, all the trees here, in order to grow, have to be watered, so there isn't nearly the wind hazard to power there is in Seattle, so we should do okay in those winds as long as we don't go out too much. Whew...

Comments

[blindgeoff.livejournal.com]

Hope you last out the storm well... I'm on my second time this year patching in the shingles on my garage (pesky 80 mph gusts!); I'd hate to have to do it in the snow!!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yes, it is very hard in the snow. Luckily, here, the wind is making nearly all the snow melt very, very quickly. Our roof was nearly clear this morning, already... partially blown off, I suspect, and partially the melt...

Thing is the kids had Friday off because it was snowing, AND today off because of the wind. And another big snow is supposed to be coming in this coming Friday, too. Whee...

[kjc007.livejournal.com]

Good luck weathering the wind!

We have taken custody of the storm drain near our curb. We live on a the corner of a medium-sized street and a tiny side street. Looking up the side street, our house is on the left. On the right is a neighbor's house and the storm drain is right there on the corner.

When it rains, we rake out the leaves so the giant puddle (Lake Linden!) drains.

When it snows, we shovel it to make sure that there's drainage for the thaw.

When the area around it freezes over, we use my ice chopper to carve a channel for drainage.

I don't know if anyone else in the neighborhood notice that we do this, but we find it strangely rewarding.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I would, too! Very cool.

Thanks for the great idea!

I'll have to remember that for the next storm, to at least figure out where the darn drain is and then do what I can about it for next time.

I did shovel the mailbox areas for everyone and don't know if anyone noticed, but I did notice the lady that did it the storm before and the fact that someone had done it the one before that... so it seemed like it would be good to take a turn, since they'd done the initial work already.

Easier when it's only seven inches thick rather than a foot or more...

But, cool about the drain! We don't have nearly the leaves or trees, for that matter, around here to block the drains, but the snow and ice do a good job of it.