Winter won’t quit
Martin Holladay
| Posted in General Questions on
This morning, the outdoor temperature at my house is -15°F.
Attached are two photos taken yesterday, in my dooryard and along our driveway.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Search and download construction details
Replies
If you sweep the snow off, that makes it easy to inspect the roof.....
Just remember that VT gets its biggest snow storms in March!
Peter,
I've lived here 44 years, and the typical pattern is for the deepest snow level on the ground to occur at the very end of March. So we have another month of snow storms to come, adding to what's on the ground, if this pattern holds.
That's a lot of snow. Over here in upstate NY we have about 3" of solid ice on the ground. It's going to be interesting getting the wheelbarrow unstuck and the tarp off the fire wood.
Normally we are starting to get some maple sap runs, but there's not going to be any of that based on the 10 day forecast.
2019 Avg February temp - 21.9F
2018 Avg February temp - 27.9F
Nathan,
A few decades back, the rule was to get your trees tapped by Town Meeting Day (which always occurs during the first week in March). In the 1970s and 1980s, we never got a sap run before Town Meeting Day.
But now, everything is unpredictable. In recent years, a lot of Vermonters have started to see sap runs in late February. Not this year, though.
I need to work on my car (outside). Been waiting the whole month of Feb for a break in the weather that never comes. In SE Idaho it has been wave after wave of blowing snow storms separated by brief periods of sub-zero cold. Feb has been even worse than Jan--if that's possible.
We got maybe 2-3” last night and this morning here in southeast Michigan. My wife had her 14th snow day this year today (she’s a teacher).
We did have some impressive wind this past weekend and our power was out for about 20 hours as a result (we have a generator so not a big deal for us).
Temperatures have been cold, but not as cold as last year which I think set some records.
Martin, you have some impressive snow drifts there! Looks deep enough that you could fall off the roof and not get hurt :-)
Bill
Bill,
It's a good year to launch one's sled from the ridge of the roof...
Martin,
I share your worries. It may go below OF tonight and I'm worried about our crocuses.
You can tent them, or rig a quicky cold frame from some rigid foam pinned together with nails. I’ve done that before for some emergency freeze protection.
Just make sure to stake anything to the ground so the wind doesn’t blow it away. Ask me how I know... 12” landscape spikes work well for this and they’re both cheap and readily available.
Bill
Malcolm, you're just mean.
Eric,
It's not only the crocuses. The cat's feet get cold too.
1.2 m (4 feet) of snow on the ground around Quebec city. I think it's even worst than in 2008 and March hasn't started yet...
Il y a vraiment beaucoup de neige cet hiver...
Oh oui! I didn't know you speak French Martin :-)
Dans les années 60, ma famille habitaient au Liban -- j'y allait à un école français. J'ai appris beaucoup de choses: l'histoire de Vercingétorix, les pièces de Molière et de Racine, les fables de la Fontaine, comment prononcer "parallélépipède", faire la dictée. Je me souviens...
Eh bien, je suppose que vous (y'all) devez tous déménager à TX... Ha!
Temps plus chaud et BBQ, de quoi avez-vous besoin dans la vie?
Y a-t-il du neige à Texas maintenant?
Où est-ce que y'all faîtes du ski?
Pas de neige, c'est ce que je veux dire. Nous skions dans les dunes de sable! ... et nous jouons au golf pendant que vous vous sortez de ce pétrin, haha!
Nous ne sommes pas dans le pétrin, mon ami. Il fait beau ici.
C'est de la neige, simplement. C'est normal, quoi.
We're in a similar spot. A crappy year to start building a house in the middle of winter!
Happily enough for us, the winter in Maine hasn't been too bad. Average snow, no super cold nights, nothing below 0° F whereas we usually see a few -10 to -15° mornings. Lots of ice though. Northern Maine has gotten clobbered with snow, but they're pretty tough up there.
The difference between northern and southern Maine is like the difference between southern Vermont (Brattleboro) and northeastern Vermont. Different climates entirely.
Where are you located, Martin? NE Vermont has some of the nicest roads I've driven.
Lance,
I live in the middle of nowhere, north of St. Johnsbury and south of Newport.
Our gravel roads are in pretty good shape -- frozen solid and scraped by the snowplows. But the state roads (asphalt roads) are a mess -- mostly potholes and frost heaves.
The roads here in Ottawa have taken a real beating this year as well. Way too many freeze/thaw cycles, and far too many days with actual rain. Crazy.
Martin - I was reading that as the opening line to a good joke...
Full-on winter here (still) in Aroostook County, proving its CZ7 status this week
Good news is - all the way up to -8f tomorrow night