Storm Jonas - Hunker Down

Whilst North Dakotans and other Big Snow states are no doubt chuckling at Metro DC's snowstorm follies, best wishes to all SAF-mates in Jonas' path for:
- No loss of power
- No failures of well or sump pumps
- No frozen trees or limbs meeting your roof with untoward force, with those middle-of-the-night cracks that make you bolt upright
- Uniformly courteous and skillful drivers on dicey roads who understand the physics of a reduced coefficient of friction when applying brakes as observed in your rear view mirror
- Timely snow plowing, with snow piles thoughtfully deposited at a location other than the entrance to your driveway or driver's side of the car if street-parked
- A functional snow blower
- No black ice, freezing rain or wintry mix, just...snow
- No reason to go out
- Nothing forgotten for the kitchen, medicine cabinet, adult beverage supplies or animals
- And everyone remembers how hard your body is working to stay warm while shoveling snow, and pace yourselves


Fed Govt closes noon Friday in DC-Baltimore Metro. Metro trains and buses stop tomorrow night through ??? Schools closed tomorrow.

The library books are stacked up, good meals await, and we are finally going to crack that Glenmorangie limited edition single malt as our one purchase from last summer's trip to Scotland and a delightful visit with the Sixteen Men of Tain. That will be for restorative purposes, naturally.

I think we should all take bets now how long will we be hunkered down?

My bet is Tuesday when the govt goes back to work, and Thurs for schools.
~ Let's face it when Metro is already announcing that they HOPE to be back on limited schedule by Monday, you know Tuesday is the 1st day possible. VDOT also has said already that they hope to have secondary roads cleared by Tuesday...aka won't hit your development until Weds, don't expect schools to be back up.

The twist is going to be next week when it is suppose to rain. In our area that can cause major flooding if we get the 2 feet of snow. If it hits Weds., all of those snow mounds will cause flooding.

It is not going to be pretty.

For myself, I plan on spending the weekend doing a deep house cleaning and maybe lots of baking if we don't lose power.
~ Laughed when I was at Harris Teeters today
~~ My cart...cleaning supplies....tons of products on the shelves, I had no problem getting what I needed.
~~ Everybody elses cart...bread, milk, eggs, bacon frozen pizzas, microwave food....they had slim pickings

Why did I laugh? I laughed because the news is about 40+ mph winds, hence blizzard and how they expect electricity to go out...Good luck eating those hot pockets and frozen pizzas!

Just a reminder to anyone in the path...if you have a gas fireplace, turn the pilot light on before the storm hits. Most gas fireplaces will have an electric start. No electricity = no starter for the fireplace...aka heat.

Also in our area basements are common. If you have window wells, clear them out because when the snow melts, the window wells can back up and seep down the basement walls.

I love snow but so happy that the Weather Channel wont be setting up shop in our home town for this one. Good luck!

My landlord texted me to clear the area around the AC unit. The fan in it is used for the heat pump and it could freeze if the snow isn't cleared.

Work until need and the dash to Giant where they should have duraflame logs delivered

Ah yes, the "Shelter in Place" cry from the Washington DC political elite anticipating the awesome power of Nature's ability to gather a blanket of snow at a depth one inch!.... Oh the Humanity !

I can even hear the shouts despite being buried under 3' of Lake-effect !

Imagine!

1. - Cancellations of all Airline flights in and out three days in advance of the wintry woe!!
2. - Ransacking of Grocery store for all available Bread and Milk supplies, three days in advance
3. - The all-out Mobilization of DC's Fleet of Snow Plow/Salt Trucks! All [6] of them!

It is just pathetic.

Storm Jonas? As in the singin' Jonas Brothers from the Disney Channel?

Oh, that's right the Weather Channel is owned by ABC/Disney!

My bad!

We hard wired in a generator unit a few years ago, since we are in a rural part of the county, with above ground power lines and on well water and geothermal heat pump. No electricity = no running water, no toilet, no heat. Unit runs first floor HVAC, well pump, sump pump, kitchen circuits. With careful usage, and with a full underground tank, we have made it 9 days without external power. Needed it that long a few years back from a storm. We just camp in the kitchen/family room area if we need to. It's not the snow so much as tall trees around the house, ice, high winds. The Ford F-450 duallie truck we use for the big horse trailer is the road behemoth of choice when we emerge onto unplowed roads. County snow plow doesn't do our lane because no turnaround area. Hunker down checklist complete.

Capt MJ said:

We hard wired in a generator unit a few years ago, since we are in a rural part of the county, with above ground power lines and on well water and geothermal heat pump. No electricity = no running water, no toilet, no heat. .

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In all seriousness, obviously you, myself and many, many others know what a real bad storm can do and we deal with it.

When I go down to DC on business, it is just stunning to observe the self-absorbed nature of the people of Capitol City relative to how the rest of the country deals with weather.

Agree with the observation on DC All-About-Our-Snow syndrome!

And in a moment of self-insight, no one from serious snow areas outside DC Metro would have started a thread on an incoming storm...

murfthesurf said:

In all seriousness, obviously you, myself and many, many others know what a real bad storm can do and we deal with it.

It is just stunning to observe the self-absorbed nature of the people of Capitol City relative to how the rest of the country deals with weather.

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Huh?

I was born in the north, lived with lake effect snow and ice storms in upstate New York, and bounced around on ships in winter storms.

This isn't an issue of self-absorption. It's an issue of millions of commuters hitting poorly prepared roads all at the same time. It's not something we dealt with in Pittsburgh or Rochester or anywhere else. The Metro shuts down because snow will be above the 3rd rail. So what do you do for the millions who can't leave?

And from my MN friends, they have consistent, winter long snow far, but not all at once.... Not like this.

LITS, all good points. The cumulative impact on a high population density area is key.

Good luck to everyone involved-stay safe!

MCB Quantico is "Code Red" from 1200 today till Monday morning. DD was emailed with hints from mother including food, water and a snow shovel. My gas fireplace and Franklin have saved me on numerous occasions after power outage but they do have a friction spark lighter just like the outdoor grill, no need for power but check yours. Just filled up the outdoor grill just in case we need some hot food. Ah grilling in a blizzard what fun. We are on the fringe so it looks like south of us will get the heavy stuff.

Look, I live in a Lake Effect zone, one of the heaviest snow areas around.

That said, I freely admit that when it gets over 80 degrees around here, the complaints from some in my family to how 'broiling' it is, could be really embarrassing if it were ever discussed around Southerners......btw, my father served in the Marines after graduating from the USNA, I was born in Quantico .

Right and I lived in a lake effect snow area, so I know what you're talking about. There is not a city in that area that has the commuting population of DC.

LineInTheSand said:

And from my MN friends, they have consistent, winter long snow far, but not all at once.... Not like this.

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I was in Minneapolis for game 7 when the Twins won the World Series in 1991. On October 27, Jack Morris pitched one of the finest complete games ever as the Twins won in 10, 1-0. On October 29, I went to the victory parade in DT Mpls. It was unusually cold, even for late October in Minnesota, and the snowflakes were already starting to fall.

The Halloween Snowstorm started in earnest on October 30. Three days later the Cities were buried in 28.4 inches of snow. Even in Minneapolis and Saint Paul - cities very much accustomed to efficiently and rapidly moving a lot of snow - the sheer volume and the short time over which it fell (2-1/2 days) made that impossible. Buses stopped for a while. The airport shut down. Many people couldn't get out of driveways, even with snow tires, for days. There were spotty power outages and insane numbers of accidents - partly because it was such an unusual storm, MnDOT underestimated its impact and did not salt the roads beforehand, so even some of the freeways were rutted-ice-covered into January. Streets were plowed pretty rapidly, but with that volume of snow and nowhere to push it, many of the side roads were down to one lane.

If the DC metro gets that kind of volume, it's going to be a week or more before life is not majorly inconvenient for just about everyone.

Right, if we got 2 feet over 3 months, no issues, but so much volume, so quickly…. nasty….

The snow has started here.

Stay safe. Wish I could send you some of this FL. Weather.