Storm Report

[lagilman]

ok, I went out, mainly because I was too curious not to.

First of all, if you have to go outside, cover your face: the wind is whipping ice particles around like invisible razors. Ow. It's cold but other than the wind, not too bad. All right, not too bad by my standards: it's about 25 degrees, give or take your location.

Impossible to get an accurate measurement after the wind knocked things around and left some cars half-uncovered and others totally buried, but breaking through fresh snow, I was up to my knees, and could feel packed snow, not pavement, under my feet. Roads that were plowed last night had 12" verges of snow om either side of the tire tracks.

Official report is 18.5 20" in Central Park. We may have hit 20". Hell, we may have hit 24".

The main road near my building is cleared - not quite to blacktop but close - and people were already out waiting for buses. But that's a major emergency route. Secondary streets? Barely passable, if that. But I hear the plows working....

I took some photos but really, once you've seen a snowdrift-covered car, haven't you seen them all?

If we don't get hit with the tail end of the storm, I suspect the city will be back up and running (walking) by noon. But if you can stay home, do.

okay, two photos:


A side street. The snow on either side of the tire tracks is about 12" high.
Near the bus stop, along the main road.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It sounds extraordinary. Take care.

[lagilman]

I intend to stay home and stay out of the way of folk who -have- to be out and about. I'd considered going sledding,but I have no idea where the sled got stored. :-( And I think I'm too old to go traying any more.

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Please post pictures! I want to see the streets down to the blacktop and the snow drifts!

[lagilman]

done.

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the photos. I knew NY DPW would not disappoint me as the French DPW has!

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Hey, you live in a city!

God, She knows how many inches we have up here in the not-city. Some places, it was over *my* knees; others places, barely a dusting. I'd braced myself for Serious Shoveling, but once I got off the deck, it was a comparative piece of cake. Thanks to the vagaries of the wind, the cars only required the most minor dusting off to be ready to move, once the plowman cometh.

It is still snowing here, and my biggest fear is that the door will get drifted shut. The folks who built this place were All About negative feng shui. So, the snow shovel is in the kitchen and I'll go do another bit of clearing in an hour.

*checks level of coffee in pot*

[lagilman]

Yeah, your knee level and mine are about 6 inches apart. *grin* Although the folk in Manhattan would deny that I live in a city, as such (our tallest buildings are only about 7 stories, and aren't side-by-side, which means we have less protection from wind/snow).

My folks are on the UES and it was pretty ad there, tho, too. For once, proximity to the rivers did not protect us.

[ubiquitous-a.livejournal.com]

Having grown up in northern Minnesota, we used to see this type of storm at least once a winter, sometimes more. When I was a kid, blizards were something to look forward to, both for the idea of getting out of school, and playing out in the snow.

As an adult, they just mean getting to the store to stock up on supplies (along with everyone else in the world), shoveling to get to your car, shoveling to unbury your car, figuring out that your battery has died, finding someone with jumper cables, helping them unbury *their* car, etc. ad nauseum, yadda yadda yadda.

This kind of stuff is exactly why I live in South Florida now. We just have hurricanes to worry about every few years, and there's generally no shoveling afterwards. ;p

[lagilman]

Being a work-at-home freelancer without a car, I can still think like a kid. ;-)

(I prefer blizzard to hurricanes, me, having been through both)

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Stay safe and warm!

[jamileigh17.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* I'll have to upload some of the pics I took. An unexpected long weekend trip stranded me up in Princeton with the SO's family, was supposed to head back to warmer territory this morning, but both flights we tried were canceled, so not getting out of here til Wednesday! Fine by me though, I'm with people I love, so it's all good. (But got some awesome pictures of the snow!)