Sitting at home--snow

[TC Chris]

At home today. Everything is closed because of the extreme weather. We had lots of snow last night and it continues with high winds. I went out to do my front sidewalk and only managed the part between the house & street before heading in for breakfast. The wind was cold and I had to keep stopping turn my back to the blasts. The sidewalk runs E-W and the wind is N, so it filled in the trench from yesterday to about 18".

The Mackinac Bridge is open again with speeds limited to 20 mph because of winds. Most of the airport's flights, in and out, are cancelled today.

I have been ignoring the driveways. The city streets are plowed, at least my residential street, but it's unlikely that they've got to the alleys yet. My plan was to be ahead of the game by doing my 11 p.m. driveways clearing last night. They are probably all clogged now. I'm kinda hoping Brent down the alley will get his snowblower out and then I can go out and just do cleanup. We dodged the ice storm, yay!, but they may be getting it east of us.

The barometers have been fluctuating wildly all winter, more than I ever recall before, but today they have dipped as low as I've seen. This is serious weather and now the temps are dropping.

I filled the bird feeders Sat. That's only necessary about once a month because I get so few. It has been that way for several years now. I did scare a hawk out of my white pine in the back yard the other day,but that cannot explain a years'-long drought. Recently I've see a cardinal, a gold finch, and a little flock of chickadees. Maybe things will pick up. I have been scattering red oak acorns collected last fall for the squirrels. They all seem to disappear.

Chris Campbell

[William]

Welcome to Michigan! I too have, south of you, blizzard conditions. Last night we had freezing rain but it must have stopped before the temps dropped and it began snowing and receiving about an inch over night. The weather guessers predicted 3-5" for us today with high winds and little to no visibility. There are times I can't see the house across the street or the woods behind me then all of a sudden the sun peaks out. The guessers have now changed their minds, they now predict about an inch of snow for today but still winds up to 40 mph and a minute ago it was definitely that strong. From your post, Chris, you are worse off than I am, but then again your are two hours farther north. I wish you the best, and hope this is the last round of winter storms.

Bill

[TC Chris]

Another hour and a half of driveway clearing this afternoon. Lots of drifting, lots of wind, and more snow falling. After I'd shoveled for an hour, a different kind neighbor brought his snow blower over and helped with the deep stuff on the 2nd driveway. We both laughed, knowing that eventually the snow plow will come down the alley and toss all the alley's snow into our driveways for us.

My Dad's old snow blower is in the shop for major renovation--lots of bearings and bushings in the drive wheel and rotor mechanisms, as well as the ignition work. It has been there since January. I called last week--what's up? "We're waiting for the muffler before we tear it down." I expressed my views on the necessity of mufflers (politely) and urged them to get on it--even before the storm was on the horizon. This is exactly why I was getting it back on the road after sitting for 35 years.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Not to add insult to injury, but the weather guesses babes here in the desert are saying it's supposed to be 110 on Sunday, the day of the BOP car show. If it gets that warm, I will stay home. No way will I venture out in a 63 year old car with no AC in that kind of heat.....

[TC Chris]

I'll trade you some cold for some warmth.

Chris Campbell

[TC Chris]

Just got this from the county:

From Grand Traverse County Emergency Management March 16, 2026, 7:05 pm. Life-threatening winter storm. 3 ft of snow and 40 mph winds causing impassable roads. Travel is strongly discouraged. If stranded, responders may be delayed reaching you. Stay off the roads and shelter in place tonight.

I'm hoping they mean "three feet over the 3-day storm" and not "3 more feet."

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Our weather babes now say maybe 103 for Sunday. Doable. They predicted 102 for today, got to 98 here, so they are running high, as usual. I have sent a measure of sun and warmth to you guys on the forum. Feel it?

Seriously, stay warm and stay safe.

[TC Chris]

16 deg. here at 11:00 p.m. I went out and shoveled the sidewalk from the house to the street. It was 18" deep since this morning. The public sidewalk is too far gone. The city has snowblowers that roam the town and do that eventually. The crews are probably running street plows right now. The plow came down the alley and buried both driveways in massive mounds. My boss's husband did the driveway with the Taco in it, which is the one I wanted to drive tomorrow anyway with its 4WD. On the Ranger's driveway, he couldn't figure out where to put the snow, so he left it. Then he called to say my garage door was open. Sometimes it flips back up. I usually watch it through the cycle but forgot to this morning. Because of the wind, things inside were coated with dry snow, including my V-M console. It won't be warm for several days and by then whatever I couldn't brush off will sublimate, not melt. I've never seen so much snow. Not ever.

Chris Campbell

[MEZLAW]

We were supposed to have a lot of wind, rain and tornadoes! All of our HAM radio operators were on alert for the possibility of providing alternate communications. It was a typical March day, some wind and rain but nothing more. Everyone I know had chainsaws ready for downed trees, schools were closed. I guess it is better to be prepared and not need it. I am very grateful it was nothing more than a typical March day.

[William]

17 here this morning and the wind has is almost gone. We did get some snow, maybe just over an inch, nothing like Chris received or is still receiving. Michigan is so weird when it comes to weather, how it hits land and what it dumps. The last round of severe weather was south of me and family members were hammered. This time it is north of me, and Chris is getting hammered. I have a few theories, but no way to prove I am right.

Bill

[TC Chris]

Boss's husband had the day off Tuesday--works at a plumbing supply place and nobody was going to get in--so he got ambitious and cleared the Taco driveway of plow ridges again this a.m. It was off to work for me, an easy trip because the city had been clearing roads full-time. Some of the places inland that I called today were closed because roads were still impassable in rural areas. All of our snow had melted by last Friday but now we have huge mounds all over town. Sat. and Sunday were a matter of shovel, rest, eat, and shovel again. My old back is complaining.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

The "official" temp here today, according to the wife, was a high of 93. I had 93 on the thermometer on the Mini coming home. That is a "fur piece" from 110. The wife's cousin from TC contacted the wife on Facebook and said she got more snow than she had seen since the blizzard of '78. Be careful and stay safe......

[TC Chris]

We had a discussion at work today about which was a bigger mess--'78 or '26.

My truck told me it was way up to 23 deg. by the time I headed home.

Chris Campbell

[Doug]

Its 24 deg in southern
ohio .I'm about 20 mile from Dayton.
Got about 1nch snow.
Lots of wind 20-25mph
Was 67 sunday
Had 13" about month ago
21st sat suppose to be 71 then down again
Im coughing sinus weather .
Saved from t he big snow.

[electra225]

I well remember the blizzard of '78. My FIL has a Lincoln SA-200 welder with a little Continental flathead engine on it. That engine ran for three months solid, thawing out water lines. He would attach the welder to a metal water line, the electrical current in the welder would heat the water pipes. I hadn't gotten my new Mack yet, so the old R-model I was driving ran for that same 90 days without being shut off. Mack had markings on the engine oil dipstick where you could check the oil with the engine running. The only vehicles moving were loaded trucks, highway department vehicles and emergency vehicles. Our town cop drove a GMC dump truck with tire chains all around and loaded with sand for his combination cop car and road crew vehicle. Some of the more rural homes had snow drifted up to the rain gutters. I lived in central Indiana then and it never got above about minus 10 for a month straight. Farmers were dragging their loafing sheds up to their milk parlor, setting them on fire so their cows wouldn't freeze to death. Lots of homes had fuel oil heat. If the tank sat outside, the fuel would gel. Only homes with tanks in the basement were safe from fuel gelling. The delivery trucks couldn't get to them, so that was of little comfort. The county had a couple of WW2 vintage 6X6's they used to deliver fuel to folks who ran out. Even then, there were places you needed a dozer pushing to get thru some of the snow drifts. That storm caused lots of grief for lots of folks....

Diesel engines that ran during the storm ran #1 fuel oil with 20 gallons of gasoline in each tank to keep the fuel from gelling.....

[TC Chris]

The city had to hire a welder for my water line about 10 years ago. It runs under the street. The street is plowed, which removes the snow that insulates the ground elsewhere. (The area at the snow-ground interface is the "subnivium" and it's usually around 32 deg. even when things are hellacious outside. Various critters, mostly small, depend on that.) At any rate, no insulation plus vehicles driving the pavement over means deep frost penetration, and the water pipes were freezing. The welder thawed them.

Ever since, when the winter is especially cold, the city sends me a letter telling me to leave a faucet running 24/7. They adjust the bill later. The kitchen faucet is running right now.

They are rebuilding our street this summer. New water and sewer pipes as they do it. That should solve the problem.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

How will cities thaw out plastic water lines? A welder wouldn't work on those. I know they say PEX will expand and not break, but the main lines wouldn't be made of PEX. The downside to using a welder to thaw out iron pipes is that the electrical current would find weak spots on the pipe, so when the thaw came after the weather warmed up, there were lots of leaks from old, neglected water pipes......

[William]

Occasionally, the city would come and do the welder thing at their house. The water line runs directly center down the street and my parents house was located on the street that feed the school system. So, when the winter was severe, and the busses and the other traffic, their line would freeze during the night. After a couple of times of that they ran water and the city started sending letters to that affect.

Bill