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2/11/07 Update - The snow band has moved far to the north settling in the Watertown, NY area. It's still coming down up there too.

One user of the site asked in a private message just how the people up there are making out as far as the snow and cold goes. You know, things like food, fuel and the like. Well, while this is predominately a rural area it really isn't as "out there" as being in Texas or some other area with a lot of space between houses or stores. Over the years the towns and villages have acquired HUGE plows and snow handling equipment that lets them keep the roads open within reason even in the worst of weather. Occasionally, as in this storm, they declare periods of no unnecessary travel to make clearing the roads a bit easier for the plows.

On the fuel situation, everyone that uses some kind of heating fuel usually has a large storage tank if they aren't hooked to a village or town natural gas line. I have enough fuel on hand now to go the rest of the winter with no problem thanks to the big tank in back of my house. For gasoline for snow blowers and such we simply lay in an extra 5 gallon can or two to handle the task. The thing to remember about the kind of snow we're having now is that it isn't a continuous snowfall. There may be a day or so of intense snow then a day of clear skies as the snow band moves about. During the clear times you can usually get out enough to stock up on whatever supplies you are running low on.

Living in this area we tend to keep food stocked a bit more during the wintertime with storms like this one in mind. We stock up on things that store well and, just before the storm hits, we stock up on the perishable items like milk and bread. Checking the weather forecast can be a big part of dealing with the snow in this area. Just knowing what may be coming a day or two from now really helps us get through the worst of the weather.

Another question was if some of the houses are buried in snow. It sure looke like it from some of the pictures. What usually happens is that the snow compresses as it sits for a little while. While some areas have reported snowfall totals of 11 feet, the snow packs down to somewhere around half of the total. In other words, there's about 6 feet of snow actually on the ground after it packs down. It's hard to bury a house but it is common to see cars burried in the snow when they're not used for several days. Digging a buried car out of a snowdrift is no fun either.

Of more concern is the snow that builds up on the roofs of homes. If it builds up enough it could cause the roof to cave in from the extra weight. It's common around these parts to see home owners shoveling off the roof after storms like this one.

2/10/07 Update - Not much snow here right now but the forecast for the north country has another 6 to 12 inches or more coming today. The little village of Redfield is now reporting 128 inches of snow. They will probably go over the 11 foot mark with the next batch of snow. Parish is now reporting a hundred inches of the white stuff too. Road crews are using the lull in the storm to clean up and move as much of the snow along the roads as possible to make room for more. They're using huge snow blowers to load the snow on dump trucks and move it to an empty lot. One news report said that they expect the snow piles to reach 75 feet high and take until August to completely melt.

2/9/07 Update - The snow total continues to grow. One report of 122 inches (that 10 FEET plus folks) in the town of Redfield (I think I have the name right) and another of over 95 inches in Parish. One local forecaster indicated that another three to four feet was a possibility before the conditions let up enough to stop the lake effect snow. Here in Canastota, the snow is still falling although with much less intensity. We should have 6 to 8 inches more by the time the snow band moves back north again.

The state has declared Oswego county an emergency area making state aid of plows and other services available there. Right now they're cutting back the snow banks and trying to dig out more before the snow returns.

A problem that is starting to surface is all the snow built up on roofs in the heaviest hit area. There have been at least two roof collapses reported and a warning from emergency agencies in the effected areas for home owners to try to remove some of the snow build-up.

Other than the roads being in poor condition where I am, so far I've only had a problem with ice dams on my roof building up. They've been removed and are slowly building up again. I did have some water damage from the ice dam but nothing that I have to take care of immediately.

2/8/07 -By now some of you may have heard about the ongoing snowfall here in upstate NY. Parts of the area have gotten over 5 FEET of snow in the past three days. I'm fortunate in that the worst of the snow (the areas of 5 feet or more) is about 25 miles to the north of where I live.

Occasionally the snow bands shift into my area and dump anywhere from a few inches to nearly a foot in a few hours. We're sort of used to that kind of stuff around here and tend to take the bad weather in stride. During the heaviest parts of winter we tend to consider 6 inches as a 'light dusting' and a foot or so as a minor inconvenience. The problem is the constant winds and low temperatures. We've only managed to get into the lower 20's (F) on most days and go down into the single digits overnight. With the winds gusting up around 30 MPH or more the wind chill gets down well below zero. We've had wind chill temps down as low as -30 (F) in parts of the area.

The local schools have had a hard time staying open with the cold temps and driving snow causing poor road conditions. With it this cold the sand/salt mix they use around here doesn't melt the snow much.

Don't worry about me if you've seen any of the news reports. I'm NOT in the hardest hit area and am quite safe so far. It's just a bit of a problem to keep the snow that does fall cleaned up and to keep the house well stocked with groceries just in case things do go bad here.

Bob