It's now been 30 hours since the Storm Of Doom departed our area. We saw about 12 inches of snowfall here at The Manse, though that is a rough estimate.
The one thing that set this one apart from most others is its long term effects. (By long term, I mean the day or two after the storm departed.) With the much colder than normal temperatures seen during and after the storm, road conditions are worse than one would normally experience during a storm of this type.
It wasn't uncommon to see below zero (Fahrenheit) temperatures during this storm which had the effect of making the snow very fine and 'fluffy', meaning that it piled up quickly and drifted easily even with light winds. It also meant that the roads iced up quickly because the salt and other de-icing chemicals normally used by road crews were ineffective. Rock salt doesn't work once the temperature reaches 10ºF and some of the others stop working once the temperature reaches 0ºF.
This has meant that since Thursday morning I've had to leave the trusty F150 in four-wheel drive in order to make it around town safely. Even with 4WD I had trouble getting out of the driveway at The Manse Friday morning, necessitating the use of the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower to cut two tracks up the slope of the driveway in order to get any traction. A trip down to the local Walmart and hardware store early this afternoon required the constant use of 4WD. Road surfaces that looked like dry pavement were in fact covered by ice formed from the packed snow, making traction iffy at best even with 4WD. (One downside to having to use 4WD all the time is that the gas mileage in the trusty F150 was somewhere south of 12 mpg, where it's usually around 17 or 18mpg for the normal around town/to-and-from-work driving.)
We're still digging out from the Storm Of Doom as well as the previous snowfall last weekend. The Weather GuysTM are saying we're in for some warmer temps tomorrow along with some rain, and then we're back into the deep freeze with the possibility of more snow next weekend.
As I stated during my usual Sunday post last weekend, I'm beginning to wonder whether we're in for a repeat of the winter a few years ago when we received over 150 inches of snow. So far it's shaping up that way. In other words, it's likely to be a normal New England winter, at least normal for the 19th century.
It must be global warming (and it's all George W. Bush's fault).
