Topic: I know you guys have had snow but is this for real?

[SteveD CB500F]

Video clip from BBC News website

At the beginning, there's a shot that includes a vehicle that has been abandoned with the door open? It's full of snow!

Then there's a shot of a car standing on its nose - how do they manage that!

[Raef]

yep thats pretty close, I live south 4 hours drive south of Chicago, we got mostly sleet, freezing rain, just rain then some snow on top.

We got very lucky, just as the ice was building up on the trees and power lines, I noticed large chunks of ice hitting the house. A warm front moved through around 2 a.m. it got up to 38 degrees for a few hours and turned to rain before turning back to freezing rain and then snow.

no school or work for three days now, the tow truck and private snow plow just left my house, pulling our three cars out and clearing a place to park them.

Mark

[BeSeeingYou]

The biggest problems is when this happens further south where they get a combination of freezing rain and snow.  This one missed us for the most part but we got 20 inches in a earlier storm and it did not really cause any problems as it was all snow without a thick coating of ice building up.  I prefer winter up on the "tundra" to living a bit further south in the "transition" zone.  It's colder and longer but in many ways easier to deal with.  Another beautiful sunny day here.

satellite shot of the storm over the midsection of the U.S. The red dot is where I live.

[tango911]

The media has over done it here in indy in my opinion.   But it has been bad here. Ill take snow over ice any day of the week. I dispatch for Fedex out of indy and as soon as the drivers leave the hub they pretty much shut down tue and wed.  Chicago got slammed with snow and didnt even have sorts on wed and wed night.   So much for global warming

I love when the news reporter goes to an iced over sidewalk and chips away as 3 inches of ice, while in the back ground the streets have been cleared and traffice is running great lol

[Really?]

That car was actually standing on it nose.  Saw a video clip of it standing in addition to the pictures.  There were some other pics of a bus that was abandoned with snow inside.

Down here is the south it likes to become ice.  This last one was mostly ice.  There was some white stuff on top, sleet i think, that just blew away with the high wind gusts.  Heck, that was traction that blew away.

So, imagine an ice rink.  Now, imagine it as big as your imagaination can take it.  I would swear the ice was a couple inches thick in places.

It is better now but it is still a giant ice rink.

[tango911]

ive heard texas gets some bad ice. 

[Bob Wessner]

- how do they manage that!

We have some very ingenious drivers over here. We don't even need bad weather.  Many a time my wife and I would drive by some abandoned, semi-wrecked auto 150' off the road in a wooded area and wonder how the heck did they manage that. A real treat is the first 2 inch snowfall of the season. Some humans seem to have incredibly short memories.

[MCRider]

The media has over done it here in indy in my opinion.   But it has been bad here. Ill take snow over ice any day of the week. I dispatch for Fedex out of indy and as soon as the drivers leave the hub they pretty much shut down tue and wed.  Chicago got slammed with snow and didnt even have sorts on wed and wed night.   So much for global warming

I love when the news reporter goes to an iced over sidewalk and chips away as 3 inches of ice, while in the back ground the streets have been cleared and traffice is running great lol

I've been out and about quite a bit today. The main roads are OK, but you can easily turn in to a neighborhood and be immediately stuck or on an incline where you just sit and spin.

Walking to and from houses from the street is taking your life in your hands.

My driveway has a solid 2" of ice, but I've had the snow cleared off so we just drive on top of the ice, luckily my drive is level.
I have 3 steps to the front and rear doors. The ice filled them in and made a smooth ramp from top to bottom. Had to chip out footholds with a pickaxe.

[IndyFour]

I went outside today and cleared the sidewalk between the house and the garage (about 60 ft).  I'm tired.

About noon today, I was sitting on the couch watching tv when all the sudden I heard water running somewhere and felt drips on me.  Water was running down the wall from under a window casing in the living room!  Then I heard dripping on the ceiling above.  There's a big ass ice dam on the roof and the sun is starting to melt things up there.  At its worst, water was dripping out from under the crown molding in a few places, but I think it's melted down out there enough that it's beyond the wall of the house....it has stopped now.  My guess is that most of the water was running down inside the outer sheathing of the wall and to the basement....there's water coming out at the foundation there.  Hopefully it hasn't done too much damage to this 90 yr old plaster...it's fragile enough as it is.

guess I'll be putting up some of that roof heating cable for next season.

[Bob Wessner]

Our house is only 70 years old and we had a similar problem about 8 years ago. We had an addition put on and where they had to tie in the new addition roof to the existing roof we had a problem with an ice dam. We got up one morning after a particularly heavy snow and water was dripping around a window, down the wall and apparently under the oak flooring, about 10 square feet of which was cupped. I had to get a ladder and chop through the ice dam just to release the water. Once I did, it stopped. It took a few weeks, but the flooring eventually dried and flattened out. I spent a good part of the next summer putting additional insulation in the attic and adding venting under the eves. No problems since, but I still pull snow off the roof back a couple of feet from the eves whenever we have a heavy snow. Snow rakes are cheap, might want to invest in one.. unless your house is a full two-story and you can't reach the roof.

[Raef]

I spread about 50 lb of ice melt last night about midnight . I have since found my steps but that is about as far as I got, well other than hooking up the vehicles so the could be drug out of there ice tombs

the "waterfall" happened to me the last ice storm, I have a 12 pitch roof, the damn was tall enough there was a 4 foot deep pool, fortunately I could go out an upstairs window to the flat carport roof and reach it and let the water out.

[SteveD CB500F]

"Divided by a common language"

What the hell is an "Ice Dam"?  (photos please...)

[Bob Wessner]

"Divided by a common language"

What the hell is an "Ice Dam"?  (photos please...)

Snow piles up on the roof. Warmth from beneath starts melting it. The snow melt runs down until it comes to the eve/overhang which is still below 32F and freezes. More water comes down and joins it. At some point the dam builds to the point where water will actually build up behind it, hence the "dam." When it happened to us, there must have been 6" of water  behind it.

The secret is keeping the roofing the same temperature as the outside air, which usually means insulating to keep warmth from contacting it from beneath and venting to allow outside air to circulate under the roofing. In some of the extreme northern latitudes with lots of snow, there is a roof design called a.. you guessed it, "snow roof." It's actually two layers of roofing separated by 1-2" of air to allow air to circulate freely. If incorporated in the original home design, not too much additional expense. Trying to retrofit a roof like this is expensive. I looked into it.

[IndyFour]

My house is a Craftsman style bungalow with overhangs of about 24 inches and exposed rafter tails....I think this type of roof is really susceptible as there is a major "freeze zone" at the end of the roof before the gutters.  The attic is insulated, but more could probably be added.  Unfortunately none of the walls are insulated in this house .......and probably will remain that way as the exterior is super thick stucco that's so hard I have wasted many a masonry bit on drilling holes in it for various reasons.

This damming probably isn't a normal occurrence as it hasn't happened before now (since I've been here).  We normally don't get ice like we got this week.

[Bob Wessner]

Steve, forgot to add this. Not a photo, but a pretty good illustration. When you see a house with lots of those nice icicles, it may be picturesque, but it's indicative of some serious issues. 

[SteveD CB500F]

You guys probably didn't hear much about it but we had our coldest December on record in England.

Here's a photo I took of my icicles.

[Bob Wessner]

I recall it. Most of Europe was impacted, right? Must have been a bugger when you are not use to it, nor have the equipment to deal with it. Hope you have a nice warm, sunny summer to make up for it. 

[Damfino]

You guys probably didn't hear much about it but we had our coldest December on record in England.

Here's a photo I took of my icicles.

Wot a luvly pair of icicles! 

[Gordon]

ive heard texas gets some bad ice.  

It's been really bad here in North Texas.  We got over an inch of accumulated sleet on Tuesday morning, which partially melted due to warm ground temps, and then quickly froze again into a solid sheet of ice on all of the roads.  To add to that the temperature hasn't gotten anywhere near above freezing since then, and it's been completely overcast the whole time.  Today was the first day the main roads were somewhat safe, with tire tracks on some lanes that went down to dry pavement.  

The schools have been closed since Tuesday, and I just heard they'll be closed again tomorrow.  I went to school here in Plano from Kindergarten through 12th grade and school was never even closed two days in a row in that whole time.    

The storm itself wasn't all that bad, it's the long-term low temps and cloud cover that have been the problem.

[xfactor]

Absolutely!

Lake Shore Drive, one of the major routes through the city looked like this:


(this is the actual road as of 7am 2 days ago)

Trucks have been getting stuck, someone died after being swept into the lake, now why the hell would you want to walk along the lake front in a blizzard when there are 30ft waves is beyond me.

Here is a video of my backyard yesterday with me and my dog.

[youtube=425,350]1k7ZspMQ1Xg[/youtube]

[Retro Rocket]

So much for global warming Cheesy

Try Climate change.....    We are having massive storms, biggest in history and heat waves in our colder southern states, Terry had mid 40'2 Celcius last week and now Sydney is having the same thing, In Queensland we have more than 85% of the state declared a disaster zone, thats Millions of square miles devastated.....

Mick

[BeSeeingYou]

My house is a Craftsman style bungalow with overhangs of about 24 inches and exposed rafter tails....I think this type of roof is really susceptible as there is a major "freeze zone" at the end of the roof before the gutters.  The attic is insulated, but more could probably be added.  Unfortunately none of the walls are insulated in this house .......and probably will remain that way as the exterior is super thick stucco that's so hard I have wasted many a masonry bit on drilling holes in it for various reasons.

This damming probably isn't a normal occurrence as it hasn't happened before now (since I've been here).  We normally don't get ice like we got this week.

Sounds like we have similar style houses.  When I redid the roof years ago I put down a rubber membrane under the shingles around the whole perimeter plus the whole roof section over the porch were ice dams had a tendency to form.  I do get some ice dams but never any real pools of water forming and have never had a leak.  I think gutters contribute to the problem when they fill up and freeze so the electrical heating wires in the gutter really help.  Make sure you run them down the downspouts too.

[IndyFour]

My house is a Craftsman style bungalow with overhangs of about 24 inches and exposed rafter tails....I think this type of roof is really susceptible as there is a major "freeze zone" at the end of the roof before the gutters.  The attic is insulated, but more could probably be added.  Unfortunately none of the walls are insulated in this house .......and probably will remain that way as the exterior is super thick stucco that's so hard I have wasted many a masonry bit on drilling holes in it for various reasons.

This damming probably isn't a normal occurrence as it hasn't happened before now (since I've been here).  We normally don't get ice like we got this week.

Sounds like we have similar style houses.  When I redid the roof years ago I put down a rubber membrane under the shingles around the whole perimeter plus the whole roof section over the porch were ice dams had a tendency to form.  I do get some ice dams but never any real pools of water forming and have never had a leak.  I think gutters contribute to the problem when they fill up and freeze so the electrical heating wires in the gutter really help.  Make sure you run them down the downspouts too.

Will do. 

As it turns out, two of my neighbors had the same issue today as did the daughter of one of my coworkers.  Her mom called me in a panic asking what her daughter should do....I told her the same thing happened to me and unless her daughter wanted to risk her life crawling on a ladder that was resting on a sheet of ice, I'd suggest she wait til it thaws and then have someone come out and look at it.  Her leak was on a garage wall, so not exactly urgent.

My next door neighbor has lived in his house since 1961 and he said they've never had this happen before today.....so I'm hoping it was just a freak ice storm thing that happens every 50 yrs or so.  I may invest in the heat cable, though, just for peace of mind.

[eworth]

I work for the Wisconsin State Patrol in SW Wisconsin.  We were out in "search and rescue" mode Wednesday morning.  Just a few pics I took.

[Damfino]

Awesome pic's eworth.