Plenty of weather to complain about in 2021

[Bob Schroeck]

The snow here stopped almost precisely on schedule at about 4 PM. It was something around 8 inches, but all of it fluffy and light; I was able to repeat Tuesday's 6-hour shoveling job in an hour and a half.

[Black Aeronaut]

Dateline: February 14th, 2021, 11:00PM

We have snow in San Antonio.

And while many would say "It's just a little", keep in mind where I live. And the fact that we already have three inches on the ground. The freezing rain we got last night (and BOY did that make my night at work INTERESTING) combined with the continually dropping temperatures has left the ground in a perfect condition for accumulation.

[Inquisitive Raven]

Ugh, freezing rain is worse than snow.

[Bob Schroeck]

Yeah, we have freezing rain inbound here tonight.

[robkelk]

No freezing rain here, but the forecast is for a foot of snow by this time tomorrow.

BA, if you can get to a garden store, get a bag of coarse sand and darken your walkway with the sand - that'll help melt the ice without leaching any road salt into your aquifer. (Edit: And if you get a thaw/freeze cycle, the sand will help provide traction on the re-frozen ice if you added a thick enough layer of it.) Sure, you'll have some mud to deal with, but better muddy boots than slipping and breaking a leg.

RE-EDIT: Shovel the snow off the walkway first! The sand is post-shoveling treatment.

[aku]

FYI https://www.ventusky.com/
A nice weather visualization which goes into my bookmarks.

[hazard]

Last week: Winter in the Netherlands, snow, constant sub-zero temperatures spiking to -10, -15 at night.

This week: Late winter in the Netherlands, no frost, 5 to 10 degrees day and night time temperatures.

Next Week: Spring in the Netherlands, 5-10 degrees at night, 15 degrees during the day.

[Bob Schroeck]

FYI https://www.ventusky.com/
A nice weather visualization which goes into my bookmarks.

Huh.  If I'm reading that right, if we get any ice at tonight all it'll melt off rather quickly.  Interesting.

[Black Aeronaut]

That IS nice, Aku.

So, in the greater Bexar County (spoken as "Bear"), we have anywhere between 5" to 7" of snow, mostly depending on how far south you are. And that's pretty damn substantial for South Texas - we simply don't have the equipment in our DoT to deal with it. Further up north in places like the DFW Metroplex and Amarillo, yeah, but that equipment is pretty well tied up over there.

It's gonna stay cold over here, and what's more it'll get even colder. Today's forecast high temperature is going to be 27°F (-3°C), and tonight's low is going to be 8°F (-13°C). So yeah, this shit ain't going anywhere anytime soon.

[robkelk]

If things get really bad, consider using bulldozers to clear the roads around your hospitals and fire stations. You won't have enough to do the entire city, but you can clear the emergency facilities. Don't worry about making the roads completely clear, just dig trenches in the snow with a centimeter or so left on the ground.

[aku]

Last week: Winter in the Netherlands, snow, constant sub-zero temperatures spiking to -10, -15 at night.

This week: Late winter in the Netherlands, no frost, 5 to 10 degrees day and night time temperatures.

Next Week: Spring in the Netherlands, 5-10 degrees at night, 15 degrees during the day.

Same for my spot of Germany (30 km to Venlo, 50 to Roermond (Nearest dutch cities)).
Today quite a bit of the snow/ice mix on the roof came down, sliding on a bed of melt of its own underside.

[Black Aeronaut]

If things get really bad, consider using bulldozers to clear the roads around your hospitals and fire stations. You won't have enough to do the entire city, but you can clear the emergency facilities. Don't worry about making the roads completely clear, just dig trenches in the snow with a centimeter or so left on the ground.

Fortunately, the volume of sunlight we're getting combined with good old black-top asphalt is doing most of the hard work.  The main issue has been the bridges, which not only have undersides for cold air to blow under, but are paved with concrete instead, so they get much less thermal energy from sunlight.

[hazard]

Ruhrgebiet then, Aku?

And hey, we've had plenty of ice skaters play on the ice the last week.

And plenty of people who went through the ice. Even a week worth of frost isn't exactly enough.

[aku]

Ruhrgebiet then, Aku?

And hey, we've had plenty of ice skaters play on the ice the last week.

And plenty of people who went through the ice. Even a week worth of frost isn't exactly enough.

Not quite. Southwest of it I would say. Willich, in the triangle of Krefeld, Duesseldorf and Moenchengladbach.

People on and through the ice ... Yeah, we had that here too.

[Bob Schroeck]

Surprise surprise, our ice storm was a no-show. Instead it got warm enough to start melting the fortress of snow protecting our home.

[Norgarth]

meanwhile I got 6-8 inches last evening/overnight. And my driveway opens onto an unplowed alley. ;p

[hazard]

Sunday before last we had something like 10-15 centimeters of snow.

It's now near enough to gone. What's left probably won't last till Friday.

[Bob Schroeck]

The afternoon turned into bright sun and mid 40s (F) -- things have been melting like crazy. There is a visible difference in the mounds of snow lining our driveway between this morning and now.

[robkelk]

It's cold here. The beer that I left on the balcony froze.

[Black Aeronaut]

If things get really bad, consider using bulldozers to clear the roads around your hospitals and fire stations. You won't have enough to do the entire city, but you can clear the emergency facilities. Don't worry about making the roads completely clear, just dig trenches in the snow with a centimeter or so left on the ground.

Fortunately, the volume of sunlight we're getting combined with good old black-top asphalt is doing most of the hard work.  The main issue has been the bridges, which not only have undersides for cold air to blow under, but are paved with concrete instead, so they get much less thermal energy from sunlight.

Tonight my brothers and I went out in search of a Whataburger that was open, because someone was craving hamburgers.  Part of I-410 was closed, and they were pretty much doing what you said up there - only with graders and front-loaders.

The biggest problem we're having right now is that the sun has definitely been melting everything, so travel during the day is possible... But at night, the temps drop well below zero and everything that melted freezes solid.

[hazard]

It's now 10 degrees. Pretty much all snow that wasn't piled up by wind or human effort is gone.

[Bob Schroeck]

And another snowstorm has started here, just a few minutes before I got up this morning, in fact. It's forecast to drop 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) over the next 30 hours or so.

I'm tempted to turn the snow plug-in back on.

[hazard]

The various waterboards are really, really glad the snow fell and melted over time. Ground water levels have notably increased.

Admittedly, that's not complaining, but silver linings etc.

[Star Ranger4]

Meh. we may have complain in the title, but I'd say good weather news qualifies too.

[LynnInDenver]

We're finally warming up here in Colorado... hopefully... over the weekend... hopefully the snow will stop now, too. It snowed just often enough to make the whole cold snap damned miserable.