Wet Snow

Our electricity just came back on after being out for over 3 days.
I have lived in this small valley in SW Oregon for over 70 years and have not seen this before.
We got 5" of the wettest snow I have seen .
It is hard to believe that only 5" of snow could do such damage.
This is a heavily forested area and the snow knocked down limbs as well as fir, oak, and madrone on the power lines.
Over 8000 customers out of power in our county.
.They are making good progress on getting the power back.
A hot shower and a shave is looking mighty good....dale

It good to hear that you power is back on. It took me a while to see the beauty in a nice snow. When I was working all a snow did was to cause me a lot of long miserable hours.

I live on a mountain surrounded by trees and somewhat isolated. With my messed up back one of the first things I did when I moved here three years ago was getting a whole house generator and 500 gal propane tank for it. Luckily I could afford one as it makes things easier living alone. Good luck

I live on the opposite side of the country and in the mid-Atlantic region, so we see wet, heavy snow more often than light powder snow.

Wet snow is a pain to deal with. It brings down trees and power lines quicker, it's difficult to push or shovel and it's just flat out heavy.

Every few years we'll get a large storm in the early spring and that's always a wet snow when that occurs. Fortunately by that time, the leaves are off the trees so the damage is minimal. That spring snow will always be gone in a day or two. When that same event happens in the fall, it's a different story. Sometimes the leaves are still on the trees, the ground is seldom frozen and the rain/ice/snow line will have a large ice segment. That really sucks when that happens. You can bet on large power outages.
On the few occasions when we've had larger storms but it was cold enough for the snow to be light and powder like - the electrical grid has held up far better. The type of snow makes a difference.

Ice is far worse than snow and we've had some horrible ice over the years. I think it takes a big storm every few years to remind the tree huggers that trees fall in bad weather - maybe we should cut down some trees at a time and place of our choosing BEFORE the storm hits.

I'm a firm believer that power line right of ways and highway right of ways; need to be well maintained. The tree huggers seem to think that cutting any tree is a crime.

I am retired from the timber industry so I know what you mean about tree huggers.
They have destroyed the industry in my area.
I operated heavy equipment.
Mostly dozer building logging roads.
We have had protesters in our face because we were killing the earth.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dale2242

I am retired from the timber industry so I know what you mean about tree huggers.
They have destroyed the industry in my area.
I operated heavy equipment.
Mostly dozer building logging roads.
We have had protesters in our face because we were killing the earth.

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The environmentalists, like all liberal twits, are driven by emotion and not logic.

Trees die on their own and are replaced by new trees. We can cut them down and do something useful with the tree or we can wait for the tree to rot away and be replaced by another tree. In both situations the tree is replaced but only the first situation allows something useful to be done with the tree.
Good forestry practices are beneficial to humans AND the forest.

We should be good stewards of the earth but that doesn't mean we need to be stupid about it.

A well maintained power line ROW or highway ROW acts as a fire break and allows a transitional zone with greater sunlight and diversity of plants and animals. AND a well maintained ROW increases the reliability of power transmission and transportation.

Ditto on the whole house backup generator. I live very rural where the power lines go over hills and through wooded areas . Love my Generac.

Wet heavy snow can do a lot of damage. Glad you're back on.

I guess my farmers almanac forecast was on track as it turned out like it said it would.

I have not seen a winter like this one before. No snow in December, then a week of decent snow in January and temps in the teens, then now temps are back into the 40's with lots of rain.

Ten day forecast shows continued unseasonably warm weather with temps in the low to mid 40's and rain every day. I just hope all this moisture is being stored as snow in the mountains, or else this summer will be hell on earth.

The storm currently located south of the end of the Aleutian chain could get really interesting here in the Pac NW. The storm is 1,000 miles across with a center low with a barometer the same as a class 3 hurricane. Storms this powerful usually weaken by the time they get to the Wa/Ore coast.

I saw that on the news but it sounds like that is the norm for that part of the world in the winter.
From the Weather Channel"

" Fierce low-pressure systems with high winds and pounding surf strike the Aleutian Islands every year during the cold season.

In fact, as the first storm continues to weaken and push east through Monday, another one will quickly move in behind it. That area of low pressure is also forecast to undergo bombogenesis and strike the Aleutian Islands late Monday into Tuesday at a similar intensity to this past weekend's storm....."

https://weather.com/news/news/2017-1...aleutian-storm

Here in NH the power company has been on a rampage for 5 years cutting back limbs 15' from the power lines. They also have cut down sick or dying or dead trees that COULD fall on the power lines. They call those nuisance trees. They cut two in our back yard that produced 2 cords of wood....and they did it for FREE.
Our power has been very reliable since they started. Before they started it would go out regularly.
The ice storm of '08 allowed us to go 11 days without power.
We now have a generator that runs MOST of the house if needed....at least the important stuff...2 6 foot freezers, furnace, sump and well pumps, septic pumps, 2 fridges, etc.
And yes, the man cave is on the generator circuit also....priorities you know.... :)