DavisStraight

4 hours ago, Ski Patroller said:

I've been involved in this Northeastern issue for several years. It's essentially welfare for contractors as it is grotesque overkill. Federal funding covers 90% of it so state DOT grant managers are thrilled even if it means destroying the landscape aesthetic - their interest is in grabbing every grant they can get, needed or not. The states and federal government could literally save millions by simply having arborists tag hazard trees for removal but they don't do this, they senselessly clearcut. It is out of control across New England and beyond. The income from the trees is insignificant because they are sold below market rate or given to the contractors "for disposal". A recent project in CT produced 16,000 logs pole-to-sawtimber size and the gross receipt to the state was $22,000 ($1.38/tree gross).

Most of the contractors have invested in multi-million-dollar specialized machines for clearcutting roadsides instead of hiring manual cutters so the jobs impact of these programs is limited. DOTs say that they are creating pollinator habitat in the deforested areas, ignoring the fact that they are creating sink habitat for insects because, you know, a zillion cars cruising by at 70mph. I've been doing habitat restorations for a living for over 30 years and a key tenet of ecological restoration is don't create production habitat within or adjacent to kill zones. For example, the foraging range of a honeybee is 2 miles (1 mile radius from hive), so ... splat.

Additionally, these cleared areas become densely populated by non-native invasive plants whose #1 vector of dispersal is ... roads. These plants are disturbance-specialists and are highly adapted to quickly exploit the macerated soils of the cleared sites. So these roadside-clearing programs are not only contrary to good science and the landscape aesthetic, they greatly aid in the spread of invasives, a phenomenon called "the greatest threat to biodiversity after habitat loss" by E.O. Wilson.

But to end on a positive note, we just finished a project in NW Maine that permanently protected 3500 acres in the Mahoosucs. Most of it was paper company land and it will now be forever wild. Onward.

They've been trimming on the road near me all week, they put all the wood through a chipper here. When I drive through CT I see logs on the side of the road from the trees they cut, they mulch the branches but leave the trunk, if I had a truck I could ride through the back roads of CT and get a years worth of firewood free.

6 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Finished with 4.0” , 51.90” on the season.

Low amount but I bet you've had cover since December.

24 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

My God, the potholes in Greenfield are beyond description. I’ve now seen two cars getting towed this week due to what must be damage from hitting a hole too hard.

Same around here, I've been driving all over the road to avoid them.

12 hours ago, rimetree said:

Nice. Up at Saddleback this week. A little warm yesterday so it was mushy late in the day but more snow overnight and hopefully somewhat colder today. First time doing a ski-in/ski-out and think I’ll probably be spoiled from now on.

Ski in ski out is great, first time I went to Sugarloaf I experienced it, walk out of the condo, lift takes you up to the next lift and then all the way up. It was great.

1 hour ago, Hoth said:

First run of the year in shorts today. Felt damn good.

Were you wearing a speedo like Scott?

Temp down to 35, maybe we some flakes tonight.

3 hours ago, dryslot said:

This weather won't even make a dent in the ice pack.

I remember ice fishing and with warm weather still had thick ice, when we packed up to go home the ice near the edges was only about an inch thick, even fell through before, it melts as it freezes from the inside out to the middle.

1 hour ago, NW_of_GYX said:

Back to winter tomorrow, euro not backing down 

 

Looks like a cold shot coming and after a short reprieve another one. After that looks warmer.

6 minutes ago, WinterWolf said:

Ya we went below twice but the same, -1 and -2 and single digits as well…for me it doesn’t need to be any older than that. That’s plenty cold.  

I like when we get a good cold shot and its minus teens to -20, up north get 30 below plus.

35 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Our cold shots this year were extremely mundane. I don’t even think we got below 0 once (I know the radiators near me did). Got close a couple times. One of the cold shots got NNE pretty good with the radiators. But outside of that we just rarely got anything from the “Montreal Express” trajectory that typically defines our deeper cold shots. Everything was from the west or even WSW at times. But that’s the type of pattern that really gets big cold down to the gulf states which is exactly what happened. 
 

The only reason the winter felt cold was because it was compared to the last 2 winters and we did not get any true torches after that pre-New Years week. It was a lot of “seasonable cold” that rarely got interrupted and when it did, the mild-ups were quite short and weak. 

I got below zero twice but it was -2 or -3 plus some single digits, nothing crazy. We did have good ice on the ponds for a while this year. The weekend cold shot has seemed to moderate somewhat so doesn't look as cold as it did a few days ago.

2 hours ago, WinterWolf said:

Record breaking in other areas though …plains, upper plains,  and SE/Gulf coast…broke all time cold records this year. 

We never got a direct blast, it always moderated by the time it got here.

Hit 52 but not a lot of melting, ice in my driveway softened up but the yard didn't lose much.

Just hot the big five 0, ice melting

1 hour ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

Their terrible years are still near 100".

That's a ratter to them.

2 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Yea. It’s a rat. I get the feel and aura that’s it looked like winter for most of the region but in the end, for me, it’s about total snowfall - the impact of the events - when they occurred. A season without a >4” event has no impact and when most of the them occurred overnight, even worse. 

The cold and snow cover most of the winter I give it a C. At least it looked and felt like winter. I understand not getting a decent storm makes it suck but it wasn't a ratter, hey we could score a big one in March and change all our minds, a little.

2 hours ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

I couldn't give a rat's scrotum about the cold....believe it or not, I'm not too enamored with the notion of the PV queefing in my face while New Orleans gets a larger storm than I could muster all winter. That is supposed to improve the grade?? While you're at it, perhaps ma nature could throw in a round of testicular cancer for me and I'll nudge the grade up to a B.

You were saying you had 5 foot banks on your driveway, isn't that good? PF doesn't get 2-foot snowstorms, he nickels and dimes his way to 10 feet.

4 minutes ago, MJO812 said:

Imagine being a weenie up there. Non stop tracking. 

This year but they have terrible years too, last year and the year before they had very little. Of course, to him very little might mean a foot on the ground, but they get ratters too.

11 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Not sure, I've never been actually in Pittsburgh, Buck Rub looks like a decent place though, I know when i rode near there a month ago, There was plenty of snow.

Looks like its snowing up there right now.

1 minute ago, MJO812 said:

The guy that takes us fishing in Oswego said when he left Thursday they had 6 feet on the ground. You know if PF's getting nailed, so is upstate NY.

48 minutes ago, WinterWolf said:

Normally I’d certainly agree…but we couldn’t seem to time anything this year, so unless that changes (and it could at any time) that may be a tough sell. 

Exactly, that's why it would suck to get one once its starts warming up and melts. We had almost two months to get a big one to stay around and we got little snowers with ice.

55 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Hard to believe how fast we flipped the switch . Went from a cold winter to basically a mild to at times warm look over the next 4 weeks . One cool shot in and out quickly over the weekend and that’s about it. Not out of the realm of possibilities that we’ve all seen our last accumulating snowfall in SNE. Kind of has that feel of a very quick and abrupt ending 

We'll probably get some well timed storm after St Patrick's day that melts in 2 days.

53 minutes ago, Spanks45 said:

Clouds definitely hung around more than expected today, along with a pretty steady breeze and it was quite chilly...hoping for better tomorrow and definitely Wednesday. One thing is for sure, the kids and dog are dragging mud into the house today...it has begun

Should be a lot of melting this week, at least now I can walk around a house for pictures and not fall on my ass. The icy layer has softened up quite a bit.

1 hour ago, mreaves said:

 

 

 

What exactly did you say to your wife?  lol

No idea how that happened, but I deleted them.

2 hours ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

Yea, the upper half that doesn't get the sun as been a sheet of ice for about a month.

41 here now, my wife spent an hour chopping ice yesterday in the driveway and got about a 4' X 4' section chopped, she asked me to clear the chopped ice, it was already frozen back to a giant ice cube. I told her to wait til Tuesday, should be a breeze by then.

42 minutes ago, 40/70 Benchmark said:

Going to be a a while here, as I still have aboiut a foot in my yard....although the highway medians and such will probably be wiped this week.

I just want driveway cleared, could skate on it literally all week, dangerous too, almost took a spill couple times getting into my vehicle.