CoralRed

So many days and nights are supposed to have snow in the 7 day forecast for Williamsport. But it seems that each day or night will only have a little bit. Sort of a unusual forecast for us.

I am back to post another comment about the murder-suicide in Plains Township.  Much to my surprise, the popular UK news website the Daily Mail has a second article about it today.  I see that yesterday's article got almost 3,000 comments.  I guess this story struck a nerve.  I won't include any quotes today; those of you who are interested can go to the linked articles yourself and those who are not don't want to read more about it.

Yesterday's article at the Daily Mail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9223991/Couple-killed-row-shoveling-dumping-snow-neighbors-yard.html

Today's article at the Daily Mail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9228805/Pennsylvania-couple-shot-dead-neighbor-snow-argument.html

This seems like a good place to post what I hope will be my last post -- for now --  on the Plains Township murder-suicide.  Today's update is that it made the UK's highly popular Daily Mail website.  They have pictures and some video over there and say they didn't put up more video because it was too graphic.  Their story has additional details.  It disagrees with an earlier account I described here that said Spaide killed the Goys with his pistol but used a rifle to shot them with still more bullets.  It is so unbelievable and this wasn't a one time clash, it was an ongoing dispute.  The Goys have an autistic son.  If Spaide has any insurance or assets there could be a wrongful death civil suit so this might not be the end of this.

"Surveillance video from the scene shows the Goys yelling at Spaide and calling him a 'mother******' and a 'p****.' 

Spaide goes back into his house as the Goys continue cursing at him. In the video, James is heard yelling at the neighbor 'I'll knock your a** out' and 'I'll make your life a living hell.'  

Moments later, Spaide emerges from his residence holding a pistol, but the Goys carry on with the verbal abuse and seemingly challenge him to shoot, with Lisa yelling, 'Go ahead! Go ahead!'

James and Lisa initially do not react and remain standing as Spaide opens fire on them. He squeezes off multiple rounds from close range, striking both victims and causing them to collapse to the snow-covered ground. 

The gunman then goes back into his house to get an AR-15-style rifle, which he uses to shoot his neighbors again, killing both in the middle of the street."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9223991/Couple-killed-row-shoveling-dumping-snow-neighbors-yard.html

I wanted to follow up about a story that I wrote about in the storm post.  Last night Channel 16 said that the couple that was murdered in the Plains Township murder-suicide dumped their snow on the property of the man who killed them.  Evidently that man killed them in the street with a pistol and then went inside his house, brought out a rifle and shot them again.  All of this was not mentioned in some of the media stories and I thought people should know.  I mentioned that the couple had a special needs 15 year old.  The special needs is autism.  To think all this occurred to neighbors who live across the street from each other -- not in the same building or next door to each other -- is beyond my comprehension.  I still wonder if mental illness was involved but since they are all dead and there will be no trials, I doubt we will ever know.

In looking for a link to last night's story which I did not find, I found a report of another snow incident.  This one involved a knife and a baseball bat but luckily no one was hurt.

I have never heard about violence and snow before.  I hope that having two incidents so close together in the Channel 16 viewing area doesn't mean this is a new trend.

https://www.wnep.com/mobile/article/news/local/lackawanna-county/another-fight-erupts-over-snow-shoveling/523-c74ffc0f-5483-43f1-989e-353b511db0ac

Update: According to an ABC News story at Yahoo, the murdered couple continued to yell at their across the street neighbor even after he had a pistol.  Unbelievable.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/3-pennsylvania-neighbors-dead-fight-224921402.html

Big luscious flakes just the way I like them flowing down from the sky in Williamsport.  I wish I had seen a lot more like them earlier this week and during the big storm in December.

Getting back to current weather, Channel 16 said on the 11 o'clock news that we would get 6 more inches here in Williamsport.  That surprised me.  Let's see if we get it.

Here is more. It is not nice.  I wonder who started it all and whether mental illness was involved.  

Plains Township Police Sgt Michael Smith told The Citizens Voice that Spaide, who lived alone, came outside with a handgun and shot the Goys, then went back inside and brought out an AR-15 style rifle.

‘He retrieved the rifle and shot them again,’ Smith said.

Both James & Lisa Goy were fired at an additional two times.

When officers went to his house to arrest him, Smith said, ‘Spaide shot himself.’

[...]

Apparently there’s been an ongoing dispute between neighbors, some of which involved a dispute about snow disposal and removal,’ District Attorney Sanguedolce told the Citizens Voice. ‘They’re across the street from each other, and when they would remove snow they would throw it across the street at the other person’s property.’

https://scallywagandvagabond.com/2021/02/plains-township-murder-suicide-snow-shoveling-dispute-leaves-three-dead/

7 minutes ago, Rd9108 said:

Do you guys do the whole saving parking spots with chairs thing around your way??

Plains Township is in Northeastern PA and I am in North Central PA. I don't know what they do over there.  The news report said the neighbor was across the street so the argument may have been about parking spaces and not shovelling sidewalks.  I just don't know.

1 minute ago, anotherman said:

He was joking since they can be combative about people sharing snow totals.

No joke.  They just repeated before going to commercial: three people dead and snow.  Story coming up.  Amazing they didn't start with the deaths but with weather stories around the area. 

It was a murder-suicide involving a couple and their neighbor.  It happened about 9:00 this morning.  The couple had a 15 year old special needs child.  They mentioned shovelling but were not more specific.

3 minutes ago, Rd9108 said:

Mid Atlantic forum??

Channel 16 is the ABC station in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre.

I am not making this up: Channel 16 news commercial just said 3 dead over a dispute -- about snow.  I cannot believe I just typed this.  I wish I heard it wrong.  

I just looked out the door in Williamsport.  Little to nothing going on.  Is that band going to come our way or will it stay right to our south?  

Remembering a drop in temperatures was coming up, I looked at the hourlies for next Sunday and Monday.  The high on Monday won't come out of the teens here in Williamsport and winds will be in the teens too.  The idea of being out shoveling in those conditions is not appealing.  Wunderground is calling for just 3.3" but who knows how much we will end up getting?  Life was better and easier when I wasn't the official shoveler.

Channel 16 just called for another 3-6 in Central PA tonight.

Channel 16 just said another 6-12" for Central Pennsylvania.

I am surprised here in Williamsport.  There's considerably more snow out there now than I expected on the one hand.  Wmsptwx says he has 10" in Montgomery so we can't be much different.  On the other hand Wunderground says only 1" more today and 1"-3" more tonight.  I thought today and tonight was supposed to be the heaviest.  

2 hours ago, canderson said:

This will be a fluffy snow right? 

As the official shoveler I was wondering the same thing, especially as the totals have gone up.  What does everyone think?

Thanks.

WNEP Channel 16 isn't optimistic.  They just had a map up of low and medium risk areas -- of getting 3-4"!  Williamsport falls in the low risk area.  

I just checked Williamsport on weather.gov.  Now they are mentioning freezing drizzle for Tuesday for the first time.  Nobody wants that. 

Voyager,

Good luck with the new job. I hope there's some back unemployment coming your way and that next week's snow holds off until after you've left the area.

I have been checking for days and it seems nothing much is going on and nothing much is predicted to happen.  I don't want to shovel more snow so I guess I should be happy.  It used to be that a quiet 10 day forecast would change and we would end up getting some precipitation until this summer.  Then we got week after week of mostly blue skies (instead of frequent gray skies) and no rain.  It was weird but wonderful.  Now we have gotten a lot of precipitation recently and now just plain nothing.  It really makes me wonder about the future.  Our weather patterns seem to be very disrupted.  We got 25 inches of snow here in Williamsport less than a month ago so I am not complaining.  But I am wondering.

Big flakes coming down beautifully in Williamsport.

Happy New Year to All. 

I guess sometimes there are more important things than snow and celebrating New Years Eve is one of those things. I see the maps for Sunday.  I am not ready to shovel more snow yet.  That 25" is still in my mind.  

Wunderground is predicting 1.57" of rain next Thursday for Williamsport.  We got very little rain here for months on end.  Much of this summer and fall was like a dream with day after day of blue skies (our frequently overcast skies magically gone) and no rain.  I don't know when the last time was when we had such a period or when we will again.  I figured there would be a time when we'd be getting the rain we didn't get for so long.  But I didn't expect to get our biggest snow ever to be followed by warm temperatures and heavy rain that washed much of it away a week later to be followed a week later by another big rain accompanied by spring-like temperatures. 

A lot of extremes, as I have said before and someone pointed out was typical of 2020.  I hope 2021 is more average, in every way.