November Banter

[DanTheMan]

God help this forum the next 7 days 

[showmethesnow]

Amazing. Here it is Dec 1st and we have already had a 41 page thread on the mid/long range. And even more amazingly, there was very little bitching and crying in it. I would say winter has gotten off to a fast start.

[CAPE]

4 minutes ago, showmethesnow said:

Amazing. Here it is Dec 1st and we have already had a 41 page thread on the mid/long range. And even more amazingly, there was very little bitching and crying in it. I would say winter has gotten off to a fast start.

I vote for fewer snow maps. They are nearly useless at this range, and most people are capable of navigating a free site to get their fix in private. 

[nw baltimore wx]

1 hour ago, C.A.P.E. said:

I vote for fewer snow maps. They are nearly useless at this range, and most people are capable of navigating a free site to get their fix in private. 

At this lead time, they only feed the weenies and make them post more, and then it all ends in disappointment. 

And regarding a post that Ji made, the only way he'd be happy with 6-8" is if everyone else gets 4. If there's a spot within a hundred miles of him that does any better, he would call the storm a fail.

[pasnownut]

and i see the police are entering the building in the main thread.  Makes me giggle.  Love how some post and get "away" with things and others get straight up handcuffs. 

It will be a bumpy ride to snowville this week.  

[Jebman]

On 11/27/2018 at 10:27 PM, RDM said:

Thanks Jebman,  much appreciated.  Been fortunate in my travels around the world the last 30+ years to experience some of the most stark weather mother nature can muster.  The collective experiences only added fuel to life-long weenie wannabe aspirations.  Beyond experiencing the blizzard of 78 in the mid-west as a 17 year old, here's a few memorable examples:

3 meters of snow in 2 days in Saas Fee, Switzerland - yes you can have TOO MUCH SNOW.  The powder was so light under a thin crust it was impossible to ski.  Snowcats got stuck.  Took us 4 hours to ski down one short run.  Get on top of the crust from the sun the day before and it was sheer ice with no control.  Find a way to break through the crust and you were engulfed by many feet of snow so light it could not support you - like depth hoar.  I was lucky being on telemark skis that don't release.  Many lost their skis and w/o powder straps it was worthless to try and look for them.  A ton of people took off their skis and swam on their backs through the crust to get down.  Had to evacuate many with snow cats.  Some skiers were evacuated with helicopters.  Slopes were only open long enough to create chaos for several hundred poor souls.  Was a surreal experience I never want to have again. 

True white out conditions in Austria:  During a summer ski outing on the glacier in Hintertux, Austria our group experienced true white out conditions during a freak snow squall.  We saw it coming from miles away over the Alps, but thought nothing of it given the occasional flurries that day.  In less than 5 mins it went from partly cloudy, to light snow, to winds about 40mph and extreme snow.  My friends and I were only 15-20 feet apart and we could not even begin to see each other and barely hear each other.  After several moments I didn't realize I'd developed white-out vertigo and was falling over until my head hit the ground.  As an extreme tele-mark skier (at the time) I was at the expert level on pins and seen a lot.  Never encountered anything like that anyplace else.  All we could do was lay there until it passed.  It was over in about 20 mins, but only after dumping well over 6" and leaving carnage on the slopes.  It really freaked out a lot of people, especially those with summer ski attire.  Several Austrian ski teams were on the glacier that day training and they immediately called it a day...

Then there was the heat in India where I lived 3 years.  One summer we maxed out at 123F in Delhi after weeks of temps between 112 and 118.  Add the humidity when the monsoon rolled in and the heat index was way off the charts, which end around 140-150 or so.  Brutal is insufficient to describe it.  Had water holding tanks on the roof of my house that were fed from a cistern buried in the ground in the back yard (normal for Delhi).  Even in the early morning the ambient water temp in the tanks was much hotter than you could stand to shower in.  First thing you had to do was turn on the "cold" water in the shower and drain the holding tank enough to start the pump in the back yard to pump "cool" water into the holding tank from the cistern.  Took about 10 mins to cool the water enough to take a shower.  Repeat at least 2 times a day - sometimes 3 or 4.  They say it was a dry heat?  haha - nope.  Then the monsoons came and it would get even more uncomfortable.  - the only rain I've seen even close to the monsoons in India were the monsoons in Thailand.  Delhi would get many inches an hour for hour after hour...  The impact on infrastructure was an annual challenge.  On top of it, try to imagine a country the size of the USA east of the Mississippi with over 3X our population - that's India.  

Speaking of Thailand - the Thunderstorms and monsoon rains are some of the most electrifying imaginable.  Nearly constant lightening for hours on end.  And pouring rain, flooded streets, and shorted out power.  Electrocution is a very real danger there.  Plus, you had to really watch out walking around in the flooded streets because the manhole covers become dislodged and you can't see where the holes are.  It's not mere myth that some Thai simply disappear during monsoon to never be seen again. 

Then the aforementioned snows in Japan.  Truly magnificent landscape with start contrasts in terrain.  Can go from the plains and semi-green to mountains and tons of snow in a few miles in some locations.  Naeba is pretty cool.  Tons of snow, but no issues in town with snow removal.  The entire downtown area is interlaced with perforated rubber hoses that leak hot spring mineral water to constantly melt the snow.  You get used to the putrid rotten egg smell in a few hours, but it works.  Go just outside of town and they don't hardly mess with snow plows.  No place to push it.  Everything is blown to the extent some of the nearby passes the snow is so high they often can't keep the roads open because the blowers can't chuck it high enough to get the thrown above the snow banks.  It's surreal to drive through a narrow gully of snow 60 feet high...  

If we ever get anything worthwhile here, we'll all get out and have a group Jebwalk in your honor.  Hope all is going well for you in TX...

 

Post of the decade. Hands down.

You might want to start watching the model runs about now. Stock up on energy drinks. You wont get much sleep, you'll be addicted to watching the models. Mid Atlantic is about to get smashed REAL bad by snow in a few days lol........

 

Told ya it was gonna be a very severe winter in the Mid Atlantic. It will not spare, it will give no quarter, it will show no mercy.

The Winter of 2019-2020 is going to be so bad it will start people moving south. LOL.