January 24-26: Miracle or Mirage OBS Thread!

[WxUSAF]

Had very light flurries earlier while shoveling 

[clskinsfan]

Not sure I have ever seen this much of the country covered in snow before. Amazing satellite looks this morning!

https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4412e01f2b1441d49540043555cdf22e

[IronTy]

Feel bad for all the folks that failed to shove/snowblower their driveways last night.  Solid glacier down in Calvert this morning.  I can even walk on top of the snowpack at 190lbs.  One of my neighbors didn't heed my call to shovel last night and is hopelessly iced in, I don't know how they're going to get out without professional help.  

[eyewall]

It was a fun storm to experience for sure. Time for me to head back to Raleigh. Hopefully we get one solid snow there before the season ends so I don't have to go anywhere lol.

[mdhokie]

19 minutes ago, IronTy said:

Feel bad for all the folks that failed to shove/snowblower their driveways last night.  Solid glacier down in Calvert this morning.  I can even walk on top of the snowpack at 190lbs.  One of my neighbors didn't heed my call to shovel last night and is hopelessly iced in, I don't know how they're going to get out without professional help.  

I did my last clean up around 6pm yesterday, it was still sleeting and ended up with about 1/2" of crud this morning. Metal flat blade shovels popped it up real nice. I have some neighbors that haven't touched their drives. They are HOSED. 

[wxdude64]

I know it has been said before, but a friendly reminder that this stuff is H E A V Y. Don't overdo yourself and mess up your back or end up in ER with a possible HA. This stuff isn't going anywhere soon. To those that haven't touched the stuff yet, best to make just enough of a path or opening to get in and out for yourself (and vehicle if you wish to chance it) and work on the rest later. Few flurries in the air, wind is sadly still whipping around NNW at 10 gusting to 22 mph. Temp 17.6/9.4. 

[PrinceFrederickWx]

We all love ice sledding on the steep hill in our backyard. 

[RandyHolt]

Anyone else shovel the snow and are facing a 3-5" arctic sleet tundra to shovel today - the Big Mutt tool dominates. Plastic shovel and salt was a failure.

Bonus you can chop up blocks to make an igloo or get on one knee and scrape the ground to make shoveling a breeze. Folks with bad backs stay on one knee to shovel that heavy stuff away. 

Edit: A square point shovel or spade should suffice. 

 

 

[adelphi_sky]

Temps finally on the way back down. Got up to 30 here. Now 28. 

[Hank Scorpio]

19 minutes ago, wxdude64 said:

To those that haven't touched the stuff yet, best to make just enough of a path or opening to get in and out for yourself (and vehicle if you wish to chance it) and work on the rest later.

This is exactly what I'm doing today. I was able to get up and down my driveway yesterday without shoveling, so now I'm working on clearing a one car width path in case I need to get back out again. 

What's working best so far is to use a regular shovel to punch through and break up the glacier. Then I'm using a snow shovel to move bunches of it out of the way. Slow going, but it works. 

[87storms]

Just shoveled one side of my car. Unpleasant, but doable. Helped that we didn’t have any fzra. But it’s still pretty thick.

[The Dude]

Tough one to measure.  Snow depth was a pretty uniform 7-8 inches.  It was 6 inches shortly after the sleet started.  I think I'm going with 8.5" for a total.

[ErinInTheSky]

39 minutes ago, RandyHolt said:

Anyone else shovel the snow and are facing a 3-5" arctic sleet tundra to shovel today - the Big Mutt tool dominates. Plastic shovel and salt was a failure.

Bonus you can chop up blocks to make an igloo or get on one knee and scrape the ground to make shoveling a breeze. Folks with bad backs stay on one knee to shovel that heavy stuff away. 

Edit: A square point shovel or spade should suffice. 

 

 

So we waited to today to shovel and we are glad we did. It would have been back breaking either way but we cut the top into pieces like this, and they all VERY cleanly came loose from soft powder underneath. We then just tossed these sleet blocks aside and shoveled what was under. Laborious but not impossible.

[RandyHolt]

I’ve got two sets of ice cleats!  I’ll put one on the tykes boots when he goes sledding  but the sleetcrete is not as slick as freezing rain fortunately. 
 

I have been offering up the big mutt tool to neighbors and recommending to friends and family that did a preliminary shovel job like myself to use a metal shovel to get up underneath the sleet as needed. Very effective and thrilled I figured it out  

 

[ibawahu]

I hope I never see this half snow/half sleet mess again -- got about 9-10 inches and it shovels like wet sand and is super slick.  Struggled plowing uphill with my tractor and my wife's Outback got stuck in about 4 inches of it on level ground this AM.  I have a long, hilly driveway and got it plowed down as far as possible without tearing up my gravel but it will probably still be a challenge until it starts melting in a week.

[SomeguyfromTakomaPark]

Hard shoveling and ice chopping!  Been out all morning. 

[ErinInTheSky]

Just glad we didn't get freezing rain. Would have turned this hard situation into an impossible one.

[wxdude64]

5 minutes ago, ErinInTheSky said:

Just glad we didn't get freezing rain. Would have turned this hard situation into an impossible one.

Somehow I managed to get skipped with the freezing rain. Super, super happy about that.