A Contrast of Winters
Now mind you, last evening we were supposed to get 1-3 inches and although that is not much in any sense of the word, I was excited about it. Instead it rained, with some flurries before a cold front came and froze all of the rain that fell.
Now the next picture was taken just two years ago, almost exactly to the day. Now it was taken in Maine, but that is only about 140 miles north of Norwich. 
This wasn't a fluke! This happened quite often in Maine. To put a frame of reference, the van is 7 ft high. The snow banks at the end of the driveway were about 6 ft high and backing up one was totally blind for a day or so until the snow compacted. In Maine the snow didn't melt, it just compacted.
I know I posted a couple of weeks ago that winter had finally arrived, but I am still not convinced. Sure it got bitterly cold for a few days and the forecasters are predicting the same for the days ahead. However, when I lived in Connecticut from 15-20 years ago, I seem to remember the weather men being wrong quite often. It seems not much has changed in the time since. I guess it truly is the job where you can be wrong a lot and still have job security!
How is your winter going? I am curious to see how this winter will end up. Perhaps in a few months I will blog about it again.
posted by Christian at
2/03/2007 01:46:00 PM
3 Comments:
Chris, we had some snow two weekends ago...but for those who are use to snow, it was really not much more than a dusting. Until the last 8 days, the highs were constantly in the 40s and with hardly a low below 25.
Twenty to thirty miles can make a big difference. When we lived in Iowa, it seemed as if I80 seemed to be a major demarcation line for all type of weather. North of I 80 would get a thunderstorm and we would have only clouds. Cedar Rapids (20 miles north) would get 2" of snow, we would get none. We would get 2" and they 6". Fifty miles south, if we got 2", they would have nothing.
That is very interesting about I-80. When we lived in Punxsutawney we would hear the same thing from the weathermen. North of I-80 was/is considered the snowbelt and always would get higher accumulations.
In the lake effect snow area, sometimes depending on the wind direction I-90 is a divider between serious accumulation or a dusting. My prognosticator mother would be able to delve into the details of lake effect snow much better than I! We tried twice to visit my parent in Erie and Elaine's parents in Buffalo for Christmas. Once we did so by air and were delayed on our return by a day due to snow. The second time was the great Christmas storm of 2001 when Buffalo got about 70 inches. We drove through the first day of that to get Buffalo along the NYS Thruway. When we left to go to Erie we left under Blue skies, but about 30 minutes after we left, I heard on the radio that Buffalo/Niagara Int'l airport was experiencing 1/4 mile visibility due to snow. The second wave moved in.
So now...we just stay home at Christmas.
Chris, you wisely made the decision to stay home for Christmas at a much earlier stage than we did. Our family has driven through numerous blizzards - I use that word literally - in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Manitoba and Ontario to visit family for Christmas. A few years ago, we finally decided that anyone who wants to see us for Christmas can come to us. The one exception to this rule is your Grandma and Grandpa Seiler. They live fairly close by now and over the years they've braved blizzards, near-Arctic temperatures and even a tornado to visit us. They've earned the right to some visits, regardless of weather.
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