Anyone from Buffalo? 6' of snow....really?

[SwampSurvivor]

Also - stuff like this is why I get mad at the news media for always going crazy when it's going to snow a bit.

They were predicting 5 or 6 feet of snow. But I didn't believe them ... because they always go crazy about it

Saw this on the facebook.

 

[JTK]

Sun is finally out south of Buffalo and I managed to get the driveway mostly down to pavement. It's like a tunnel though. 6ft side walls of snow, with mounds out at the road so tall, it's going to be a hazard pulling out till June. LOL. Been house-bound for 4 days now with wife and four kids. I'd crawl to work at this point if I could as sad as that sounds.

 

[Mr Nice]

I live in Daytona Beach if anybody from the north wants to come over and thaw out.

No way I could live in that area with the lake snow effect.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
I live in Daytona Beach if anybody from the north wants to come over and thaw out.

No way I could live in that area with the lake snow effect.

Mercifully it doesn't normally happen like this LT. Like I say, I've lived here all my life and have never seen it like this.

 

[137_Trenton]

Originally Posted By: JTK
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
I live in Daytona Beach if anybody from the north wants to come over and thaw out.

No way I could live in that area with the lake snow effect.

Mercifully it doesn't normally happen like this LT. Like I say, I've lived here all my life and have never seen it like this.


Back in the 2000-01 storm I had 7 feet here at my house, but the difference was it came from one single storm stalled over us that lasted about 4 days as opposed to this one where it dumped down a lot quicker and then a second storm rolled in. In essence you had some time to keep going out and keep up with it unlike this one where 4 feet came over night... also the one from 14 years ago was a very light fluffy snow whereas this one we just got is not so fluffy and getting worse by the minute now. I'll never forget with the 00-01 storm they started off by predicting a dusting to 3 inches and then just kept going up and up and up. Here they started off by predicting 2-3 feet in the worst areas and they were still wrong.
I was dug out here yesterday... now I just keep working on the roof getting it down bit by bit. Almost makes me want to just pay someone else to do it instead of doing this big ranch house by myself lol.

 

[JTK]

I hear ya 137_. I remember the 2000 one. Trying to get home from work (Tonawanda to West Seneca at the time), I got stuck almost overnight on I-190 near the GM plant. We had little to nothing at home, but I couldn't get there! Backtracked to a Hotel near work and worked a bunch of shifts in a row due to co-workers not being able to get in.

Then in Dec 2001, we got pounded in the S.Towns with 6ft of snow. Light stuff though. Much easier to handle than this week's storm. My wife was 9mo pregnant with our first at the time. Man I was nervous. It was days before the town was able to dig us out with payloaders.

For me, it's been since 2001 that I've seen close to today's amount of snow.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
I live in Daytona Beach if anybody from the north wants to come over and thaw out.

No way I could live in that area with the lake snow effect.

I was thinking we should've moved to an area with more lake effect snow. I'd get a 7' blower for the tractor and a 100+hp long track snowmobile and pray for the roads to be closed for days on end!

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
I live in Daytona Beach if anybody from the north wants to come over and thaw out.

No way I could live in that area with the lake snow effect.

I was thinking we should've moved to an area with more lake effect snow. I'd get a 7' blower for the tractor and a 100+hp long track snowmobile and pray for the roads to be closed for days on end!


When you buy stuff like that, it pretty much guarantees that you won't get snow

 

[Blaze]

If I lived in those snow belts around the Great Lakes I would definitely build my home with at least a 5/12 pitch and all metal roof so I wouldn't have to shovel or take the chance of collapse.

 

[Lapham3]

We got quite a bit of 'lake effect' snow living in the Mich UP on the south shore of Superior. When first there, I wondered a bit about what looked like a lake dock going from the front door of houses out towards the street, As most of the homes have some steps, the elevated 'dock' at the front door would be 2-4 feet over the sidewalk. It was NEEDED because by winter's end you wouldn't be able to throw the shoveled snow high enough anymore-no joke!.... We used to say that the winters 'keep out the riffraff'-then we had years of warmer than normal-sometimes quite a few 'global warming' types and they came and-stayed. After last winter, quite a few riffs left and as we've been well below average temps lately, some of the raffs are talking of heading south. The poor folks in Maui standing in the check out line probably don't have anything to talk about. Yes, no 1/2" roof decks or 2 foot truss spacing for thinking people-even tho code allows it

 

[Doog]

I'm from Cleveland (still here) wife is from Rochester...no way we would live in Buffalo....too much snow...10-12 feet a year is our limit....

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Winter is fun for about 5 minutes. The best way to handle winter is like my uncle does, at his house in FL from now until April when the weather improves up here.

My next door neighbor do similar, except that they are Taiwanese and they go back to Taiwan in winter months from Nov till May.

So Cal winter is too cold for them, even we almost never have any night below 32-35F, high is usually in the high 60's to mid 70's from Nov till May.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
Originally Posted By: Patman
I'll take heat over snow and cold any day of the week.

The collective population of Earth pretty much agrees with you. Take a look at the population distribution and density of Earth. You'll see the population seriously thins out north of the Great Lakes.


Also, not a lot of people book vacation packages to Alaska compared to hot sunny destinations!

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: Blaze
If I lived in those snow belts around the Great Lakes I would definitely build my home with at least a 5/12 pitch and all metal roof so I wouldn't have to shovel or take the chance of collapse.


Saw something on the news last night that estimated the average home in western NY has about 13,000 POUNDS of snow on their roof right now! The scary part will be once it starts raining and the water adds even more weight to the snow. I predict a lot of roof collapses happening after this weekend

 

[Sayjac]

Found this guy's drone shots fascinating. West Seneca I believe. Prior days can be found under James Grimaldi video. Wishing the best for all those in the Buffalo area, surely don't need rain or freezing rain. Hang in.

 

[whip]

With warmer temps and rain coming, I hope things don't get worse. Wet heavy snow and runoff with no where to go is a bad recipe.

 

[Blaze]

Originally Posted By: Patman
Originally Posted By: Blaze
If I lived in those snow belts around the Great Lakes I would definitely build my home with at least a 5/12 pitch and all metal roof so I wouldn't have to shovel or take the chance of collapse.


Saw something on the news last night that estimated the average home in western NY has about 13,000 POUNDS of snow on their roof right now! The scary part will be once it starts raining and the water adds even more weight to the snow. I predict a lot of roof collapses happening after this weekend

We had several barns go down in my area a few yrs ago (eastern wash). All (building inspector info) were due to the trusses being bolted onto the posts and the bolts sheared from the snow weight. Most barn builders here will notch the posts and lay the truss on the notch so the entire post to ground becomes weight bearing. Code here is a min of 60 lbs snow load I think.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Code in Buffalo is, IIRC, 75lbs/foot. (Equal to a 4" slab of concrete!) Unfortunately...they might have gotten MORE than that.

 

[fdcg27]

Even if we assume that the snow load is equivalent to 12" of liquid water, and I don't think it's that much, they'd still be comfortably below 75 lbs/sq ft.

 

[137_Trenton]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Code in Buffalo is, IIRC, 75lbs/foot. (Equal to a 4" slab of concrete!) Unfortunately...they might have gotten MORE than that.

If only everything was actually built to code... especially some of the really old stuff. It really doesn't matter though as roofs were collapsing before this melting and rain started. Trailer park/mobile homes have been collapsing, some houses, warehouses and businesses with flat roofs have been coming down. There has been a lot of damage before any of the rain came.
The builder who built up my street back in the 60's really cut corners. They spaced the roof rafters too far apart, placed only one 2x4 as a vertical support at the peaks of the hip roofs putting all the pressure down to one single point. They also used 3/8" plywood for the roof decking. I could go on and on, but I fixed it all up myself, and I still didn't feel comfortable with this snow and took it off the roof. Can't hardly see out the windows now, but at least nothing will collapse on mine.