Pressure Testing My Footings

Written by Douglas Wilson

Thursday, 31 January 2008 15:54

We got six guys to come up to our house today to shovel off our deck, and it took them about an hour. We weren't interested in finding out just how many feet of snow it would take to kick off some unplanned rennovations at our house this summer. Many thanks to the guys, and this is a bit of what it looked like.

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Last Updated on Thursday, 31 January 2008 15:54

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lewsta

Thursday, January 31, 2008 7:13 pm

Unceasing rain here in Western Washington, with no end in sight. I can only think it will head your way, and become much colder as it does. I suppose its possible you've not yet seen the half of it. Any idea the record snow cover in the Palouse?

Chris Witmer

Thursday, January 31, 2008 8:12 pm

Just curious, is all this snow likely to make any difference to the squabbles over water in your neck of the woods?

Alexei Rayu

Thursday, January 31, 2008 10:51 pm

You seem to have much warmer climate than we in Ukraine yet we have not had any good snow for years.

Matthew Hoover

Thursday, January 31, 2008 10:53 pm

My grandparents used to live along Lake Erie in Western NY. Whenever they would get the huge lake-effect snows, they would get a plow to push it out of the driveway. Grandpa would have my grandma put her boots and coat on and stand next to the 12 foot pile holding a snow shovel. Then he would take a picture and circulate it to show what a hard taskmaster he was.

I'm kind of surprised that winter is that bad in other parts of the country. There is no doubt that eastern winters (at least in Central PA) are very tame and warm compared to what they used to be, even 20 years ago. I don't think we've hit thirty inches of snow at my house for five years now, even though I live in the "mountains". I just took that to mean that there was some sort of general warming effect, whatever the cause.

Chris Witmer

Thursday, January 31, 2008 11:38 pm

Those winter snows are among the few things I miss about the Peoples Republic of New York. We used to jump off the roof of the three-storey high school into the drifts of snow below. That was great because you could get not only the thrill of leaping from a great height, you could also get a three-day suspension out of it. I used to skip school and go cross-country skiing all day. In fact, when I did go to school it was often by cross-country ski. The bad part about Western New York is the salt on the roads, which can rot the underbody of your car in just a few years. Some people with nice cars would drive a junker in winter and keep the nice car for the other three seasons.

The Burly Gates

Friday, February 01, 2008 12:30 am

Is that your initiation hazing for AAPC?

Valerie (Kyriosity)

Friday, February 01, 2008 1:42 am

Interesting theory, TBG. I wuz gonna guess slave labor by NSA student minions held under the thrall of Emperor Wilson.

Rob Steele

Friday, February 01, 2008 6:14 am

How do you unplan something that's still months away?

lewsta

Friday, February 01, 2008 3:42 pm

An here I wuz a thinkin it wuz summa them illegal immi grunts gettin put ta work fer they supper. A few years back I knew a chap who'd spent ten years in upstate New York...and had some amazing winter stories to tell. Going outside after a night of snowing, and finding, not the car he'd parked in the drive at the side of the house, but something that vaguely resembled a gigantic albino pillbug someone had left in the same place. Oh, they'd find the car somewhere under there in a few days or so.....they all had free-heel skis, so they could get about alright. Probably when the decadal and multidecadal cycles merge at high peak again those snows will return. It will be amusing to see the "newcomers" to such areas coping with what formerly was normal.

Jane Dunsworth

Saturday, February 02, 2008 5:55 am

Yebbut, the Lake Erie shoreline ain't what it used to be, either. I first looked at Pr. Wilson's pics and thought, "Ah, that's just a normal winter, here." And then I realized that we haven't had that kind of "normal winter" in several years. Not that we don't get big dumpings of snow now and then, but ten years ago, it was entirely normal for the snow to pile up day after day throughout late December into late January, until it was a couple of feet deep and you had to creep out into intersections to see past the plow piles. This year, it's been nothing like that. As of January 15, I observed that none of the major retail parking lots had visible snow piles, in fact, they were as bare of snow as July -- unthinkable five years ago. And I don't believe there's been a single instance this winter in which snow that fell was still on the ground ten days later, without a thaw having intervened.

None of that is evidence of ongoing climate change, to be sure -- a few odd winters in a single region say nothing, just as Pr. Wilson's horse laugh is just that. It does get annoying, though, to think that what would otherwise be a pleasant change of reduced winter weather difficulties, becomes something you dread hearing trumpeted by the Climate Change zealots, even though you know it's merely anecdotal, not real evidence.

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