Cold winters

[ThePackisback]

You guys ever get any brutal long cold winters on the East coast? I know it’s nothing like up here but you guys remember any bad winters with lots of snow or cold out there?

[hail2skins]

We occasionally get slammed with a storm that gives us a foot of snow or more in the DC area, but that seems relatively rare, like every several years.

 

And every winter you'll get a brief stretch where the highs are in the 20s for a week or two and that sucks. But otherwise, not too bad

[redskinss]

I live in Massachusetts so yes I've been through many brutal winters.

The last couple we haven't gotten a lot of snow but it's been very cold.

Went ice fishing a couple times last year well below zero.

[ThePackisback]

Our winters start in Middle of November and last into April. We have several brutal winters. In the Msll parking lot where they plow the snow that snow bank has made it into May before! GB has had over 90 inches of snow for the season and I’m pretty sure we’ve had 60 days of subzero temps. In Winter of 2013-2014 we had 53 days of subzero temps.

[Captain Wiggles]

Once it dips below 75 degrees in NC I'm frozen to the core. 🥶

 

[ThePackisback]

You guys get ice storms down there once in a great while right Captain?

[CobraCommander]

I lived in Chicago for 7 years. I would say DMV winters are very mild in comparison. 

[Captain Wiggles]

43 minutes ago, ThePackisback said:

You guys get ice storms down there once in a great while right Captain?

 

Yeah thats prolly the worst thing about the weather here. Half inch of ice and everything shuts down. 

 

Usta live in Colorado. Foot of snow there would be gone in a few days. Much more the preferable than the ice storm or freezing rains down here.

[ThePackisback]

12 minutes ago, Captain Wiggles said:

 

Yeah thats prolly the worst thing about the weather here. Half inch of ice and everything shuts down. 

 

Usta live in Colorado. Foot of snow there would be gone in a few days. Much more the preferable than the ice storm or freezing rains down here.

Colorado gets more snow in the fall it seems or spring then winter itself.

Friend of mine who is a pilot told me when he was flying over Wisconsin in June one year it was snowing when he was thousands of feet up in the air. I know Northern Wisconsin has had snow flurries in June.

[Barry.Randolphe]

You guys have forgotten a few times within the last 10 years when we had the polar vortex in DC and it was ~0 degrees for weeks at a time.

 

I've experienced -20F degrees in Toronto before and honestly, it wasn't that bad. Once you hit single digits, cold all feels the same  

[stoshuaj]

70s 

Chesapeake Bay froze

ice boat races on the Miles River

dredging oysters with cars

[LD0506]

12 hours ago, ThePackisback said:

Our winters start in Middle of November and last into April. We have several brutal winters. In the Msll parking lot where they plow the snow that snow bank has made it into May before! GB has had over 90 inches of snow for the season and I’m pretty sure we’ve had 60 days of subzero temps. In Winter of 2013-2014 we had 53 days of subzero temps.

 

~sigh~

 

I miss winter

[Switchgear]

I took a tour of Thomas Point lighthouse a few weeks ago. The tour guide pointed out a metal triangle on the north side of the lighthouse. It was put there to break up ice that used to flow down the Bay, ice was a real hazard to the lighthouse. He said the last time the Bay froze over was 1977. Winter is much more mild than it used to be.

[spjunkies]

We're due for one of those 2 foot+ snow storms. Not looking forward to it, but I know it's coming sooner than later. 

[LD0506]

16 minutes ago, spjunkies said:

We're due for one of those 2 foot+ snow storms. Not looking forward to it, but I know it's coming sooner than later. 

 

Up north known as a flurry

[balki1867]

I remember a couple of crazy winters from growing up:

• The Super Bowl snow in 1988- when DC got a blizzard the week Washington was playing Denver in the Super Bowl.  Mayor Barry took a bit of heat for partying in San Diego while DC was trying to unbury themselves.  We learned later that was the least of the issue with Marion Barry's partying 
• There was another big blizzard in March 1993-- that one was noteworthy because of how late it happened in the winter.  The snow melted so quickly afterwards there were concerns about the Potomac swelling.
• In Feb 1995 I stood at my busstop for 30 minutes on a single degree day and the bus never showed up.  I started feel ill that evening and it turned out my appendix had ruptured. I don't think the two were related but part of the issue was that for a while we all thought I was just getting sick from standing outside for so long. 
• I always remember the deep freeze of ~1996 bc it came right after the Federal Government shutdown.  My neighbor worked for FEMA and we went to their house during one of those days-- he'd barely been to work in the past 2.5 months. First his family took a trip to florida, then it was christmas, then the 3-week shutdown came right after that, and finally he was advised to stay home during the deep freeze.
• In the early 2000s (03-04ish), DC got 12-inch and 10-inch blizzards within days of each other.  It was so much so snow that a walmart's roof collapsed

Man, I sound like an old person the way I rattle that off.  I moved to Chicago in 2009, and I was here when Snow-pacolypse happened in 2010.  One of my favorite memories from the next morning was going outside in my snow gear to check out the city, and the only thing open was a coffee shop.  The line was fairly long (8-10 people) and the lady behind me was complaining about how everything was open the next morning after the blizzard of 1967.

[The 12th Commandment]

2011 in NM is legendary still.  Pretty much every landscaping plant in my town died. Rows of dead palm trees in the medians.  Most of the plants in my yard died.  Pipes froze all over and plumbers made a fortune. I got lucky there. 

 

Didn't snow much, which we do get on occasion, but we had a high of 19 over the course of three days.  Freezing temperatures at night are normal but it usually thaws out every day.

 

I remember a winter in NOVA when I was a kid ('77 or '78) where it snowed almost three feet and we got a week off of school.  Had canyons dug through the snow to my friend's houses that seemed a lot deeper in my memory than they probably were.

Edited October 26, 2022 by The 12th Commandment