Wordless Vintage Snapshot: Looking Forward To Winter
– Posted on December 19, 2023
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I have lived all over the place. I ended up in the Twin Cities. I will take a Minnesota winter over a southern summer anytime. Winter makes you strong.
Moved from hot-humid-storming Houston TX to the foothills of the Sierra in California. Even last years big snow won’t change my mind.
Amen! I would rather live through 100 northern snowfalls than one single August in the south. Lovely people down there, but I just can’t take their weather. I despise heat and humidity. I find the cold weather to be invigorating and rejuvenating, whereas the swamp weather just makes me feel fat, sluggish, and disgusting.
I agree and this is why I like living in the Desert ~ dry heat is easier to take even though I’m now old and fat, the two worst things one can be if they work in temperate climates .
Is that his car or an igloo?
Why is he taking off his coat and placing it in the car? No gloves on either? Woefully prepared to battle this shovelling job.
March 1971 in Montreal, a snow storm known as “storm of the century”.
Stephane D: I’m not sure if that would be the same year and storm that hit us in the mid-west (Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin), but I was just a little boy then and I recall the main highway past our farm was closed for 3 full days until the state could get the big equipment in to open it. Once they did, I remember riding in our 4X4 Chevy farm truck and driving up to my brother’s farm to help him dig out. I was amazed at the “walls” of snow on each side of the truck that were higher than the top of our truck cab.
At 56 years old now, I’m not so sure I’d want to be in that now.
I have lived through some nasty winters in western Canada.
The last few years not so much and this Christmas looks to be a mild one throughout Alberta with little snow on the ground and temps just above plus 1C. The mild weather does have its drawbacks. Cases of flu and COVID are way up as the viruses spread when the air is warm. A week of minus 20C would help in a big way to knock those down.
Another worry is we won’t have enough moisture come spring for farmers and ranchers. Perhaps January will bring some nasty winter weather.
The 1940 Armistice Day blizzard was the winter storm that was always talked about when I was a kid growing up in Minnesota. PBS did a short documentary on the storm. The book, All Hell Broke Loose, is a collection of short stories about peoples experiences during the storm. I read the book and it was a real page turner. There was a couple of stories were from the local area where I grew up, that really hit home with me.
Living in Minnesota all my life (so far) I’ve had plenty of personal experiences with storms.
The January 1975 Storm of the Century, started as heavy freezing rain. I attempted to drive in to work that afternoon. Ten miles in on my 35 mile drive there was a jack knifed semi blocking the freeway. I decided to head home, my 71 Pinto suddenly had limited steering angle. Luckily a friend of mine worked at a service station on my way home. Ran the Pinto into an empty service bay. The wheel wells were filled with ice, barely any room for the tire to turn. Three hours to get it thawed out.
The start of winter 1991, Halloween storm 31 inches and another 24 inch storm right before Thanksgiving.
1992 really changed my winter storm world. I hired on with the Minnesota DOT. I joined the crew of “Central Shop”. The supplier of all new plow trucks for MnDOT and also the support supplier for repair parts and replacement equipment for the fleet of approx. 850 trucks. When I started there I worked on the maintenance side. At that time all new cars, trucks, vans, etc. came thru our shop before being sent out to their home district. We also had a fleet of 450 some pieces of equipment to maintain. Oddly we only had one plow truck. We always kept one truck from the last order to maintain our facility until the next order was built out.
After 6 months working on the fleet I was given a project to do on 16 plow trucks. Apparently the boss was impressed with my fabrication skills as he asked me if I would want to work on plow trucks. I would have preferred at that time to have stayed on the maintenance side. However being the new guy it would probably be a bad idea to turn down the transfer. Turned out to be a good decision. Spent 23+ years there, eventually rising to be the guy running the plow truck program. It was a bit of a hot seat. Getting new trucks out to the districts and watching the weather and being ready to supply the parts to fix the next busted up plow truck.
I’m retired now. If I’m home besides blowing out my driveway I will clean out 4 or 5 of my neighbors if they need the help.
I do check out once in a while, heading to AZ for Jan and Feb this year. My wife and one of my dogs don’t share my love of snow and cold. My daughter lives nearby and the son-in-law loves blowing snow so he will cover for me while I’m gone.
Wonder what’s under the snow there?
Wow, never experienced something that bad!
Here’s a photo of our Volvo 240 covered by snow from the blizzard of Feb. 1983 that struck the Washington DC area. My employer wisely called us off from reporting to work that day. The federal government did not make the same decision, and ended up having to dismiss the workforce while the blizzard was in progress.
Our 2016 blizzard here in Northern Virginia was pretty bad too. The picture below is of my wife trying to shovel off our Crown Victoria after getting 3 ft. of snow. I think my back is still sore from all that shoveling eight years ago!
Them thar tires don’t look like snow tires to me either.
Right! Once dug out, the Crown Vic didn’t go anywhere for a while.
Oddly, I did buy tire chains for that car, but I guess I thought that blizzard didn’t warrant using them. I no longer have the car, but I still have the unused tire chains in the basement.
Southeastern Ontario no longer gets the one to two blizzards a season, we used to get into the 1980s. Heavy snowfalls of 30+cms (12 inches), are a thing of the past.
There are occasional serious winter snowstorms, but freezing rain and ice storms are a greater threat now, with average temperatures climbing. Like everywhere else.
Our public transit has provided some memorable wintertime imagery over the years.
GMC New Look buses were some of the better buses in snow. They spun like mad, but at least they kept moving. Though, they were very drafty, and their windows rattled badly.
Alexander Dennis Enviro 500 double-decker buses, were taken off some roads. Due to their vulnerability to heavy crosswinds, in wintertime.
It’s too long to put in a comment, but you can read my account of “Snow Jam ’82” at this link.
“Turning onto the ramp for I-75 South, I immediately realized I had made a tactical error, but with cars already behind me, it was too late—I was committed. I inched along with the rest of the traffic, and about 90 minutes later finally came to the 14th street exit (less than two miles from work), where I decided to divert through Tech.”
My mom and dad “enjoying the west Michigan lake effect belt”.
For some, their luck ran out.
Salvation is at hand. The Road Commission truck approaches.
My Grandfather, on his Cornbinder, “enjoying life in the lake effect belt”.
Here in Baltimore, back in 2010, we had back to back big snowstorms of more than 20″ a piece. These were separated by like 4 days. This period in Maryland’s history is affectionately known as “Snowmageddon”.
I know what you’re thinking, especially you mid-westerners, ‘Amateurs!’ ;o)
Anyway, it only takes about 6 inches of snow to cripple Baltimore for days, sending hordes of people to the grocery stores to wipe them out of milk, bread, and toilet paper. Why those three things, I have no idea. Perhaps they are making some sort of side walk stucco, but I digress…
Anyway, here’s a shot of my then not even 3 year old Mustang after digging her out between the two storms. As you can see, it really is possible to keep a car clean and free of salt in the wintertime….
Recall those back to back blizzards well. The blizzard of 2016 was the worst single snowfall ever for central Maryland, with 30 plus inches. Much prefer last year’s winter, with less than an inch for the entire season.
Snow fall amounts are interesting to look at. From an impression perspective they do seem lower than 30 years ago but looking at data it’s not really that easy to get a great trend line as while the number of below average years has increased since 1980 we have also gotten 3 of the biggest snowfalls in the last century within the past 15 years. In particular, I remember 2011 and 2015 having so much snow that we had no place to put it. So far this year does look to be a record low not seen since the 1920’s for my area thou.
I remember some epic show storms in rural New England in the 60’s, then I learned that we _were_ indeed “amateurs” as the Mid West not only gets far worse but they get storms that blow up so fast one could get lost going from the barn/out house to the house proper .
-Nate
I have plenty of stories, too, starting with the Blizzard of ’47 in New York City when I was four years of age. We built tunnels. But, I digress. Here is an attachment for laughs from a man in New Jersey perhaps a decade ago.
I have my special purpose winter machines all tuned up, rewelded (in the case of the Ariens), and at the ready. Although we haven’t needed them much the past couple of years. The projected 50+ degrees here on Christmas seems to indicate that I may not need them much this winter either.
hey xr7 – Thank you for all your hard work keeping our enormous fleet of snowplow’s going. Having lived my life in the seven county metro area I can attest to how critical snow removal is. Unless a person commutes to work in a bulldozer they are not getting anywhere during or after a blizzard. My grandmother and grandfather remembered armistice day and told me how everything was shut down for nearly a week. Yikes!
As for the picture caption I’m going with:
Due to the delay in getting his geodesic dome garage built, Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller goes to work digging out his Dymaxion.
Per John – ‘I have lived all over the place. I ended up in the Twin Cities. I will take a Minnesota winter over a southern summer anytime. Winter makes you strong.’
Well said, totally agree. The cold air is invigorating, Cutting/splitting firewood for the wood stove on a sunny New England winter day is great. I don’t like hot weather, I wasn’t made for it.
On the other hand ;
Being built for cold weather means you don’t hardly ever get cold in the Desert ~ I’m in shirt sleeves down into the 40’s and folks here are always bundled up as soon as it’s below 80 .
I don’t like the heat much either but I do prefer living where there’s no snowfall and very little rain .
-Nate
I grew up in Chicago.
My wife and I still love winters like this.
We were up at O’Hare last night and we both loved how cold it was. For the first time in a long time, we could see our breath as we spoke. Then there is that smell of jet fuel, exhaust and ice cold Chicago Arctic air that brings back so many memories. Our get-a-way is in Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin where it’s often deep in snow during the winter and below zero temperatures.
I’m so glad modern vehicles are able to safely get through snow. Those old rear drive full sized Detroit sleds were really dangerous during the winter, even with the studded snow tires.
In the Boston area we haven’t had much since 2015 which was quite a bit. We did have one blizzard last year but it was melted in a week
I have since given up my plow truck and did not replace my snowblower when it died (a 25 year old Baker)
Now I remain defiant, me and my shovel.
Winter is like a jail sentence in the Lake Ontario snow belt. Yearly average totals range from 120 inches to 600 inches within a 50 mile radius. By Christmas of last year I’d already had 11 feet of snow to deal with. This year the roads were salted on November 1st and will remain so well into April and possibly May.
Winter is depressing, expensive, and a lot of work. Gods curse I’d say. Winter Sucks!