Arctic dipping south

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I can say from experience that it's easier to shovel snow for 5 hours than it is to ride a bike for 5 hours.

Maybe in VA!

Here is our back deck:


And driveway (DH finally cried uncle and bought a 26" 2-stage snowblower, today):


We're already >80" for the season. Only about 16" from the average for an entire season…and we still have 7 more weeks of Winter. Some years Feb. sees our biggest snows. I'd be surprised if we didn't hit at least 110" for the season. We hit 120" during '08/'09. I remember clearly because I was training for a Spring marathon in that mess.

[ny biker]

That's more than 5 hours worth of shoveling.

[Blueberry]

I think I can stop complaining now! We have gas heat that manages to keep our (old and drafty) house mostly warm, gas logs, space heaters if we want them (that do not blow the circuit breakers) and NO SNOW! We will have bitter cold again next week - but nothing compared to that mess. The older I get, the less I want to live anywhere that has bad winters (and I'm not old!).

[Helene2013]

Those pics remind me of snow we had over the holidays, that turned into freezing rain then all froze in a deep freeze so not even able to enjoy any. We have a 100' driveway, 2 cars wide, plus a huge deck, trails to be made for our small dogs in the yards, so it can be a lot of shoveling at once. That is why we have a contractor for driveway. The rest keeps us busy enough during a big storm.

I guess depending of what you have to shovel, how often in a season, and how you ride a bike (leisure or hard), it may be easier for some one way or the other. For me, I would prefer to shovel snow as I'm not that much of a bike fan but one for snow. So it is less torture and more exercise doing my e snow than riding my bike. But we have not really had snow yet. It is thick but from freezing rain, snow, then freezing rain again. We got about 2-4cm today and it was so heavy that it was compacted as if a the snowplower dumped it all in my whole driveway. Not fun to shovel!

[zoom-zoom]

That's more than 5 hours worth of shoveling.

Really, it might be 90 minutes…but we've had to clear that much at least once/day nearly every day for about the past couple of weeks. This has been the case most of this Winter. We haven't touched the deck (aside from DS playing around with a shovel yesterday and sledding down the deck steps). There's no point to it.

[Crankin]

We have a plow guy for the 800 foot shared driveway, but DH does the part that is just in front of our house, and up to the shared part with a huge snowblower. It takes him about 1.5 hours to 2 hours just to do that. We don't even do the part that's in front of our bike shed anymore.
I just came home from dinner with friends. DH isn't coming home from San Diego until tomorrow. We had about an inch of snow that is going to freeze overnight, as the temperature is going down to single digits. If I was good, I'd get out there and push it away, before it freeezes. But, I won't. I'll do it tomorrow, probably before I go skiing!

[emily_in_nc]

I will never, ever live in a place that gets winters like most of you who have posted on this thread are getting! We had a very chilly morning yesterday on N. Padre Island with a low of 33F and wind chill of 23F. It felt so bitter cold after getting used to 50s-70s that I made a vow never again to subject myself to a northern winter. Not that I'd planned to, but just in case I forgot! Today it was back up to 55 for a high, and tomorrow is supposed to be in the upper 60s. When it does get cold here, it doesn't last long. I just can't imagine what so many of you are dealing with other than when I watch the national news or Weather Channel.

Stay warm, my friends!

[zoom-zoom]

I will never, ever live in a place that gets winters like most of you who have posted on this thread are getting! We had a very chilly morning yesterday on N. Padre Island with a low of 33F and wind chill of 23F. It felt so bitter cold after getting used to 50s-70s that I made a vow never again to subject myself to a northern winter. Not that I'd planned to, but just in case I forgot! Today it was back up to 55 for a high, and tomorrow is supposed to be in the upper 60s. When it does get cold here, it doesn't last long. I just can't imagine what so many of you are dealing with other than when I watch the national news or Weather Channel.

Stay warm, my friends!

I'd kill to live somewhere in the desert SW. It would be so much kinder on my allergies and asthma, too. I've been battling bronchitis for FOUR friggin' weeks. A course of antibiotics didn't touch it, which proved that it wasn't walking pneumonia. I'm certain that this weather contributes.

[Wasp]

Usually winter in Vancouver BC is really wet. Most winter days here are dark damp and gloomy. This stretch of warm sunny weather has been such a treat. Today it was around 10c. We have been out on the bikes every day this past week taking advantage of the warm sunny weather. It's going to suck once the rain returns, on the bright side you don't shovel rain.
We used to live in northern BC and one winter we were shovelling snow up off the roof (the snow banks were higher than our house) it felt like living in an igloo. I hated it. We moved south soon after that winter experience.
Hopefully warmer weather is on its way soon.
Stay warm
Stay safe