Arctic dipping south

[Helene2013]

Today in Montreal suburbs is nicer with a -7c. But the winds are so strong, the light snow being blown off makes it risky on the roads. Feels like a -17c too. So not that warm to walk. So we are staying home today. Then tomorrow we'll hit a feeling of -32c. On Monday a little break at -9c (just perfect to head for an afternoon at the spa for hubby's birthday)
http://www.stromspa.com/en/explore-t...os-and-videos/
then right back into the deep cold weather. I love winter. But we don't have enough snow to do anything. When snow falls, it ends up being freezing rain, or heavy sticky snow. I'm ready for May I think. hihi

[Crankin]

We have similar weather, but no blowing snow, since what is there is kinda frozen. It's 35 F here, but very strong wind and cloudy. I just came back from a run/walk, since I couldn't face an indoor workout or nordic skiing on crappy conditions. I was way overdressed even for the walk part, but I unzipped my jacket, which helped. Just as I turned the corner on the loop, there was a cyclist riding up Strawberry Hill, but he had a tailwind. Trying to run into that was not fun. Supposed to get a couple of snow showers as the front passes through and then back to the deep freeze tomorrow. It looks like by the end of the week, it will moderate to near normal.
I want snow!

[Helene2013]

We shoveled our driveway (we have a contractor to do this but there was not that much snow - more like banks due to wind pushing in one section only). But boy was it heavy and packed! So my muscle training of tomorrow is done. haha This and doing the trails for the dogs in my backyard.

I'm waiting for hubby to wake up from his nap so I can go in the basement for my bike training. I have intervals today and it is just over an hour. Can't go if no music is playing. I need it to push myself. hihi

But outside, in the front, the wind was pushing right into us. In the backyard, it was minimal winds because the house was blocking it. It's cold if you don't move much.

[ny biker]

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. Though my marathon shoveling experience (a few years ago, after two blizzards within a few days of each other) came with warmer temps than we have now, which made a big difference.

I'm getting ready to head out for a walk. It's 32F right now and sunny. It's also breezy, but the wind is from the south, which won't be warm but certainly will not be as cold as wind from the north. I just need to get outside, and I've spent plenty of money on things like windproof tights and wool balaclavas so I might as well use them.

Meanwhile indoors I'm able to raise the thermostat as high as 69. The heat is running pretty much constantly but at least the aux heat is not coming on. I'll kick it up to 70 this evening. I think I might be able to make it until Monday night before I have to drop the temp way down again for our next blast of really cold air.

I've planned out a nice 50-mile route for a bike ride in northern Maryland. It's a mix of familiar roads and an exploration of some new ones that I've never ridden on. Something to look forward to in the spring...

[zoom-zoom]

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

[Crankin]

Zoom, I hate to tell you that living in the desert SW might make your asthma and allergies WORSE. Most people don't know this. Yes, back in the day (the 40s- 50s) when the air was clean and there wasn't too much overdevelopment, it did help. Now you have 3 things that make it worse. Overdevelopment that holds the heat in, as well as increases the particulates in the air. Think LA. People who move there and want to recreate their "home environment." Hence, they plant non-indigenous tress, grasses, and plants which provide all kinds of allergens that shouldn't be in the desert. Third, there are mold spores that exist in the SW that don't exist anywhere else in the US. Look up Valley Fever. Then you also have the giant gene pool of people of people with asthma and allergies who moved there. They all met, got married, had kids, and there's a huge population of people with asthma!
When I left AZ, I was on a nebulizer every 4-6 hours, had bout after bout of bronchitis, and was always sick. My older son was also in the same boat. In the past 24 years, I have become increasingly healthier. I get a bronchial thing maybe once a year, and not every year. My son, after an initial adjustment, was an extremely healthy kid, and now is a healthy adult. No more nebulizer. For us, I think the constant breezes, lack of air pollution, and lack of weird mold were the trick.

[zoom-zoom]

That makes sense. My allergies and asthma were great in Death Valley and Tahoe, where people aren't planting crazy stuff. In Vegas all of the planting and smoke about kill me.