Boston Bob sent me these pictures of his house about two weeks ago. I believe he has had at least two more feet of snow since these pictures were taken. Avalon was able to get them into photobucket so I could post them on the site.
It’s funny how on a morning where the temperature is below zero for half the country, the MSM morons at Marketwatch feel the need to post a story quoting “climate experts” saying this has been one of the warmest winters on record. It’s science you know. These “experts” can’t get a forecast right 12 hours in advance, but we’re supposed to believe their bullshit about global warming and impending disaster based upon their computer models. And by the way, please give these academic assholes more Federal grant money (your tax dollars) so they can write papers saying we need more taxes to combat global warming.
Maybe Boston Bob has an opinion about global warming as he straddles his roof trying to clear the ice dams in Negative 16 degree wind chills.
Thanks Admin and Avalon,
I’m sorry I did not get to post them to Photobucket. The windows you see in the front with the wreaths now have snow 3/4 the way up. My wife took down the wreaths yesterday. The widows in back are completely covered. We have had 27″ of snow this week, 20″ on Sunday, 3′ on Wednesday and and 4″ yesterday. We are expecting another foot possibly this weekend. I spent 5 hours last Saturday shoveling off the roof and chipping off the ice damns with an electric chipper. So far I have had 4 smallish leaks, so I will be back on the roof this weekend shoveling and chipping. I will send you updated pictures. I have been praying for global warming, but it has not been working out as well as I had hoped for. The good thing is that each of our neighbors help each other whether with clearing driveways, cleaning off roofs, clearing walkways or digging out fire hydrants. At 53 (birthday last week) This stuff is getting old fast, but I can still get up on the roof and shovel so that’s where you will find me this weekend.
Bob.
@BBob: At what point, exactly, does all that snow/ice turn your home into an igloo?
I think it is warmer on MARS at noon, which is 14F, than it is in Boston and most of the country’s midsection today, heh.
Stay safe!
(It will be 70 F in Houston today, BTW.)
nice winter wonderland.. IMHO,better viewed on jpeg than in person. I feel your pain.
Hope,
3 degrees here this morning. Funny thing yesterday the sidewalk plow, which is a huge snow blower, dumped another 2 feet of snow into my and my neighbors front yards. Most of the regular side roads are down to 1 lane and many of the regular roads are missing at least 1/2 a lane or more. Some of the places where they have been trucking the snow have piles 60 to 70 feet high covering several football fields in area. In all my years living up here I have never seen anything like this winter, but my house is 103 years old, I suspect it will survive this too.
Bob.
Those pictures is about the same amount of snow we had in Northern Virginia after the blizzard of ’66.
As to global warming…total BS:
“Now, in what might be the largest scientific fraud ever uncovered, NASA and the NOAA have been caught red-handed altering historical temperature data to produce a “climate change narrative” that defies reality. This finding, originally documented on the Real Science website, is detailed here.
We now know that historical temperature data for the continental United States were deliberately altered by NASA and NOAA scientists in a politically-motivated attempt to rewrite history and claim global warming is causing U.S. temperatures to trend upward. The data actually show that we are in a cooling trend, not a warming trend.”
http://www.naturalnews.com/045695_global_warming_fabricated_data_scientific_fraud.html
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How ice dams form: Heat from the home ‘escapes’ into the attic – rises to the peak – enough heat builds up and melts the snow at the peak. The water runs down (under the snow). This water travels down to the overhang – where it is below freezing, and forms ice.
As this process continues the ice dam moves up the roof. If it moves far enough the water will get under the shingles and leak into the attic. Enough water, and it will ruin the plaster / leak in the window frames, etc.
What you want to do is keep the attic cold. Make sure the vents are clear, so that hot air rising can escape. If there’s a window you could open it and even use a small fan to exhaust the heat.
I fixed our previous home (here in Minnesota). I made additional soffit vents – especially around the valleys. Also I laid down 24″ wide plywood around the perimeter – this really helped divert the rising heat. Naturally you have to do this in warmer weather.
TOP story on Marketwatch is how warm this winter has been.
Fuck Marketwatch.
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@BBob: Just be careful, that kind of weather can kill you. It got “down” to 29 F, and that was with a wind chill, and folks around here totally lost their shit. If your Snowpocalypse ever came here, the region would completely collapse as nobody’s home is built for that, we don’t have any snow gear and our blood is just too thin. Go Global Warming!!!
@Rising: That is very interesting. I never knew that was the mechanism about why people’s roofs failed with all that snow. I moved to East Texas specifically so I never would have to find out. But thank you!
Administrator says:
TOP story on Marketwatch is how warm this winter has been.
For the northwest US, that is true. Guess the rest of the country doesn’t count to MarketWatch.
Brings back memories of ’96-’97 here in Minnesota. Where I live now I’m in a low spot so yesterday by thermometer was showing -30 F before wind chill. This is tough on plants with the very little snow cover we currently have.
Just think what a boon this will be to the economy-all those roofers and carpenters fixing the damage from this unusually warm winter.
103 year old house … wow. The very first home I bought was about 80 years old. It was an almost endless series of surprises. I think they made a movie about it, The Money Pit.
Yours looks in much better shape. It looks absolutely Hallmark Card charming with those wreaths.
It’s good to live here in the east valley, although it only got up to 76 on my north facing covered patio yesterday.
How do I post a pic. My house is worse. Five to six feet on the roof. Gazebo was getting crushed til I raked it off an hour ago. Have to keep digging out the furnace and hw tank vent pipes. My labrador disappears in the trenches in the yard.
Two words………metal roof. We have a metal roof on the Lever cabin and the great thing is the snow just slides off. There was 15 inches of snow there this week and I’m sure I will find no snow on the roof when we go down this weekend.
I would hate to pay BostonBob’s heating bill…….ouch!
Damn BostonBob, with ice dams like that you’ve got some insulation/ventilation issues. They’ll be a pain in the ass to fix but should save you a pile a cash and work if you do.
Your pictures make me jealous! Last time we had snow like that I was shoveling the roof off and stopped for a few seconds to rest and found the dog in my avatar up on the roof behind me. She had climbed up the snow bank and got on the roof herself. All winter she kept getting out of the yard by jumping over the fence but then she’d get stuck in the deep snow on the other side. I used the snow blower to construct a maze in the back yard to keep her busy.
I do love winter and snow!
Niagara Falls is a bit chilly!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2958849/Niagara-Falls-frozen-extreme-winter-weather-continues-East-Coast-going-colder.html
Algore needs to double-up on Ex-Lax.
Take ONE MINUTE to check this out. You won’t be disappointed.
Dudes got more balls than brains……..I’ll give him that!
Oh yeah.
Try walking from my parking garage to my office. It’s almost a block and a half.
“How do I post a pic.” ——— phoenixny
You first need to go to a picture-sharing service. Most people probably use http://www.photobucket.com
1.Sign up for an account … it’s free
2. Upload your pictures there from your phone, computer, camera, whatever
3. Copy pics fro there to here (By clicking on the “You can add images to your comment by clicking here.” sentence just below the big Submit Comment box.)
It’s not difficult. Shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes … the FIRST time … and just a minute thereafter.
Bea, last time we had a good winter this little old lady went missing from her home in a nice residential neighborhood. Her door was found open with no trace of her. They looked for days but never found her. That spring as the snow melted she emerged from a snow bank. It seems the snow slid right off her metal roof and buried her while she was taking the trash out.
Snowboarding down Comm Av. in Boston. Yes it is a major road.
Bob.
Commuting into Boston heading onto the expressway:
Bob.
IS
Ummm…….I forgot to add that little tidbit of info in my post. She must have been deaf as a post because it makes a loud rumble as it lets loose from the roof and begins to slide.
Bea,
A standing seam roof would be great, but you do not see much of that in the Boston area as they tend to be very expensive, especially if your roof is cut up like mine.You see a lot of them up in New Hampshire and Vermont. As for venting and insulation, I understand the concept quite well, while my attic is pretty well insulated for a house over 100 years old, you have to see how this cape is built with many exposed roof lines and little attic space over the main part of the house. As for ventilation, I gave up on that, without access to install proper vents, venting the soffits is a waste of time, again with the roof being cut up this is not practical. I could have installed vented drip edge, but these are a nightmare when you have ice damns, I have seen it up close on other houses. I did blow in insulation about 20 years ago, this has helped. The absolute best solution is to prevent heat from escaping into the attic space, but this will not prevent solar heating and night time freeze cycles. I have learned to live with it. At least it is almost paid for, 1.5 more years. I have lived up here my whole 53 years and everyone I know and have spoken to have said this is the best/worst winter ever. The next set of pictures you will see that many of the windows are now fully covered in snow, quite amazing.
Bob.
BostonBob, around here some people have a coil that they apply in the ice dam area that heats up when plugged in. Perhaps that would help?
Chipping ice dams sucks! I’d rather spend a day breaking snap ties or wire ties off new concrete walls.
It’s an example of global warming/climate change. When its colder out its getting hotter. Cold winters are a sign of earth warming. Well that’s the line of crap being told to us. Much of the country has bought into this stupid thinking.
The west coast is very dry with little snow. I see how cold air is making the great Lakes area and going east very freaking cold this winter, I thought last winter was like this also.
We had ice dams form on our flat roof of our 30s vintage condo building last year, and installed a heater to melt the snow and ice up there. The switch is by my unit, so it is my responsibility to make sure it is running or not as conditions mandate. Had a little leak into my 3rd floor unit as a result last year, and we had to install a new roof as last year totally finished off the decrepit old roof. We have to be vigilant, because a snow accumulation can collapse a flat roof.
These severe conditions really don’t last very long, but they can inflict a lot of damage on your structure while they last.
IS,
The heat wires actually work quite well. They don’t necessarily prevent the ice damns but they create channels that allow the water that builds up behind them to run out thus preventing leaks into the house. I have had them installed on many houses, even very expensive ones. I will probably be selling in the next year or two so I will live with it and fortunately I do not have gutters which exacerbate the problem. As bad as mine are i have seen much worse on a lot of houses, many quite a bit newer. Chicago when we installed them we had then manually switched, but in condos if someone leaves for the winter this did not work so we used a moisture heat sensing switch. Here in Massachusetts we have had over 100 roof collapses, and some parts may actually get rain this weekend. That should be fun. The picture in Friday Fail with the guy snow blowing the roof are condos here in MA, one of the buildings in the complex had a partial collapse, truss roofs. We have seen a lot of the metal buildings with collapsed roofs, not much fun.
Bob.
A balmy +16 F here in Fairbanks, with highs predicted in the 30s for the next few days. We have had an incredibly warm winter, with temps above freezing frequently and only a week or 10 days of “cold” (-20 to -40) all winter. And no wind. Sorry, Bob.
To expand on what yahsure said, when it’s colder it’s GW, when it’s hotter it’s GW, when there’s more hurricanes it’s GW, when there’s very few hurricanes it’s GW.
More tornado’s? GW. Fewer? GW.
More rain? GW. Less? GW.
More monsoons? GW. Fewer? GW.
Here in The People’s Socialist State of Connecticut (The Constipation State—our Motto), we are about to get a dose of GW to the tune of several inches of snow and freezing mix Saturday night into Sunday.
I can’t wait.
But anytime i start feeling bad for myself, I’ll look at Boston Bob’s photos and be glad it ain’t me. Much condolences Bob, it sucks to be you this winter. Maybe next year it’ll be me.
Lysander,
It’s not so bad for me, I look at it as free exercise. I do not have to pay for a gym membership, I can just go out and shovel snow off the roof. I’m headed out shortly after I finish my morning coffee. It is a balmy -3 degrees. At least it is not windy.
Bob.
Bostonbob, that’s the spirit!
It has been one of the warmest winters on record -globally.
The jet stream is powered by the difference in temperature between the arctic and the tropics. The greater the temperature difference the faster the jet stream moves. The jet stream used to move fast in a mostly horizontal line from the west to the east. However, the Arctic has warmed faster than the rest of the globe and therefore there is relatively less of a temperature difference between the Arctic and the tropics. Hence the jet stream has slowed down. As the jet stream slowed down it began to meander more. Now we basically have a more north-south, south-north flowing jet stream. We have a big ridge of high pressure in the West and a trough in the East. The jet stream has been bringing relatively warm air all the way up to Alaska and then bringing cold Arctic air all the way down to the midwest, northeast, and sometimes the southeast. It has been very warm in the west; Alaska had to move it’s Iditarod race because of a lack of snow.
Also, the water temperature in the North Atlantic is at a record high for this time of year. The cold arctic air meets the warmer air over the North Atlantic. Since there is a clash between the very cold Arctic air and the relatively warm air over the ocean, you see increased snowfall amounts in coastal areas.