YUCK! It's been "snowing" in Vancouver for over 24 hours

[yvr girl]

For those of you unfamiliar with Vancouver snow, imagine being doused from on high with a white slurpee. It's not fluffy or light but wet and heavy. Going to work tomorrow is going to be a nightmare. People here do not know how to drive in the white stuff.

[flamingyouth]

1. It just started snowing at our house a few hours ago

It's snowing like crazy!! It's very pretty but - ugh! - I feel bad for the commuters tomorrow!

[yvr girl]

5. Oddly enough, we don't have much on the ground

It turns to a very wet slush when it hits the ground. My feet were soaked through in the time it took me to clear my windows.

[Redstone]

2. I remember when it snowed when I lived in Houston. Mass panic, and I had to

drive all three girls who I lived with to work that morning, since I was the only one in the city who knedw how to drive in the snow.

Redstone

[yvr girl]

7. It's not much better here

We might get one or two storms a year, and it usually doesn't last long.

[ironflange]

42. I've been to Corpus for Xmas

There was a freeze warning once, and it was hilarious watching them panic. You'd think an asteroid was headed their way, and this from people who shrug off hurricanes. :wtf:

[Hissyspit]

3. I want snow!

Would prefer the light and fluffy, though. We usually get ice storms here.

[yvr girl]

10. the dry stuff is much better

going out in this is just like being in almost freezing rain.

Snow angels are completely out of the question. :sigh:

[Lisa]

4. we've got branches breaking off the trees in Victoria

On my way to work today, I saw a pretty big one fall off a rather tall Douglas fir, and smash down on top of a house. It didn't seem to have damaged the roof (didn't cave it in, though I supposed they might have leaks after that) -- but the residents ran out into the yard because of the noise, and I was worried that they might get flattened by the next branch!

I'd better avoid trees (especially conifers) on the way home. Revenge of the softwood lumber?


I'll see you your Slurpee metaphor, yvr girl, and raise you a Margarita. (My neighbour was out sprinkling salt ... he didn't seem to have any idea what to do with it, just started dumping it out of the bag onto the still snow-covered sidewalk.)

p.s. I went out and took photographs of all the snowmen built on our street ... I'm going to leave copies of the prints in people's mailboxes, as souvenirs. I'm not going to say who they're from, either -- just to create some excitement.

[yvr girl]

13. One thing you have to say about wet snow

It's great for snowballs and snowmen.

That's cool about the pictures.

[Lisa]

16. sometimes, too good

The snow consistency is so good, some people have taken the "snowballs" thing literally. At the house occupied by a gang of college kids, the snowman out front has sprouted what the Classics department might describe as a Priapic appendage. It's about a foot long, not counting the testicles (no I didn't go up and measure it!), and I only hope that Black's doesn't decide to censor my photo. (Actually, if they pixellated that bit, or put one of those black bars over the snowman's eyes, that would be pretty funny ...)

Although I know someone who used to work for them, and she said that they saw things in the processing lab which seem way more wild, by comparison. I hope that this pic just slips by unnoticed.

[yvr girl]

22. A foot long

typical guys

[KamaAina]

40. Ah yes, "Oblong, yet Subtle"!

During a snowstorm in college days in Conn. several of us basically dispensed with the snowman and erected (sorry) a massive (around 3 feet) "Priapic appendage"! We titled it "Oblong, yet Subtle"; killjoy daministrators forced us to dismantle it long before it could melt...

[ironflange]

24. I spent three winters in Victoria

Being from Calgary, snow wasn't much of a challenge, but it was amusing to watch the locals panic. I would scoot past long lines of drivers spinning their wheels on hills simply by moving over onto the snow. This was in the early 80's, I don't know what it's like now, but the sanding equipment back then consisted of a guy with a shovel sharing a flatbed truck with a load of sand.

[Lisa]

26. the last time we had a heavy snowfall (1996) ....

A co-worker overheard a woman watching as they cleared a parking lot: "I've never seen a snowplow before."

Driver: "Lady, you still haven't. This is a front-end loader."


Victoria still holds the 24-h snowfall record for a Western Canadian city ... but it happens so infrequently (conditions have to be right over the Pacific) that, as you say, people generally aren't prepared. (Except for the paranoid types from the Prairies, like my landlord, who was the only person on the street with a snow shovel back in'96.) The city puts every piece of equipment it can on the street (if only to compact the snow down a bit so it looks like they're doing something). I even saw a road grader attempting to scrape the accumulation flat!

[tigereye]

27. I love that people don't know what a snow plow is!

:rofl:

having grown up in the Northeast, I am sorry to say we know all too well.

MY best friend from college lives in Seattle, and I can still remember her talking about the hours she spent stuck on one of those floating bridges there during a rare snow storm in the 80s.

[ironflange]

29. 1996?!?

That long ago? Jeez, you guys sure like to rub our poor frozen Prairie noses in it! That February flower count is the meanest trick of all, but I admit that I loved to bug the folks back home when I was at UVic. I don't miss the humidity though, and I always felt guilty each time I flushed. Sure did love those free fall blackberries.

It seems to me that Vic gets several years' worth of snow each time, in specially concentrated form. Right?

[Lisa]

34. the UVic campus looks very pretty now -- the sun just came out

It's almost like a crisp winter day back in Ontario -- all sparkly, with the piles of dirt around the new building site concealed by the pristine snow. I got to my office but the entire department was closed (had to use my key).

By the way, the airport says that we got barely more than a foot of snow on the weekend (compared to the record of 67+ cm a decade ago) -- but the administration decided to shut down the campus today, anyhow. I think the other universities in the country will laugh at us -- hardly a "crisis" compared to their experience.

Admittedly the snow is wetter and heavier than on the Prairies (a lot of it is sticking onto the conifer needles and snapping off branches -- it's even clinging to the power lines, several cm thick). So parts of Oak Bay have lost power, and I hear some people's phones are out. But still ... you'd think the authorities would have made some preparations after the last time.

[ironflange]

35. Hey, they figured out how to use a front end loader

What more do you want?!?

[azmouse]

6. I guess I shouldn't tell you it was 72 degrees here today.

So I won't say a word about it. :)

Oh! And there wasn't a cloud in the sky either.

[yvr girl]

14. It's not that cold

JUST cold enough to snow.

I could use some sunshine though. Before the snow, it was pouring rain for days. We haven't been able to drink tap water for over a week now, because the water is so turbid.

[ironflange]

25. Yech, we didn't top -23 today

The wind got up this aft, too. It's going to get worse before it gets better, too. At least I'm not in Edmonton!

[tinfoilinfor2005]

8. yvr girl: Get on a bus and come to the Florida Keys.

I will meet you at the bus stop in Key Largo. Wear shorts. Bring sunscreen and insect repellent. I'll wear a red rose on my sun visor so you can find me...Don't worry about the others...save yourself...:)

[yvr girl]

15. I'd love to go to the keys sometime

But by the time I got there on the bus, the weather will have changed here.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

23. No, unless you are planning to walk over the mountains on snowshoes...

But just keep in mind that I offered! :hi:

[derby378]

9. Man, I wish you'd send some of that snow down to Texas

It was 70 F this afternoon. This is not right. Thank God we've got Democrats taking over the Congressional panels on energy and the environment.

[yvr girl]

17. 70 sounds pleasant

It's your summer temps that sound ungodly.

[derby378]

20. Well, yeah, there's that...

But I can remember having a Thanksgiving where the streets down here were covered in ice. While I didn't look forward to the traffic accidents resulting from the ice, that's the kind of weather we're supposed to have this time of year.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

11. I wish it would snow here.

It's just going to get really really cold midweek. At least have there be a REASON for it to be cold.
Duckie

[yvr girl]

18. It's supposed to get below freezing here this week too

I better find my gloves.

[SPKrazy]

12. A White Slurpee!

sounds like fun, well, maybe not.

We tend to get ice, and wet stuff where I live too, and so I empathize with you.

But it isn't anything like that here today. You can keep that stuff up north.

Vancouver is a beautiful place though!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[yvr girl]

19. One of the few places where you can take a picture of a palm tree

covered in snow.

[SPKrazy]

21. That's Hilarious! n/t

[Gormy Cuss]

28. Sleet is the worst form of snow.

Messy, heavy, a giant YUCK.

Take care yvr.

[ironflange]

30. Yeah, Ontario and Quebec can keep their ice storms

We get a little sleet here once in a while, even that is a royal pain to scrape off the car. I can't imagine what it's like to hack through half an inch of the stuff.

[ironflange]

31. Say, yvr, do you hear anything from HEyHEY these days?

Haven't seen much of him lately, but he may be in love. :loveya: That'll do it.

[Left Is Write]

32. In Minnesota we'd call that "slush."

And not the good kind with vodka in it!

[u4ic]

33. Are you still under the boil water advisory?

Yikes, y'all got hit pretty bad there the past while.

It's been a crazy winter so far here. We're getting snowed upon almost every day. And cold - tomorrow's high is supposed to be -27. x(

I think our country needs to revisit the Turks and Caicos issue. ;)

[ironflange]

36. Hi there u4ic!

Got yer computer thawed out enough to post at this joint?

:silly:

Yeah, big deal, I know it's no warmer here, and that wind is a bitch. Low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska though, I know what that means!

edit: The weather network just said that Vanc. dihydrogen monoxide is OK to drink now. And it could be worse for us, didja see what kind of weather they're having in Whitehorse? Yuk.

[u4ic]

38. Funny you should mention that...

Shaw had loads of problems in this area because of the cold. Internet, cable and digital phones were on the blink for about 24 hrs...so, no, I didn't see what kind of weather they were having in Whitehorse. Or anywhere else, for that matter. It just came back on within the past 15 minutes or so.

Yesterday my car died and I had to dig myself out and push it out of the way - granted, I also had a couple of wonderful neighbours help me...the wind chill was -40. But an hour in it was just...too...long...:scared:


Just as cold there, too, huh? Where's a chinook when you need one? :P

[ironflange]

41. I'm on Shaw, too

Now that you mention it, it has been pretty slow the past couple days, but it has been working. Yeesh, if it had gone out for 24 hours my son would have been reduced to a bundle of nerves.

[yvr girl]

37. We're in week two of boiling water

I'm with you on the Turks and Caicos. Minus 27 brrrrr!

[Tony Soprano]

39. My best pal

lives on Vine Street over near marine Drive....he took his daily walk, haha...