Another House Into North Carolina Ocean, As More Storms Loom

An 11th house to fall into the ocean at the Outer Banks
of North Carolina sits in the water shortly after it fell
last weekend. The one that fell is on the right. The one on
the left was damaged by the wreckage and is in danger,
The green house in the background
is also ready to go

 In case you're keeping track, another North Carolina house fell into the Atlantic Ocean a week ago.

And there really wasn't much of a storm going on. Like many houses battered by recent storms, the sand dunes removed from underneath them, it was time to sadly collapse. 

It was the 11th one to go since mid-August, when powerful Hurricane Erin passed by far offshore. Under sunny, beach weather skies, Erin send battering waves into Cape Hatteras, starting the chain of collapses, 

They all went due to large swells from offshore hurricanes, or a fairly routine nor'easter. Theses were by no means any kind of record breaking, intense storms raking North Carolina's Outer Banks. 

It's just the ever shifting sands of barrier islands, which want to move westward, leaving the houses to the whims of the ocean. This is made all the more precarious by rising sea levels brought on by climate change. 

Which means this isn't going away,.

The house that collapses last Saturday was built in 1956.  It was once well inland from the beach, but the sands shifted and eroded, and the sea level came up, making its destruction inevitable.

The wreckage of the house that just fell smacked into another one, which I'm sure caused damage. There's other houses, battered, on rickety stilts cracked by the pounding of waves, which will inevitably make them fall.

Maybe within the next few days. 

Two nor'easters, one Tuesday, the other Thursday or Friday, will buffet the Carolina coast. Hurricane Melissa, now menacing the Caribbean, is expected to finally scoot northward far offshore the East Coast toward the end of the upcoming week. Melissa will probably swing more battering ocean waves into the Outer Banks, too.

Video:

Aerial views of the latest house to collapse into the waves, and views of other homes that are in imminent danger. As always when I put videos in this here blog thingy, click on this link to view. or if you see the image below, click on that.

More On Heavy Snows That Literally Crushed Parts Of New York, Canada. With Videos

Photo of Camden, New York taken
on February 18.

 If you think the snow we had, now partially melted was bad.  

In Oswego County alone, at least 50 structural collapses occurred within 10 days this February.  

 Some areas east of Lake Ontario have received 360 inches of snow so far this winter. Areas east of Lake Erie in New York have gotten 180 inches so far, according to severeweatherus on Threads. 

A foot of fluffy snow on a typical home roof weighs roughly the same as a pickup truck. A foot of heavy, wet snow is about the same as three pickup trucks. 

The snow was fairly wet and heavy coming off Lake Ontario.  Then, this week a little rain fell, soaking into the snow and make it all the more heavy. 

So far, there have been super serious injuries or deaths. But one woman in Fulton was injured when the roof of her home collapsed. Other people have been injured falling off roofs as they try to shovel away the snow before any collapse could occur. 

Earlier in February, the village of Camden, New York, northeast of Syracuse, endured more than five feet of lake effect snow.  

The Camden public works department salt shed collapsed under the snow, as did the roofs of a local bowling alley and community center.

An onion storage facility in Fulton, New York also collapsed, destroying about a million pounds of onions in the process.

It's not just New York.  In Ottawa, Canada, large sections of a six-story parking garage collapsed under the weight of snow piled on top of it. Nobody was hurt but 50 cars are still stuck in the remaining, intact  section of the garage and nobody  has figured out how to get them out yet. 

Videos. 

Here's video of the Barneveld, New York, fire department collapsing under the weight of heavy snow. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that:

The wreckage of an onion storage facility in Fulton, New York that collapsed is shown in this video. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see image below, click on that. 

If  you thought you had too much snow to deal with about a week ago, let's take a tour of Camden, New York, about eight days ago to see how bad it could really get. Once again, click on this link to view, ori you see the image below, click on that. 

The moment a parking garage in Ottawa, Canada collapsed, likely because of snow loading on the roof.  Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.  

 Here's one of the main areas Montreal dumps its snow from its streets. It's an old quarry. Looks pretty efficient. Would love to know when (or if!) all that snow being dumped there will finally melt. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 

The Dark Side Of All This Vermont White Snow

No signs of thawing yet as of today along my St. Albans,
Vermont driveway. I've decided to rename the path
Snow Canyon Drive for obvious reasons. 

 It's pretty out there in Vermont today, that deep snow glistening in today's' bright, cold February sunshine.  

The winter sports industry - skiing riding, cross country, snowshoe, snowmobiling, ice climbing, ice fishing and anything else winter - is thriving this President's Week. 

The spring melt will wipe away the last vestiges of last autumn's drought. 

Plus, it's a rare, old fashioned winter. The kind we don't often see nowadays in this age of climate change. It's a bit of a throwback to the 1970s, when the snow was always super deep and the air was always frigid.

True, this year isn't nearly as extreme as some of those in the 1970s but you get the idea. 

However, being a glass half empty kind of guy, I do have to point out the dark side of this blinding outdoor winter whiteness out there. 

This stuff can cause trouble. 

ROOF TROUBLE

It's been years since snow has gotten this deep, and some weaker structures might be in trouble with all this snow loading. 

A barn in Williamstown, Vermont collapsed under the weight of the snow Monday evening, killing at least six cows.  It was the first major structure collapse I've heard of in Vermont this year, but who knows? There might be others coming. 

In my drives around northwest Vermont, I'm noticing a lot of ice dams on roofs for the first time in a few years. That will surely lead to water leaks and interior water damage to who knows how many houses. I'm lucky at my house. Ever since we installed a standing seam roof in 2017, the snow slides off and we don't get ice dams.

However, the snow that slides off puts a LOT of weight on our back deck and that entails another rigorous shoveling job to keep the deck standing.  

It's been much worse this winter in parts of western and central New York, where the lake effect snow squalls have really been working overtime since late November, really. 

Just yesterday, the roof a a wire factory in Williamstown, New York, which is within the Lake Ontario snow belt collapsed under the weight of snow and ice.  Workers heard cracking noises in the ceiling early Tuesday and evacuated, so nobody got hurt. 

A short distance down the road from the wire factory, a church roof collapsed.

Elsewhere in New York, a business collapsed under the snow near Rome, New York. A Walmart Super Store in Central Square New York temporarily closed over concerns regarding snow on the roof. They hope to reopen once the snow is removed. 

SALT SHORTAGE

Expect Vermont roads to be even worse than usual during and after any remaining snowfalls and mixed precipitation episodes we see before spring sets in.

Vermont is among a number of states facing a road salt shortage. 

The town of Lyndon is almost completely out of salt. St. Johnsbury is reserving what little salt they have and only treating roads once storms have ended, reports WPTZ.

No word yet on how that will affect the Vermont highway department and other towns. But I bet they're conserving salt. 

CLEARING SNOW

If you have a fire hydrant near your house, head out and clear away a big patch of snow away from the hydrant if you have not done so already. Shovel a path from the road to the hydrant, and push the snow at least three feet away from the hydrant in every direction, 

Go around your house to see if there are vents or other equipment that are blocked by snow or nearly blocked. Vents especially can back up dangerous carbon monoxide into a house if the snow if blocking them. 

Got a mailbox out front? This is hard because of all the rock solid stuff plowed from the road, but try to clear an indentation so the mail vehicle can reach your mailbox without getting stuck.  Try to make it so they can move forward without getting stuck after dropping off your mail. 

Do you heat your house with heating oil?  Or propane?  Getting low on fuel and need a delivery? Make sure you've cleared a path so that the delivery person can make it to the intake easily to fill your fuel tank. 

My brother in law is a former fuel delivery driver and he has nightmare stories of trying to drag the hose through snow a few feet deep to reach the intake. Do them a favor. 

SPRING FLOOD?

Believe it or not, as of last Thursday, most of Vermont was considered "abnormally dry" and a small portion of southern Vermont was still regarded as in drought. 

I think that' mostly because it has pretty much just snowed and sleeted in recent weeks. Moisture from all snow is yet to make it into the ground and our rivers and streams.

This weekly drought monitor will be updated tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see if there are any changes. The National Weather Service in South Burlington will also update their biweekly late winter/early spring outlook tomorrow. 

Since January, those updates have rated the risk of flooding below normal, mostly because no big thaws are in the offing. That's still true. But in January, snow and the water equivalent in the snow was below normal. Now I expect the snow depth and water equivalent to be at or above normal. We shall see.

So, as I mentioned earlier in this post, this snow is good news.

Unless it isn't. 

If the snow melts very fast toward spring and is accompanied by heavy rain, we'd end up with some pretty nasty flooding. That's especially true since river ice is thicker than it's been in a few years. A sudden thaw could break up the ice and create ice jams. Which cause flooding. 

The best scenario would be if we have a perfect maple sugaring March and April. That means warm, mostly dry days and hard overnight freezes. Preferably daily. 

 That would cause a gradual snow melt. The moisture would just soak into the ground and we'd start our growing season with plenty of water sitting there to keep our gardens and crops happy.  

Great Lakes Snow Collapses Buildings, Will Forecast Rain Make It Worse?

Firefighters and other municipal workers removing snow
from an Erie County, Pennsylvania fire station that
threatened to collapse under the weight of five feet
of snow that fell in the past week. Rain in the 
forecast Monday will add weight to the snow, possibly
triggering new collapses.

The long lake effect snow siege near Lakes Erie and Ontario in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York are pretty much over as of this afternoon, but more trouble for that zone looms. 

The snow has got to melt at some point, and that process should start Monday. 

That's what's about to cause some new issues. 

So much snow has come down in those lake effect snow zones in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York that buildings are starting to creak and crumble under the weight. 

Already, the roofs have been coming down. In Ashtabula, Ohio, there were six roof collapse in just a single day after some parts of the city had as much as five feet of snow. So far, no injuries have been reported.

Among the collapses in Ashtabula was a partial roof failure at a high school in the city. 

In Jefferson County, New York, two separate roof collapses destroyed a house and a barn. The barn collapse killed 20 cows. Jefferson County is the area around Watertown, New York. At least a couple businesses suffered roof failures in Erie County, Pennsylvania.  

The lake effect snow machine is shutting down for now as a new weather pattern takes hold. But that new pattern threatens to cause new headaches in these hard hit, snow-buried towns. 

Namely, forecast call for warmer temperatures and rain in the upcoming week. 

At first, the rain will be bad for the snow blasted snowmelt towns near the Great Lakes, as the rain will soak into the deep snow, making it even heavier. That threatens more roof collapses.

Those big piles of snow on the ground will also block storm drains that accept water from rain and melting snow. That means street and basement flooding could easily become an issue in the worst-hit towns. 

Erie, Pennsylvania officials are scrambling to push snow piles away from storm drains and are urging residents to do the same.

In Northeast Ohio, where up to five feet of snow from Lake Erie piled up, residents are being put on alert that if their basements are prone to getting wet, be prepared for a long week. Residents are being told to remove items they can from basements to prevent damage. Water and restoration companies are gearing for a busy few days. 

One saving grace: Early forecasts hint that the heaviest rain this coming week will hit east of the Great Lakes snow belt zones, mainly in New England. But up to an inch of rain could fall on northeast Ohio, northwest Pennsylvania and western New York by Wednesday night. 

Not Much Snow In Vermont, So Go To Buried Alaska?

Photo from a Facebook post by The Alaska Life gives a 
taste of what intersections in Anchorage, Alaska 
currently look like after record snowstorms, 

 We all know Alaska is for the most part bitterly cold in the winter. 

We'd expect snow to accompany that Arctic air, but this winter, populated parts of the state are absolutely buried in it.  

As of Tuesday, Anchorage, Alaska has so far had 104.6 inches of snow this season. That's easily the earliest in the season they've ever cracked the 100 inch snow mark.

 If Anchorage does not get so much as another flake of snow this winter (ha!) they've still had two feet more snow than they normally do in an entire season.

The city's last big installment of snow was the 16.6 inches that fell this past weekend. Since there's few places to put the snow, it's taking a long time to clean up the mess.  As of Tuesday, there was 37 inches of snow on the ground in Anchorage. 

It doesn't help that a frigid cold snap - fairly intense even by Anchorage standards has moved in.  High temperatures will be below zero until at least Saturday and low temperatures will flirt with 20 below. (Normal lows this time of year in Anchorage are in the low teens with normal highs in the low 20s)

There's also so much snow that roofs around Anchorage are beginning to collapse.  A warehouse roof collapsed this week near Anchorage. There were people inside, but they all managed to escape uninjured. 

Anchorage is also an earthquake-prone city, so I hope they don't have any temblors with all that snow on the roofs to make things even more unstable when the shaking starts.

Last year, 107.9 inches of snow fell in Anchorage, so this makes it the first time since at least the 1950s they've had back to back winters each with over 100 inches of snow. There were roof collapsed last year, too, one of which killed a person. Officials in Anchorage are worried the same thing could happen again in the coming days and weeks.

More snow is in the Anchorage forecast from Saturday night into Tuesday night. 

Juneau is much more temperate than the rest of the state.  Snow tends to come and go there, but this month has been ridiculous.  Back to back snowstorms in mid-January amounted to 64.7 inches in less than two weeks. Snow cover on the ground peaked at 36 inches.

The snow was so heavy that it sank some boats in Juneau harbor 

Then it turned warm, with 3.5 inches of rain within six days. The snow cover melted to zero with six days. The snowmelt and rain obviously created  some flooding around Juneau.  

The snow in parts of Alaska is no doubt extreme, but National Weather Service climate researcher Brian Brettschneider told Alaska Public Radio that this winter's cold is not that odd for Alaska.

Up in Fairbanks, it has been often in the 40s below zero for the past week. But it used to go to 50 below or colder in Fairbanks every year. Now it's maybe once every decade. 

That's all thanks to climate change. 

There's even some speculation and research suggesting the snowier winters swaths of Alaska are seeing in recent years has to do with climate change. The air near Alaska is now tending to be warmer than it used to be. Warmer air can hold more moisture, so precipitation has been increasing in Alaska. Four of the top 10 wettest years in Anchorage have happened since 2004.  

"Warmer" in Alaska can still mean temperatures well below freezing, so of course much of the extra precipitation can be snow.