Walking in a winter wonderland!
Overall this winter had actually been much a better season than the last few years winters have been. Yes, there were over three weeks of 'at or below zero' (around -17C ) temps when usually we get about one or two of those weeks a season here.
And yes while still "below average" in snowfall, amounts for the region this winter had not been like others where it would snow a day or two then warm up and melt much of it away just as fast. No, we'd had about 2 feet of snow on the ground and on the buildings pretty much since Christmas time this winter.
Before Friday, February 3rd, many of the roads had become clear of any snow and ice with the snow on the ground and many buildings, everywhere but the paved roads.
North of our area in Canada and east of here in Montana it had still been much colder than here but not too much snow in those areas either. Most of the snow in North Idaho has been about mid-state or the South end of the panhandle area of Idaho.
Then, beginning on Friday the 3rd, heavy, heavy snow started falling, falling all that weekend with the heaviest during the nights on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. From that Friday afternoon to that Monday morning over 2 feet, and in some areas, 3 feet of snow fell. In some regional areas like Spokane Washington, in those 3 days, they got over an entire winter's snowfall. At our house, it was about 2 1/2 feet of snow.
Friday night to Saturday morning the snow was great, the fine powder skiers love and snow that is easily moved by snow thrower machines and vehicles with snow blades alike. So, Saturday we spent about an hour and a half clearing the property enough to make driving in and out easy. It was still cold then too, teens at night and upper teens to twenties in the daytime so no real problems, yet!
Saturday night to Sunday morning, while still cold at night it did warm up just a bit causing Sunday's snow job to take about 3 hours with the heavier snow to move and almost a foot of snow piled up overnight.
Above and below: the view on Monday morning, February 6th, 2017, from the front porch and the back porch of the driveway area now full of just under2 feet of snow from Sunday night to Monday morning. Consequently, we did get to work on Monday. We spent the entire day from 6:45 in the morning to almost 4 in the evening moving the snow and clearing the driveway so we could get to work on Tuesday. We would not have been able to easily drive out with this much snow all at once as it was, even with 4-wheel drive. You can see the tracks from the area deer in the photo above and from a cat in the photo below. It has been tough for the animals too!
Above and below: Thursday afternoon the ice storm came coating everything with about a quarter of an inch of ice. Pretty much everything had these ice sickles on them like these branches below and the above photo of a twig encased in ice.
Above and below: Also taken this morning, this is while we're still concerned about a roof collapse ourselves. All this buildup on the roof over the front porch, still over 3 feet tall, with the bottom layer being over 4 inches thick of ice. A good thing though is with the warmer temperatures the whole thing was finally sliding off, several inches this morning here. And next photo shows that most of the snow/ice had slid off over our bedroom during the night blocking the driveway.
Above and below: Early today everything was still pretty frozen. The snow on the roof we can see from the second floor looked like much of what we saw driving into town, which is why I got these photos to show. It was like all the snow had been sprayed with a shiny preservative like it wasn't real snow anymore. I know it was just the ice crust from the ice storm yesterday, but it looked pretty cool to both me and Stacy!
Overall this winter had actually been much a better season than the last few years winters have been. Yes, there were over three weeks of 'at or below zero' (around -17C ) temps when usually we get about one or two of those weeks a season here.
And yes while still "below average" in snowfall, amounts for the region this winter had not been like others where it would snow a day or two then warm up and melt much of it away just as fast. No, we'd had about 2 feet of snow on the ground and on the buildings pretty much since Christmas time this winter.
Before Friday, February 3rd, many of the roads had become clear of any snow and ice with the snow on the ground and many buildings, everywhere but the paved roads.
North of our area in Canada and east of here in Montana it had still been much colder than here but not too much snow in those areas either. Most of the snow in North Idaho has been about mid-state or the South end of the panhandle area of Idaho.
Then, beginning on Friday the 3rd, heavy, heavy snow started falling, falling all that weekend with the heaviest during the nights on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. From that Friday afternoon to that Monday morning over 2 feet, and in some areas, 3 feet of snow fell. In some regional areas like Spokane Washington, in those 3 days, they got over an entire winter's snowfall. At our house, it was about 2 1/2 feet of snow.
Friday night to Saturday morning the snow was great, the fine powder skiers love and snow that is easily moved by snow thrower machines and vehicles with snow blades alike. So, Saturday we spent about an hour and a half clearing the property enough to make driving in and out easy. It was still cold then too, teens at night and upper teens to twenties in the daytime so no real problems, yet!
Saturday night to Sunday morning, while still cold at night it did warm up just a bit causing Sunday's snow job to take about 3 hours with the heavier snow to move and almost a foot of snow piled up overnight.
Above: After finishing the clearing of the driveway the snow view off the deck. Getting deep already!
Above and below: the view on Monday morning, February 6th, 2017, from the front porch and the back porch of the driveway area now full of just under2 feet of snow from Sunday night to Monday morning. Consequently, we did get to work on Monday. We spent the entire day from 6:45 in the morning to almost 4 in the evening moving the snow and clearing the driveway so we could get to work on Tuesday. We would not have been able to easily drive out with this much snow all at once as it was, even with 4-wheel drive. You can see the tracks from the area deer in the photo above and from a cat in the photo below. It has been tough for the animals too!
Below: having to use water to clear icy snow build up in the auger and throwing disk and chute. With such a large amount of snow, making the first pass was taking forever! Like almost 2 hours to go from the house to the street because of continual freezing up of the throwing disk. I'd never had to power through so much snow before so it was a learning curve to be sure. After the first pass, clearing went much faster just shaving off a layer at a time, but those first passes were brutal!
Below: finally done Monday afternoon. Still a narrow fit but the truck could fit now and get out. We really like using the snow thrower because while a plow can 'move' the snow the thrower literally throws it out beyond the area you're working. For us, that means most of it will be watering our forest when it melts. The edges of the driveway were over 3 feet tall with about 4 feet of snow, or more, out in the forest by being thrown out.
Above: Finished! Our driveway entrance from the street. It wouldn't be the same in less than 24 hours.
Below: While we did make it available to our rural mail carrier to get our mail delivered by digging out the mailbox that was buried by the county road crews and their snow rigs, and shaving an area so she could get close enough to reach the mailbox, no mail was really delivered except at the post office and some areas due to the snow build up. Tuesday I just made it to where I would get our mail at the post office the rest of the week. A perk of working on the second floor of the post office building!
It looked so nice! For a short while!
Above: Tuesday we were able to get to work. It turned out no one was able to get to work in our office or at many businesses due to the snow and 'digging out' on Monday. So it was interesting to see what had happened in town on Monday while we were digging out at home. Riverside auto could have been selling igloos or autos by the look of their lot. Nobody cleaned any cars until the ice storm and rain came on Thursday.
Below: The pileup of snow at the steps of the post office and the buried newspaper dispensers.
The next two photos below: From our vantage of the second floor we do get some interesting views. We could see how snow have been moved all over to get it out of the way.
The Akin's Harvest Foods market across the street lost most of its parking lot to snow storage.
I had been pretty happy that we'd done so much work the day before, on Monday, and we could just go home and relax. WRONG!!
Below: When we drove up to our property we found that the county plow trucks had totally blocked our access to our driveway with an about 3 foot tall and 5-foot deep berm of now hard wet snow. I walked to the house and got the snow thrower and figured we'd be working for at least an hour or two opening up our driveway again. Stacy had parked the truck at the end of the street at the small church and walked back to help.
I got these photos as I was getting started. It would have taken a while!
Actually, we really lucked out. I didn't get any photos as it was well dark by then but an articulated road grader came down our street on the way to going to his bosses property to clear that property and seeing our predicament, he used his grader to open up our driveway in less than 5 minutes. I willingly gave him some money for his time and told him our appreciation for his help! It took about a half hour to get it cleaned up, but with the much wider opening he'd made, it wouldn't be so easily blocked by the road crews again.
Below: Wednesday morning, February 8th, Stacy standing next to the snow piled up on the front of the property. To her right and the photo below this photo, Stacy stands to show how high the grader had made the snow pile with his blade.
Above: a backhoe loading a dump truck with snow to be taken and dumped into the Kootenai River. This was going on all over the area.
Wednesday was a push for getting the snow gone as a new storm was coming Thursday with temps shooting up to the 40s and a possible ice storm with rain afterward too.
The area was declared a "disaster area" by the County Commissioners on Tuesday and Wednesday the Idaho Governor signed the declaration so the county could get help with snow removal as much as possible before the rains came. At this writing there still is a real concern that this much snow, the most snow since the winter of 1996, with the addition of rain making it a very heavy ice sheet, could be the tipping point causing homes and businesses to have their roofs collapse.
On Facebook, there were many, many, requests for help with either digging out or snow removal from homes. Many volunteers met on Wednesday and Thursday getting snow off the school buildings since most are of the very old flat roof design that has no way of shedding show except with a shovel. Rain yes, not snow.
Wednesday night it snowed again, about 5 inches, and Stacy and I spent half of Thursday clearing our driveway yet again, also concerned about the rain forecast to be coming knowing we'd be stuck too since even a snow thrower can't deal with slush very well.
Above and below: Thursday afternoon the ice storm came coating everything with about a quarter of an inch of ice. Pretty much everything had these ice sickles on them like these branches below and the above photo of a twig encased in ice.
After work, we went to the "Restorium" where Stacy's father now lives. By the evening the ice had turned to light rain with the temperature about 41 degrees so much of the snow was now slush. You can't get traction very well in slush, a lot of slipping and sliding and spinning wheels, even in four wheel drive.
The fast temperature rise, with, ice covered snow on the trees had trees falling at many locations knocking out electrical power lines in many areas. Including ours.
When we drove into our driveway about 6 pm, we had a lot of difficulty in the slush getting to the house. We were really concerned about several of our own roofs collapsing so we decided to park outside of the parking structures, and away from the front of the house, just in case.
Below: This is what not much traction looks like the next morning in the slush. Taken just before we left for work today.
Above and below: Also taken this morning, this is while we're still concerned about a roof collapse ourselves. All this buildup on the roof over the front porch, still over 3 feet tall, with the bottom layer being over 4 inches thick of ice. A good thing though is with the warmer temperatures the whole thing was finally sliding off, several inches this morning here. And next photo shows that most of the snow/ice had slid off over our bedroom during the night blocking the driveway.
Above and below: Early today everything was still pretty frozen. The snow on the roof we can see from the second floor looked like much of what we saw driving into town, which is why I got these photos to show. It was like all the snow had been sprayed with a shiny preservative like it wasn't real snow anymore. I know it was just the ice crust from the ice storm yesterday, but it looked pretty cool to both me and Stacy!
Below: The city had the big guns out today. Still loading dump trucks to take snow and dump it in the river, this road grader scraped the downtown streets of the slush and ice.
Above: and ending here, this morning, Friday, February 10th, 2017, the market still loaded with snow. It might get cleaned out a bit this weekend.
Today? Well, no rain so far. There's a flood watch now until tomorrow afternoon as it's been in the mid-40s so a lot of snow melting all over. Rain and or snow is still predicted tonight and tomorrow but then a high-pressure system is moving in so the rain chance goes mostly away. It is still going to be warm in the daytime though then freeze at night next week so flooding will be the next area problem.
Winter went out with quite the bang locally and regionally! Until late this morning, one couldn't go to Seattle from anywhere on this side of those mountains due to all the passes being closed due to snow, ice, and rain. Crews, including two crews of 12 prisoners from a state prison, sent to help clear roofs are still doing just that, probably all weekend at least.
So, I'll update our adventures next week and let you know what happened!
Tad
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