Ice storm 2013 in Northern NY

[check]

We packed up and left Toronto Saturday around noon, before the serious freezing rain arrived. Up at the cottage a foot or so of snow in the driveway greeted us, but the tractor blower and ATV plow took care of that problem quite nicely.

Meanwhile, a neighbor back in Toronto said the power is out all around us, EXCEPT for our street. (Lucky again.) As well, the big old Maple trees were breaking and falling all over the neighborhood, knocking down power lines, but again we escaped any damage.

They say it may be the worst freezing rain storm in Toronto's history.

I feel an urge to go out and tractor.:laughing:

 

[tcreeley]

We got the ice and freezing rain overnight and rain and more tonight plus a freeze. Power was out for a few hours around 10am. Used the tractor with chains to push the stuff around.

 

[dave1949]

We were lucky too. Power hasn't even flickered. Maine has ~90,000 customers out this evening, mostly in the Central and Downeast areas.

I cleaned off the driveway, about 2" of sleety snow capped with 1/2" of ice. Cold air is coming so it had to get cleared this afternoon even though there was still some freezing mist in the air. I think it's done misting now.

This is a freaky winter. The NWS January temperature forecast is warmer than average everywhere but N. New England, where it will be cold. :laughing:

 

[ericher69]

I had a lot of trouble getting the blower to bite; even with full downpressure and the front tires in the air. The blower just rode on the surface, as did the tractor! By running back and forth over the ice a few times I could get the rear tire chains to start breaking it up, and then that was enough of a weakness that then the blower could bite with downpressure. Once the ice actually got into the blower it handled it well (it came out of the chute just like crushed ice for drinks) but there was so much weight in the ice I had to go slow to keep from bogging down. Took about 3x longer than normal to blow. Had power until 20 minutes ago; now we're on generator.

No issues getting the blower to bite but like you I will say it was slow going.

Definitely glad I spent the extra money 5 years ago for the 29hp diesel vs the 23 or 26hp.

First time in 5 yrs of snowblowing that the engine was working hard.

 

[M E Race]

My younger brother called yesterday to say he had 1.5 inches of ice on top of 6 inches snow. He lives in Herman, N.Y., just south of the St. Lawrence river. I had to remind him why I moved to Louisiana 35 years ago.

 

[3930dave]

I drove down to an area north and west of Pearson Airport, Toronto today.

Lots of ice, 2 to 3 times what I got at home. Many road closures still. I've never seen tree damage like that, in that part of Ontario. A major Toronto hospital (Sunnybrook) only got line power restored late today - TO Hydro had to pretty much rebuild the whole main feeder line into the complex.

Still close to 200k customers in Toronto w/o power tonight. Definitely a rough ride this December.

Rgds, D.

 

[tcreeley]

I still have some more to do- come down with a cold and the fun is cut in half! I haven't put the plow on the bucket yet. The bucket is doing a fine job with the ice- scraping it up. We got a dusting yesterday overnight on top of the ice and what I had plowed. With the sun, the dusting coats the icy patches and improves the footing- good for our two horses when they decide to come out of our walk-in enclosed barn.
I always plow the road to the back field for them- gives them a place to walk to- less bored and they fool less with the fence.

Power went out for an hour today, used the generator to keep our schedule going.

 

[Toddao]

Looks pretty but it will be a long time before it all melts

 

[rmorey]

Looks pretty but it will be a long time before it all melts

Oh, it'll all be gone by April...:laughing:

 

[smalltown]

Got an icy driveway, looks to be about 2" thick. We threw salted sand on it, but it's just to cold to do any good. Today a few more inches of snow to make it even more slippery.
Trees are all covered in ice hoping to get a little time above freezing to clear the trees before any strong winds arrive. Scars the dog when I walk her late at night when the wind blows, and all you can hear is the clickty clack of icy branches moving about. Luckily we haven't lost the power as we usually do.