Starship Asterisk*

owlice wrote:(tall, broad, lidded, very very full)

geckzilla wrote:And I never figured out how to measure the snow. I mean where do you measure it?

geckzilla wrote:Nah, I don't drink at all. (According to many sources, this is the root of all my problems)

And I never figured out how to measure the snow. I mean where do you measure it? It was over a foot deep in most places, two feet deep in others, and 0 inches on top of the cars where the wind blew it off.

geckzilla wrote:I'm still waiting for Chris to chime in with something along the lines of "You call that a snowstorm?" Or did he say he lives in the dry part of Colorado? Whatever, I'm just going to imagine his house covered in 10 feet of snow.

Chris Peterson wrote:
We've had no weather at all. Since summer ended, I guess we've had 3" of snow, in a couple of little showers, nothing that stuck. Daytime temps have been in the 40s or 50s, nighttime barely below freezing. I watched the Geminids this year in a flannel shirt- a first. I've never seen winter conditions like this here. While we should be fairly dry- we don't usually have standing snow for more than a couple of days, and storms are usually a few weeks apart- it should be cold.

The weather is off-kilter everywhere.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=48253 wrote:

MODIS natural-color image of the northeastern United States

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<<A severe winter storm dropped up to 32 inches of snow on parts of the northeastern United States in late December 2010. The two-day storm brought especially heavy snow to parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, where wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour struck Cape Cod. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, and tens of thousands of residents lost power. With ambulances stranded in snow-clogged streets, 911 dispatchers in New York City were forced to resort to triage.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada on December 28, 2010. Snow and clouds blend seamlessly, but can be distinguished by their different textures. The wide swath of uniform white that extends from Michigan and Ontario toward the southeast is a cloudbank. Under clear skies, snow cover from the storm creates a mottled appearance.>>

neufer wrote:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=48253 wrote:

MODIS natural-color image of the northeastern United States

---

<<A severe winter storm dropped up to 32 inches of snow on parts of the northeastern United States in late December 2010. The two-day storm brought especially heavy snow to parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, where wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour struck Cape Cod. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights, and tens of thousands of residents lost power. With ambulances stranded in snow-clogged streets, 911 dispatchers in New York City were forced to resort to triage.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada on December 28, 2010. Snow and clouds blend seamlessly, but can be distinguished by their different textures. The wide swath of uniform white that extends from Michigan and Ontario toward the southeast is a cloudbank. Under clear skies, snow cover from the storm creates a mottled appearance.>>

BMAONE23 wrote:
Sure glad I live on the west coast instead of where blizzards seem to be regular visitors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard wrote:
<<A blizzard is a severe storm condition characterized by low temperatures, strong winds, and can include heavy snow. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of 56 km/h (35 mph) and reduce visibility to 400 metres or less and must last for a prolonged period of time — typically three hours or more. Ground blizzards require high winds to stir up already fallen snow.

The Saskatchewan Blizzard of January 10, 2007, brought motor vehicle traffic to a standstill, stranded people and shut down many public services. Two people died in the storm. An 18-year-old man and 38-year-old woman, both from the Onion Lake First Nation, were caught in the blizzard and died from hypothermia after attempting to walk home from their vehicle. The 9.8 inches of snow that fell during the blizzard far surpassed the old record of 4.0 inches set back in 1938.

The Iran Blizzard of February 1972 resulted in the deaths of approximately 4,000 people. A week-long period of low temperatures and winter storms, lasting from February 3 to February 9, 1972, dumped more than ten feet of snow across rural areas in northwestern, central and southern Iran. Southern Iran sustained as much as 26 feet of snow, burying at least 4,000 villagers.>>

Brutal weather stops AdAmAn club short of summit, cancels fireworks on Pikes Peak

December 31, 2010 8:10 PM

ANDREW WINEKE
THE GAZETTE
For the first time in living memory, the AdAmAn Club was turned back from its annual New Year’s Eve summit of Pikes Peak.

Gale-force winds and temperatures 25 degrees below zero forced the group to turn around just a mile from the mountain’s peak, where the club has set off a New Year’s fireworks show nearly every year since 1922.

Reached on Barr Trail descending from the frigid climb, club president Don Sanborn said conditions were “brutal” above treeline, but that it was nevertheless a hard decision to turn back.

“We have a couple cases of frostbite, but nothing too major,” he said. “I’m convinced that if we had kept going, we could easily have lost some fingers or toes or lost somebody’s life.”

Pikes Peak ranger Jay Vickerman said subzero temperatures and 70 mph winds hammered the climbing party as it approach the summit.

“Some of the worst wind conditions ever were today,” Vickerman said. “A lot of the guys dropped out at the A-Frame. The climbing would have been just horrible — you would have had that wind blowing right in your face.”

Sanborn said he believed the club had failed once before in its summit attempt, but no one can remember when. The fireworks show has been called off before because of weather, even though the club still made the climb. The last time that happened was 15 years ago, Sanborn said.

“It’s a difficult decision to turn around on something like this, where the community is waiting and hoping for you to set off fireworks,” he said. “You don’t want to let down that tradition.”

Kathy Lindeman’s husband, Ted, has been made the climb 41 times with the club. She said the weather was the worst he’s ever seen. In 2006, heavy snows forced the club to hike up the Pikes Peak Highway to avoid avalanches. What was different this year was the fresh snow combined with bitter cold and high winds. After spending Thursday night at Barr Camp, the group began climbing Friday morning and made the decision to turn back at about 1:30 p.m., Sanborn said.

“People were struggling,” Sanborn said. “It was seriously cold.”

The AdAmAn Club was founded in 1922 by five friends and adds a new member every year (hence the name), whose role is traditionally to break trail for the group and brave the cold to set off the fireworks while the rest of the group keeps warm inside the Summit House.

Sanborn said the club would save this year’s fireworks and return to the mountain at the end of 2011.

“I think we’ll call it a year,” he said.