REPORT FROM ICE STATION ZEBRA

[1958 F.W.D.]

Well as many of you know, we had a bit of a snowstorm here at the BMT Truckstop in Hellertown Pa. Officially, 32" (thats .8 of a meter to you metric folks) was recorded at the Lehigh Valley Airport about 12 miles away but I think we may have had more. There were many drifts 6-8 feet high throughout town. Started around 7pm on Friday 1/23 and continued to about 1 or 2am on Sunday 1/24. We woke up 7am on Saturday to a foot on the ground already and around 1pm saturday, all hell broke loose and it snowed its ass off to the rate of 4' an hour with heavy wind gusts of 40mph. The news people said that had it been a rain storm it would have been one of those real heavy rains that we get in the summertime. This was indeed the worse storm we ever got in my lifetime. We were prepared though. The wifemobile was backed into the garage next to the FWD, the pickup in front of the garage, and the blowers and gen set all fueled up and checked out, ready to go. The wife bugged me to put in the transfer switch to the boiler too so that we could run the heat off the generator if we lost power- and since they were saying "heavy wet snow" in the same sentence as "40mph winds" I thought that was a good idea and stopped at Lowes on the way home from work on Friday and got that all rigged up- made a transfer switch with a 20a 3-way light switch and a 50' 12/2 extension cord- cut off the end and hard wired it in- so that if power dumped, all I have to do is turn off the breaker in the panel, flip the switch and then run the extension cord outside and plug her in. But of course we never lost power- not that I am bitching. But enough of my mindless ramblings, here are some sights from "SnowZilla 2016"

Small and I during the height of the storm when 4" was coming down.

My neighbor Sherry's car is under there somewhere.

The next few are of a plow train that Public Works was running up and down the main streets. This is also Saturday during the height of the storm. The pictures just dont do justice to show how hard it was snowing.

By the time it was done and over with, there were drifts up to 8' high all over town. I had four and a half feet on my deck, which is 5 feet off the ground and I was worried about it collapsing, so I had SWMBO help me carry the small blower through the kitchen to the deck door and thats how I cleared off the 12x30 deck.

[57 bcr]

Man oh man Randy,glad you guys got the old fashioned winter instead of us. We still have some on the ground,but nowhere near that. Prolly just jinxed the whole Northern Illinois area. Al

[1958 F.W.D.]

Here are a few more misc pics, some taken during and some after the storm.

Main Street in Hellertown (Pa. 412)

The alleyway behind the house, after Public Works ran the big wheel loader down it.

It's a good thing the snow didn't get any higher.

Medium and Large fooling around

Pic out my second floor window looking down into the neighborhood.

Another shot taken during the height of the storm, sometime between 1pm and 5pm on Saturday. Again, the pic does not do justice, you had to be there to experience it. That's my house behind the stop sign, the two story with attic, black shutters and the closed porch on the front.

Southbound Pa 309 between Quakertown and Perkasie.

Taken over at the shopping center where I had NoClueJoe park when he came to freeload a meal I mean break bread with me and the family. This guy must live around here or have a friend or something, I hear the truck has been there since early Saturday AM. I've seen trucks buried worse but he's gonna have a time getting out.

[1958 F.W.D.]

Oh and before anyone asks: No I did not bring out the F.W.D. although I was REALLY tempted. For several reasons- there is no defroster and the wipers are horrible (although it does get hot inside the cab but it takes a LONG time on a very cold day) plus the wife's van was in the garage- to get the FWD out, you have to smash the wheel as hard to the left as you can when the middle of the hood clears the overhead door because of the width of the alleyway- and there's no room to do that when the van is in the garage....NO was not gonna pull the van out and risk bottoming out on some snow, then I'd really be up shits creek without a paddle.....As it was I got the pickup stuck once and it took a buddy with a plow and chain to get her out.....And finally the batteries are flat- I did jump it and ran her for a half hour at one point while I was clearing the sidewalks one of the 67 times I did it......Just didnt wanna risk losing power alltogether.

[gearhead204]

Randy your pics look "winterish" to say the least! had a medical call saturday afternoon a few miles up the road from me and the snow on the sides of the one lane road was over3' the ambulance was rubbing on both sides and could not make it all the way to the call, a neighbor lent me his 600 long track snowmobile to ferry the EMT in and out and I even transported the patient via snowmobile,.........I feel your pain! good luck, stay well!

[RowdyRebel]

Not everywhere that saw "record" snowfall gets their new record in the books...bet these guys feel kinda dumb...

weather observers at Reagan National Airport lost their snow-measuring device to the elements midway through the blizzard

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/snow-totals-washington-dc-measuring-36493883

[Freightrain]

Sure glad we missed it ALL!!!

Heck I never even got the mower deck off my tractor yet!!! I'm sure I'll pay for it sooner or later. More then once I've been out in 12" of snow trying to get it changed over in the driveway.

[Vladislav]

The area I live we usually have about a feet (up to half a meter) on the ground in the second half of winter.

But what you got during just one day looks impressive.

Hope some portion ot the white stuff will gone soon and make your life easier.

[hatcity]

This was the view from my back door on Saturday

[1958 F.W.D.]

Well..... If the FWD isn't going out in the snow, what about a mud bog?

I would like to have had a UniMog to play in this snow.....