The Snowstorm Chronicles - Overlapping Storms

Snow storms have a life cycle that goes something like this

• The forecast
• The hype
• The mad rush to the grocery store
• The snow
• The canceled plans
  
• The clean-up
• The fun
• Reminiscing

The life cycle for the last storm is not yet over. Schools are still canceled, some of the roads in Bowie are a terrible mess and kids are sledding and digging snow tunnels.



The storm life cycle for the next storm is already underway. We heard about the new storm before the snow stopped falling on the last storm, and people can't talk about the old storm without mentioning the expected snowfall for the new storm. The forecast calls for 10 to 20 inches of new snow, and the heaviest snow is expected to fall in Maryland's Interstate 95 corridor. Winds are expected to be heavier in the new storm than they were last weekend. Power outages are also anticipated.

The mad rush to the grocery stores has started as well. The shelves are bare because products have not yet been replenished from last week's run on the grocery stores, and people are now stocking up on supplies in anticipation of the new storm.

We stopped by to pick up a few items from the Market Place Safeway tonight.

The Produce Department - no broccoli, among other items.

Running low on milk.

Not many eggs left

Not much meat, unless...

...unless you like Smoked Turkey Necks (left) or Pigs Feet (right). You better hurry. They only have one left of each!

The Snowstorm Chronicles - Monday Morning on the Roads

I got my car back on the road Monday morning to run some errands and to possibly head to work in Tysons Corner. I found State and County roads to be the in the worst condition, and City of Bowie roads to be in the best condition. I was surprised to see the state of Laurel Bowie Road (Rt 197) and Old Chapel Road. I assumed that the major roads would be in the best shape, but that's not what I saw. I've heard that a lot of the county and state roads are plowed by contractors, and if they aren't properly supervised, some of them will not put their plows all the way down for fear of damaging their equipment. I captured a picture showing a contractor on Route 197 without his plow down during the the January 30th storm. Click here to see that post.

Laurel Bowie Road (Route 197) Near the Post Office

Old Chapel Road near Whitehall Elementary School

Woodhaven Lane, a residential street in Bowie, is plowed down to the pavement.

There is still a lot of plowing to do at Bowie Plaza. This Bobcat wasn't running when I saw it.

The Free State Shopping Center parking lot was in great shape, but the mounds of snow took up quite a few parking spots.

The Sunoco parking lot at the corner of Old Chapel Road and Laurel Bowie Road could be in better shape. Notice the snow on Old Chapel Road at the bottom of the picture.

Our street appears to be in the worst condition of all of the residential streets that I saw. Hopefully the City will take care of this today.

The Snowstorm Chronicles - The Plow Arrives

Most of our friends in Bowie and most of our neighborhood saw the plows before we did. A plow finally arrived at 4:30pm this afternoon. Unfortunately they sent a pick-up to plow 24 inches of untouched snow on a road with a slight incline. The only way he could handle it was to plow it like a parking lot. He only finished about 20% of the street before he left. It appeared that he may have broken something on his plow. Luckily our driveway is in the 20% of the road that he finished. Unfortunately it was late enough in the day that we didn't get the benefit of the sun to melt what was left on the road, and the road is pretty slick tonight.

Here's a short video showing his plowing technique for our road. You can hear my son in the background watching car races on television.

The Snowstorm Chronicles - The Digout Begins

The snow finally stopped falling in Bowie around 4:30pm on Saturday, and the sun peeked through the clouds. I used the Pat Collins snowfall measuring technique, and I came up with a snowfall total in Bowie of 24 inches. My measurement may be less than measurements reported from people following NOAA guidelines. I took the measurement on the driveway where the snow wasn't collecting for a period of time. The Bill's Baro Clinic blog is reporting 25.5 inches here in Bowie, and Bill is in the know when it comes to meteorological stuff.

The unscientific Bowie measurement at the end of the storm - 24 inches.

If you're not familiar with the Pat Collins snow measuring technique, check out the following video clip that was filmed earlier today on Connecticut Avenue in D.C.

We started digging out the driveway this afternoon. The snow on the top is fluffy, but the stuff near the bottom is pretty heavy. We finished the bottom half of the driveway, but as you can see, we haven't seen a snow plow on our street yet. A lot of the snow that you see here in the street will be pushed into my driveway whenever the plows do arrive - and it's very heavy with a layer of slush on the bottom.

It's tough finding a place to put all of the snow. Our driveway is wide enough for two cars, and the snow is piled up high on both sides. The measuring stick in the snowbank pictured above is 48 inches long, so the snow on the side of our driveway is probably 64 inches high.

We've been fortunate that we never lost power. Maybe BGE's initiatives in Bowie helped. We are hearing that 200,000 homes in the Mid Atlantic region are without power, and we know people in Bowie that have not had power for most of the day.

And here are some before/after comparisons photos showing the results of the storm.

Baseline Photo - Friday 5:00pm

Comparison Photo - Saturday, 5:30pm - after the snow stopped.

Here is a Saturday, 5:30am picture of my car.

My car on Saturday at 5:30pm. We already started digging out the back.

The Snowstorm Chronicles - Saturday at Noon

The snow slowed down a bit this morning, but it's snowing very hard at noon. We still have several hours of snow to go.

My mother in-law just called with the most pathetic news of the day. My sister in-law lost power in her St. Mary's County home, and she asked my mother in-law to take care of her farm on Farmville so the crops wouldn't die. Being a Farmville newbie, my mother in-law called my wife and said, "I fertilized and chased the raccoons away, but you need to harvest her crops!" She provided my sister-in-law's password. Sounds like a Facebook profile photo change is in order for my sister-in-law.

Here is the completely unscientific Bowie measurement at noon - 22.5 inches.

Baseline Photo - Friday 5:00pm

Comparison Photo - Saturday, 5:30am

Comparison Photo - Saturday, 9:00am

Comparison Photo - Saturday, noon

Here is a Saturday, 5:30am picture of my car.

My car on Saturday at noon.

The Snowstorm Chronicles - We Lose Heat

We lost our heat for about two hours early this morning. The temperature only dropped about three degrees before we were able to get it back on.

We purchased a brand spankin' new high efficiency gas furnace in the fall of 2002 - the WeatherMaker 9200. We didn't get the 500, the 1000 or even the 2000 model. We got the 9200! It slices, it dices and it heats our home with a 91.2% to 95.5% AFUE rating (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency). This unit has a microprocessor that will shut down the heating unit if the filter becomes too clogged or if the flue pipe becomes blocked. Without the shutdown feature, a blocked flue pipe means that deadly carbon monoxide gas can fill your home and possibly kill you.

On the morning of Presidents' Day, 2003, we woke up to find two feet of snow on the ground and a cool inside temperature of 59 degrees. Our beloved WeatherMaker 9200 wasn't running, and we were nervous first-time parents stuck at home with a 4 month old baby.

Regardless of the skill level or experience, the typical man's reaction to a broken device is to pop open the hood. We don't really know what we're looking for most of the time, but we have to look. I removed the cover from the WeatherMaker 9200, and it was one of the 1 out of 10 times that I could actually see what was wrong. I saw icey slush in this little glass window where I should have seen a blue flame.

Snow had completely covered the flue, and the safety feature shutdown the furnace. Some of the snow worked its way down the flue to create the slushy mess inside. The flue sticks out over the back of our garage roof, and the flue was covered by the 24 inches of snow plus snow drifts from snow blowing off our main roof.

I dug my ladder out from underneath two feet of snow near our shed, and I climbed onto the garage roof to shovel around the flue. I turned the power off to the furnace, and I used a hair dryer to melt the slushy mess. I turned the furnace back on, and a mini crisis was averted.

I also left a message with our furnace people - Belair Engineering, but with two feet of snow on the ground, they're technicians weren't going to be making calls that morning. When I did finally speak to someone at Belair Engineering the following day, I was told that they had six similar calls from customers with the same problem. I was also told that the installation specifications for the WeatherMaker 9200 require a short flue that can be no more than 18 inches above the roof line.

Flue pipe on the garage roof

Storms the size of the Presidents' Day storm are infrequent in Bowie, so I felt comfortable that I could deal with the problem whenever one of those rare storms comes along. Most of the time I can shovel from the ladder without having to step on the roof, but I do occasionally have to climb on the roof. I proactively shoveled around the flue back in December when Bowie received over 20 inches of snow, and I did it again last night around 10:00pm before I went to bed.

Our furnace has two blowers, the first one blows exhaust up the flue pipe, and the larger one blows hot air through the vents. When the furnace first kicks on, the burner ignites, and the smaller blower starts blowing the exhaust up the flue pipe. When the temperature is warm enough, the larger blower starts circulating the air through our house. This is the eighth winter that we've had the WeatherMaker 9200, and I'm familiar with the sounds of the different blowers.

I was lying awake in bed at 2:00am this morning, and I heard the first blower turn on. But this time, it kept running and running, and the larger blower never kicked on. I ran downstairs and popped the hood. There was no blue flame! I cursed. I cursed again - and again - and again. My cursing had no effect - the flame still didn't come on. I didn't see an icey slushy mess in the furnace this time.

Shortly after 2:00 in the morning, I was back up on the ladder removing snow from around the flue pipe. The wind was blowing directly off the main roof toward the garage roof, and a snow drift had just barely covered the flue pipe. I went back inside. The flue pipe blower was still running, but no blue flame. I went back out on the roof with a flashlight. The flashlight slipped from my hands, and it rolled off the roof. I cursed again. I retrieved the flashlight, and inspected the pipe - no blockage. I went back inside. It still wasn't working. I thought maybe there was snow/ice blocking the pipe where I couldn't see. I dug out our space heater, and my wife started using a hair dryer to blow hot air on the first section of the flue pipe. Eventually we decided to re-start the furnace. We waited anxiously as it started back up, and after 30 seconds - blue flame! The whole ordeal lasted about two hours.

While I was outside, there were two occasions when I saw a flash of light in the distance, and I heard a mini explosion - most likely the sound of an electrical transformer blowing. One seemed to come from the Whitehall neighborhood and the other from the Chapel Forge neighborhood. We later lost power for about 5 seconds.

And now for the visual snow accumulation report...

Baseline Photo - Friday 5:00pm

Comparison Photo - Saturday, 5:30am

Here is a Saturday, 5:30am picture of my car.

The Snowstorm Chronicles - The Beginning

I heard stories on the radio and television about long lines in stores and bare shelves. At the Giant in Bowie's Freestate Shopping Center, there were long lines at the registers during the last couple of days, but the shelves remained fairly well stocked.


Here is a picture from the bread aisle Friday evening around 5:30pm. The shelves aren't nearly as full as they usually are, but there is plenty of bread left. My wife and I had a naming contest for this picture. Her suggestion was:

People Too Lazy to Bend Over to Buy Bread

Mine was:

Jewish Rye not Big Seller at Bowie Giant

The other end of the bread aisle.

Less milk than usual, but still plenty.

I found these snowpeople hanging out at the corner of Beaverdale Drive and Buckingham Lane. They are remnants from Wednesday's "practice" storm. I hope the little guy will be able to keep his head above the new snow.

More snowpeople on Stoneybrook Drive near the intersection with Buckingham Drive.

I took this "baseline" shot of the picnic table in our backyard around 5:00pm Friday evening. I'll use it for comparison in a future post.

Here is a picture of Belair Drive at 6:00pm. Although this picture is a little dark, the snow cover made it light enough to take a picture.