trainboyH16-44 wrote: What is going on? It's hot and dry here, and when it's been cold, it's STILL been dry! To the east, tons of snow. To the west, tons of snow.Life's not fair.
What is going on? It's hot and dry here, and when it's been cold, it's STILL been dry! To the east, tons of snow. To the west, tons of snow.
Life's not fair.
Could be La Nina. One of the magazines to which I subscribe forecasted an end to its (her?) effects about mid-spring, so maybe the weather will go back to normal then.
dcnlgjms wrote:This winter has been something else in the Eugene/Springfield Oregon area. I've lived on the McKenzie River (about 30 miles up river from Eugene) for 14 years and have not seen this much snow in that time. The Union Pacific line from Eugene to California (near Oakridge) was hit with a very large earth/snow slide in the Cascade mountains. It has taken out over 3000 feet of main line in one area and 150 feet in a second area. It is estimated that over 3 million cubic yards of earth moved and with it between 10 and 15 thousand Douglas Fir trees. This all happened in early February and is estimated to be finished in April sometime. However, a definite date has not been established. A big problem was access to this very remote area. Eight miles of new road (dirt) had to be cleared just to get to the area with heavy equipment. UP is required by the U.S. Forest Service to rescue all the trees. They will be auctioned off later. It is estimated that so far they have taken out (by helicopter) almost 1 million borad feet of trees. The slide was caused by upward pressure from magma resulting in a destabilization of the mountain side. Slides are still happening. They are crushing rock on site to create rip-rap in an effort to, hopefully, stabilize the hillside. It is estimated that the cleanup will cost in excess of $20 million. We currently have almost 200% snow fall in the Cascades. The freight trains are using BNSF track around the area and up through the Columbia Gourge. AMTRACK has suspended their rail traffic to and from California until the UP tracks have been repaired.
This winter has been something else in the Eugene/Springfield Oregon area. I've lived on the McKenzie River (about 30 miles up river from Eugene) for 14 years and have not seen this much snow in that time. The Union Pacific line from Eugene to California (near Oakridge) was hit with a very large earth/snow slide in the Cascade mountains. It has taken out over 3000 feet of main line in one area and 150 feet in a second area. It is estimated that over 3 million cubic yards of earth moved and with it between 10 and 15 thousand Douglas Fir trees. This all happened in early February and is estimated to be finished in April sometime. However, a definite date has not been established. A big problem was access to this very remote area. Eight miles of new road (dirt) had to be cleared just to get to the area with heavy equipment. UP is required by the U.S. Forest Service to rescue all the trees. They will be auctioned off later. It is estimated that so far they have taken out (by helicopter) almost 1 million borad feet of trees. The slide was caused by upward pressure from magma resulting in a destabilization of the mountain side. Slides are still happening. They are crushing rock on site to create rip-rap in an effort to, hopefully, stabilize the hillside. It is estimated that the cleanup will cost in excess of $20 million. We currently have almost 200% snow fall in the Cascades.
The freight trains are using BNSF track around the area and up through the Columbia Gourge. AMTRACK has suspended their rail traffic to and from California until the UP tracks have been repaired.
(Pulls out calculator)
1,000,000 feet of tree ./. 8 feet per tie ./. 12 inches on center ./. 2 tracks = 5,208 feet of new ties, bark, branches, wreath fodder for the artsy/crafty holiday people included.
I'm not sure what the total snowfall here in Boston has been, but it's been an interesting winer. We've gotten two or three major storms, and each one has prety much dumped between 6-11 inches of snow, making a mess of things for about two days, and then within a week, it's all mostly melted again. It's a lot more snow then I remember from years past, but it's not sticking around a lot.
Go here for my rail shots! http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=9296
Building the CPR Kootenay division in N scale, blog here: http://kootenaymodelrailway.wordpress.com/
OldBNfan wrote:I wish this winter was truly 'past!' We're expecting lows in the teens again this weekend.... the poor folks to the south and east of lower Michigan are getting hammered by another storm.
This is a winter more like when I was a kid (yeah, in the late 60s/early 70s). But, I have to set the record straight. Detroit Metro area was forecasted for 2-4 inches beginning at about 1 PM EST and another 3-5 overnight, along with some more on Saturday. As of 6 PM, I haven't seen a single flake here. Mind you, not complaining, cuz I'm sick of it...
....Not counting the weather system that's working thru from the southwest and up thru the Ohio valley today and tomorrow....our total snowfall to this point has been 24 1/2" {at my location}. Normal here in Muncie, east central Indiana is about 27" for the winter season.
We are on the northern fringe of what's working thru today and maybe 1" today and 1 to 2" overnight....forecast as of now.
Long range forecast for this area {last fall}, was more mild than normal, and wetter than normal for our winter. Seems this winter's snow fall arrived in small increments but happened in chain actions....Every few days as opposed to any one deep snow fall.
March is anyone's guess what will happen.....A transition month. Avg. normal temps are rising fast though....But we've had some bad ice storms here in March. Whatever it is, it generally doesn't stay around very long.
Quentin
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.