White Christmas 2010

Could this be déjà vu all over again?

Last year on December 19^th, we got hit with the first blizzard of the season which gave us the first white Christmas in recent memory. It could easily happen again this year.

According to Mr. Foot and fearless forecasters another storm could “come right on the exact day 365 days ago when on December 19, 2010 Baltimore received its’ first Kahuna of the winter.”

“The time frame for this storm, if impacted the area, would be Saturday evening through Sunday evening. Right now the team continues to analyze all the models, which shows both extremes.  One extreme shows the potential for a repeat of last December’s storm.  Others show an out-to-sea situation which would leave us with no snow.  We are fairly confident all precipitation with this storm will be snow, so the main thing to watch is how close to the coast this storm comes.”

Brrr!

Still, a white Christmas is always a treat. The first big storm of the season is a time for hunkering down with a warm fire and a well stocked pantry. It was also the Blizzard of 09 that acquainted me with fellow HoCo blogger Sarah when she shared this piece of blizzard reporting from Owen Brown.

The first big storm is a novelty, its those late season storms that break your back!

Snow Babies

Last December, the precursor to the Big Kahuna storm hit us. Though this storm was subsequently over shadowed by the February snowmageddon, it was still ranked as one the top ten snow storms in the record books. Back then I wrote a post predicting that by late summer the maternity wards at Howard County General Hospital would be doing a land office business.

Once again, the Big Kahuna stole the show from the Blizzard of 09. This story by Kellie Woodhouse in The Howard County Times was all about the baby boom that resulted from the double barreled February storms.

“Howard County General Hospital has seen a noticeable surge in births this month, according to spokeswoman Sharon Sopp. In the first two weeks of November, she said, 136 babies were born in the hospital's maternity ward -- 30 more than the same time period in 2009.”

"Historically, it is a common occurrence to see a spike ... after an event, such as a snowstorm or a blackout," Sopp said. "We kind of expected it, knowing that we had many inches of snow and many days off of work."

What about December’s storm?

By my reckoning late August and early September should have been pretty busy in the maternity wards too.

The Fantastic Mr. Foot

Even as we dig out from last nights snowstorm reports are coming in about an even larger storm heading our way this weekend. Of course it has often been said that weather prognostication in Maryland is a fool’s game. Take last weekend for instance. Most forecastors called for that storm to be no more than a dusting and we ended up getting about 5 inches of snow. That’s some dusting.

One forecaster got it right though. Foots Forecast accurately predicted that the storm would be much more than a light dusting.

The real surprise is that Foots Forecast is put together by a group of high school students in Dundalk and their ninth grade earth science teacher, Rich Foot. According to this story by Frank D. Roylance in The Sun the students “do real science. They factor in such weather esoterica as Canadian snow cover, the North Atlantic Oscillation, and the moisture content of the approaching storm. Then they do the math.”

And they are pretty often “spot on” with their forecasts.

So what does Foots Forecast call for this weekend?

They are calling the storm a “SuperKahuna” and that “this storm will not be for the faint of heart.”

“If computer model trends continue as they have in the past 24 hours, this storm has potential to eclipse December 19, 2009 ; February 15-18, 2003 ; January 6-8, 1996 ; March 11, 1993 ; February 11, 1983 ; December 1966, and could rival March 18-22, 1958.”

Better make that trip to grocery store before Friday.

Baby It’s Cold Outside

I know, its January and that's what we get in January around here. Still, coming off a fairly mild winter last year, the cold this year just seems a bit extreme. I don’t mind the snow so much but the persistent chill is really getting to me.

It’s not going to let up anytime soon either. According to this story by Frank D. Roylance in The Sun yesterday, “there is plenty more bitter cold weather ahead, putting more pressure on heating bills and on the city's cold-weather shelters.”

"The real big story this week is going to be the cold," said Steve Zubrick, science and operations officer for the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. "We really don't lose this cold air any time soon. I see it through a week from now. And I think in the 8- to 14-day forecast we're still below normal."

At our house the dogs don’t even want to go out in this cold air.

The only thing I take some comfort in is the fact that the arctic chill extends to Florida. Friends who head south for the winter months and in past winters have relished telling us how warm it is down there are strangely silent right now. Two of my colleagues are currently in Key Largo where the temperature isn’t expected to go above 60 today. That’s a little to chilly for lounging by the pool.

Good for Some, Bad for Others

The schools weren’t the only things shut down by the Blizzard of 09. The jobsite at Emerson One in Emerson Corporate Commons was too.

We were supposed to have a meeting at the site on Monday afternoon. The prospect canceled on Monday morning. “One of our guys is in a wheelchair,” I was told.

It really didn’t matter. The jobsite was closed anyway.

At this point in time, Emerson One consists of four cinder block stair towers rising out of the foundation. The surrounding site is a stew of mud and trenches. The snow covers all of that now. A wrong step could be extremely regretful.

Since not much else was going on at the office, I decided to drive out to North Laurel anyway. Standing looking at the deserted site it occurred to me that this storm was not good for the workers on this job. Instead of getting in a days labor at one of the rare commercial construction jobs right now, they stayed home.

The jobsite wasn’t completely shut down. Two workers were trudging through the snow and muck trying to clear some of the snow from the site.

A pickup truck from the county Bureau of Engineering rolled up the road so I spent a few moments talking with John Alcorn. He told me that some of his guys had just come off eighteen hour shifts moving the snow. He looked pretty tired himself.

“You get much sleep in the past few days?”

“I got about four hours last night,” he told me.

He said that some guys on his crew logged in over 50 hours of overtime during the storm. He then pointed out that this helped take the sting off the mandated four day county furlough the week after Christmas.

That summed it up nicely. B09…good for some, bad for others.

More Columbia Blizzard Pix

Yesterday I received two more emails with Columbia blizzard photos. Lisa from Thunder Hill sent this great action photo of her daughter Savanna. She writes “And yes, my daughter Savanna is airborne after hitting a snow ramp.”

Once again the biggest beneficiaries of the snowstorm are the kids. Last night I received a text message from the school system letting me know that the schools would be closed again today. I really like the new text message notification system. Nice job HCPSS.

Chuck supplied this picture of the mound of snow accumulated on his patio table. Chuck writes “That table is holding it's own, but just barely. Seems like Columbia always seems to be right in the path of these storms and wins the snowfall amounts.”

He’s right about that. According to the official snowfall tallies I saw, Columbia got a couple more inches than Ellicott City.

Columbia Blizzard Pix

Sarah must have read my post this morning in which I lamented the fact that I didn’t get any blizzard pictures from Columbia readers of Tales of Two Cities.

She sent along a few shots from her new home in the Village of Owen Brown and had some nice things to say about the Columbia Association.

“Surprisingly, and wonderfully, the Columbia Association had plowed the trailways mid-storm, so we walked to Giant around 3:30 pm on Saturday. Our street hadn't even been plowed at this point in time (oh, okay, they did plow it Friday night sometime, but you couldn't tell), but the trails were-- glad to pay my CPRA fees!”

Like all of us, Sarah spent part of her Sunday digging out. Since she is new to this neighborhood the Blizzard of Aught Nine had a hidden benefit.

“We dug out Sunday morning along with most of our neighbors, which was a great introduction to many of them.”

Scene This Week In...

Well it was one for the record books. According to The Sun, the Blizzard of Aught Nine officially clocked in as the seventh largest snow storm on record at 20.5 inches. This is the kind of storm that will be talked about for years to come. If past snowstorms are any indication, nine months from now Howard County General Hospital will experience an unusually high amount of baby deliveries.

Blogging through the storm on Saturday I put out a call for readers to send me pictures of the storm. I received pictures from Eklridge and Ellicott City but surprisingly none from Columbia.

Yesterday I drove over to Wilde Lake Park to get my own. Wilde Lake Park is one of my favorite parts of Columbia. When I lived in the Vantage Point neighborhood I regularly ran around the lake in all seasons. I knew it would be beautiful in the fresh fallen snow.

I really liked the picnic benches.

In Ellicott City we weathered the storm reasonably well. The larder was well stocked and fortunately we never lost power. We were a bit concerned about the power situation since we usually don’t fare all that well when an ill wind blows in my neighborhood.

A fresh snow reveals new sights in some of Mama Wordbones gardens. The red berries of the Nandina bushes against the snow were a nice visual treat.

I also thought the shadow play from the pergola was cool too.

Digging Out

All across Howard County folks are digging out of the Blizzard of 09 with the sun giving a little assist.
Around 10 this morning I dug out the Wordbones mobile and ventured down to Ellicott City. I had already reconciled myself to the fact that my usual fix of reading the Sunday was not going to be satisfied, I still hoped that maybe I’d be able to snag a decent cup of coffee.

I was rewarded for my efforts by finding the Little French Market open for business. I snagged four fresh muffins for the troops back home and got myself a large Americano. Life is indeed good.

Ellicott City was beautiful with the fresh snow covering the old town. Up and down the street merchants were busy clearing the snow from the walks to make way for holiday shoppers.

As I drove back up New Cut Road I ran into Joe Blanchfield, the owner of Columbia Oak Tree furniture. He was getting ready to head into Columbia to get his store open after digging himself out.

I hope everyone is careful out there as they extricate themselves from B09.

Storms End

Last night Mama Wordbones and I were finally able to take the two old dogs for a much needed walk. Old dogs have a rough time in deep snow.

It was around 10 PM and the Blizzard of 09 was slowly losing its muscle.

Down on Main Street

Brian sent us these photos from downtown Ellicott City. He tells us that he and his girlfriend took a walk to Highs for supplies “In the store were people who walked, people driving snow plows and one store clerk who didn't seem thrilled about being there.”

Thanks for sharing.

In honor of the big storm (the Weather Channel just dubbed it an "epic" storm) I’ve added a new category called Blizzard of 09. It’ll make these pictures easier to find later.

Keep em coming.

EC Road Report

Once we dug out the cars this afternoon I thought I’d take the SUV out for a little reconnoiter of the road situation.

In a word, it’s bad.
I made it out to College Avenue around 2:30. This is what it looked like. In fact this is what all the roads looked like.

This is New Cut Road near the intersection of New Cut and Hillsborough.

The bottom line, unless you have four wheel drive you’d be nuts to drive these roads. Even with four wheel drive you have to weigh the risk that you could still hit ice and slide off the road. It’s not real easy to tell where the shoulders are.

Over in Elkridge

Tim sent this picture to Tales of Two Cities from his front door in Eklridge. Tim writes “The left-most cars are mine, and this was taken about 20 minutes after I finished clearing them off.”

Keep em coming.

I just ventured out a little in my four wheel drive to reconnoiter the roads. I’ll post some of those pics later.

Snowed In

Its official, this storm is now a blizzard.

If you have a blizzard picture you’d like to share with Tales of Two Cities readers, email it to me at wordbones@verizon.net with a brief description and I’ll post them on the blog throughout the day. This was taken in my neighborhood in Ellicott City less than an hour ago.