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February 6, 2010
"Climate Change" Comes to Leesburg Virginia
It's no wonder they've abandoned "global warming" in favor of "climate change." Despite the change in terminology, we're all aware they still mean to scare us with the notion that "our planet has a fever."
Some fever. I live in Loudoun County, northern Virginia, and t =his is our fourth significant snowfall this year. Mind you, this is an area where we're lucky if we only get one where the trucks have to do any plowing. Six inches is a big deal around here. They've already closed schools for Monday and Tuesday. Our local paper says the area got between 24 - 30 inches, depending on where you lived. Other media reports said some areas got 33 inches.
Here's the view that greeted me as I opened my garage door in preparation for hours of shoveling
A record 2 feet or more was predicted for Washington. As of early Saturday, 10 inches of snow was reported at the White House, while parts of Maryland and West Virginia were buried under more than 20 inches. Forecasters expected snowfall rates to increase, up to 2 inches per hours through Saturday morning.
Turns out the snow continued for most of the day, finally tapering off at 4 or 5pm.
I dug a path to to the street and took a photo of my townhouse
The storm, which started in the midwest a few days ago and has been moving east ever since, hit northern Virginia at about 10am yesterday. It's been snowing steadily ever since. The center, and thus heaviest part of the storm, is passing right through our area, so we're getting the worst of it.
This is the fourth snowstorm we've had this year in an area where we usually only get one, and sometimes not even that.
Word from my connections is that our town budgeted enough to cover snow removal through this storm, but one more and we'll have a shortfall. I haven't checked but I'm sure my homeowners association (HOA) is way over budget.
From Weather.com earlier today
* ACCUMULATIONS... TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 18 TO 24 INCHES... WITH SOME LOCATIONS POSSIBLY RECEIVING LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS ACROSS WESTERN MARYLAND AND THE EASTERN WEST VIRGINIA PANHANDLE.THIS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE RECORD SNOWFALL FOR THE BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON DC METROPOLITAN AREAS. TRAVEL CONDITIONS TONIGHT ACROSS THE REGION WILL BE EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS AND LIFE-THREATENING. HELP YOUR LOCAL AND STATE GOVERNMENT FIRST RESPONDERS AND TRANSPORTATION AGENCIES BY STAYING OFF THE ROADS.
Virginia Governor McDonnell said that snowfall records are "fast approaching the highest accumulations in the 103 years that these statistics have been kept,"
Before all of you who live in states that get this much snow on a regular basis tell me I'm a wimp... give us a break. We don't live prepared for this stuff.
I keep a bird feeder out back and enjoy watching and identifying the birds. Not being dumb, they know where the food is and flocked my backyard today since they weren't getting anything from the ground. Unless you enlarge this photo you can barely see the male Cardinal at the feeder
Deciding to make the most of it, I also put out a tray with birdfood. Most of the birds that swarmed the feeders where Dark-eyed Juncos, but today we also had male and female Cardinals, a few House Sparrows, European Starlings, and even one Blue Jay, which is like an eagle compared to those other small species. The birds in this photo are all Dark-eyed Juncos
Mocha just about went nuts looking at them just a few feet away
This was in the morning, before I cleared off the deck. We got about another 6 inches from when I took this photo.
After over 3 hours I had the driveway shoveled. I didn't realize how tired I was until I got into the house and sat down at the computer.
From our local paper, here's a picture of our downtown area at about 6pm
Monday Evening Update
Good grief! Another 10 - 20 inches are on the way tomorrow and Wednesday. I don't know where I'm going to put the stuff, as the pile in my yard is over 5 feet now. Stay tuned for another post tomorrow or Wednesday.
Posted by Tom at February 6, 2010 9:00 PM
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Comments
The scene here where I live closer to D.C. is comparable. This storm is definitely a record breaker! Having lived in Northern Virginia all my life, I can count on the fingers of one hand the times we've been stranded like this.
We tried to keep up with this snowfall here at my house but simply couldn't. Hours and hours of sweeping and shoveling, and all we have to show for it is a very narrow path.
My cars, street parked as I have no driveway, are barely visible -- in spite of three forays to keep them shoveled off.
Glad to see that you, too, are feeding the birds. Kitty TV! Our three cats are avoiding cabin fever because they get to peer out the window at those birds. I haven't seen a cardinal yet, but "our" mockingbird has been out and about several times.
I hope that tomorrow will bring some "independent" snow shovelers our way. I have cash to offer! We do have a teenaged boy living down the street, but he never turns his hand to do a lick of work, so I doubt that he'll show up.
One good thing in all this: we haven't lost power here. Some of my friends in Montgomery County have! They finally got their generator up and running today. Thank God.
BTW, you'll find a photo essay of pics taken here at my house at my web site. The Merry Widow, who hails from Florida and came up here to help me caregive Mr. AOW, has been busy taking lots of photos.
Posted by: Always On Watch 
at February 6, 2010 10:32 PM
Gentlemen,
Welcome to my world.
TLGK
Posted by: The Loop Garoo Kid at February 9, 2010 9:53 PM
