Judging by the view from my window, no one in Boston will be going anywhere for the next 18 hours or so. The snow completely covers the front end of cars on the street, and not just in a drift here and there. It’s not supposed to stop snowing until 1 pm.
First thing I hear waking up was my son wanting to play in it. Last thing I want to do is go out there. Plus, shoveling, that’s going to suck.
Got about 2’ in southern NH with 4’ drifts. Pile at the end of the driveway was 4’ high and 4’ wide. Tractor was able to push through it, though (with difficulty).
It’s still snowing, so I’ll be going out again this afternoon.
Looking out, you can’t tell that I did anything last night. Wind has pretty clearly re-arranged all the snow that I removed. This time I’m going to wait until it’s done, which is usually a mistake, but plowing early didn’t seem to have any effect this time.
Neighbors:
The problem and the tool I’m using (crappy phone photo):
WarrenM
1666
Hnnnnh, that’s a lot of snow…
I have this bad boy, and I am so thankful I bought it this past fall.
Kelan
1668
My snow blower looks like the one Gus has. We had about 12 inches here in Mid Michigan and I had a heck of a time getting through it. Then the plow just finally came by and had to break all that stuff up again to get out of the driveway.
Hope everyone is okay in the NE. I feel fortunate to only have the 12" we got.
Kyrios
1669
31 inches here in central CT, give or take a few depending on where you are. Plus all of the ridiculous drifts of course because of how windy it was overnight. The previous record for one storm was 24 inches, so whatever they decide on as the final official number will break the record by quite a bit.
Speaking as both a New Englander, and someone who works at EMC, I doubt you’ll be able to make it in. The storm has gone, but they’re trying desperately to clear everything. The complete and total ban on public driving on roads only expired less then an hour ago, and the earliest Logan is supposed to open (with ONE runway), is 11 PM Eastern
That looks like an Ariens 24 Deluxe - though it could be larger, the online catalog images for the bigger ones are all the same.
My takeaway from this was “I am not doing this again with my existing snowblower,” since I was out there for 5 hours. It’s a Toro Powercurve 1800. The intake is 10" (not 12" as I thought), and even when we don’t get this kind of ridiculous snowfall, it’s often overtopped by drifts. It also can’t deal with slush at any depth.
Winters here are highly variable. 2012 was so mild I didn’t take my snowblower out, small as it is, but there were storms in 2011 that were painful, and of course this winter it’s been bare dustings followed by this 25" storm. So while most of the time a 2-stage snowblower is overkill, for peak demand it’s useful. There are several neighbors on the street pushing 2-stage blowers around today. And of course some people who are making do with shovels.
I’m thinking either an Ariens 24 Compact or an Ariens Amp 24. The latter is lot more expensive, but also a lot lower maintenance than a gas blower since it’s a battery-powered electric. Given that it’ll sit idle but absolutely must work when needed, the relative simplicity (and thus reliability) of an electric is appealing - the only problems I’ve had with my Toro are impeller wear (normal in a single stage) and my tendency to run over the damned cord (I’ve done it twice now in 10 years).
It does bug me that any 2-stage blower is way too heavy to manhandle, as I do routinely with my Toro. Even the lightest is 170+ pounds.
Houngan
1672
Thanks, I really appreciate the information. My flight is noon Sunday, sounds like they’ll just be starting to deal with overflow tomorrow morning.
Yeah deluxe, though 28 is what I have. I looked at the AMPs as well but just couldn’t justify the price.
Apparently some one is making good use of the massive snow drifts in Boston:
— Alan
This pic is not from this storm, but this is how I do snow removal.
RichVR
1676
Those of us in Florida feel your pain. I will clean out my freezer in your honor.
dtolman
1677
Pfff. Snowblowers. I just cleared 22 inches of snow from my two car wide, 80 foot long driveway with a shovel.
If you’d done it with a herring, that would have been impressive.
I live in southern NH, but I hire a snowplow company. Best decision I ever made :D
What’s is like wrestling that beast around? I had to clear snow again the other day, and a couple of times I had to pick the snow blower up and turn it around. In particular at the end of the sidewalk and the walk up to the front door. I was having trouble visualizing how that would work with a much heavier two-stage.
