The 10 cm of white fluffy precipitation promised for today did not materialize, at least not within the borders of Juniorvania. It’s a good thing, too; when the alarm went off (having been suitably, if somewhat shockingly, advanced to accomodate snow removal activities), your faithful (?) correspondent would not at first be moved from his place of peaceful repose. Instead, man’s most glorious invention, the snooze alarm, was deployed to excellent effect and the Public Works Department slumbered on.
Upon finally coming to terms with both consciousness and reality, the crew quickly dressed itself in a curious amalgam of pajamas and sweatshirts and clomped outside to examine nature’s offering. In the cold, quiet blue of the newly blanketed driveway, a revelation offered itself: if one is spending a considerable amount of time deciding whether it is possible to snowblow an accumulation, it is unlikely that such a process is – in any event – necessary. Thus was born “Junior’s Law of Snow Augury”.
It is unlikely that Mother Nature’s reprieve will transform itself into a commutation of sentence; eight to ten inches* of snow are expected on Friday – the one day this week that Spouse and I will absolutely have to be at work early.
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* Canadian Corrollary to Junior’s Law of Snow Augury: If the expected accumulation of snow is expressed by meteorologists, weathermen and other charlatans in centimetres, you will not need a shovel; if, however, it is expressed in inches – you will, and how.
Do you get lake-effect style snow, or is that something for Buffalonians and Chicagomites to, er, weather?
We’ve got “micro” climates here; at the plant where I work it was absolutely pouring all day — yet we get ten miles south, going home, and it’s a peaceable light drizzle, as though welcoming you to the rain. A precipitation primer, if you will.
I’m not yet sure what patterns prevail in the Juniorvanian hinterlands. Southern Ontario is a weird place for weather, because there are areas where lake effect snow is quite prevalent – just slightly inland from the eastern shore of Lake Huron, for example, as well as much of the north shore of Erie and basically the entire Niagara Peninsula. Lake effect snow has been known to happen in Hamilton, but the wind (as I understand it) has to be moving across the lake generally from east to west for this to happen; that’s the exact opposite direction for our usual prevailing winds.
Where it gets even weirder here in southern Ontari-ari-ari-o is when the enhanced precipitation zones kind of overlap on their extreme inland margins. For example, there’s an area around Woodstock that always seems to get pounded whenever there’s a snowstorm of any kind, and I believe it’s because the area is getting enhanced snowfall from lakes in three directions – Huron to the northwest, Ontario to the east, and Erie to the south. Woodstock isn’t particularly close to any of those lakes, but neither is it very far. Move away from Woodstock in virtually any direction (i.e. closer to the lakes), and it’s been my experience that you run into less, not more, snow.
Update:
Answered – From December 19 Hamilton Spectator:
Geoff Coulson, a meteorologist at Environment Canada, said Hamilton and the surrounding area will be hit harder than other locations as the easterly winds come off Lake Ontario.
“You’re getting more than your fair share,” he said.
Higher elevations, like Grimsby and Mount Hope, could be looking at 30 centimetres of snow today, Coulson said.
Good luck digging and blowing tonight. I spent a good 2 hours on my tiny driveway this afternoon. I expect more in the morning.
@Doug:
Thanks for the good wishes; don’t screw your back up, dude. Here’s how it went locally.