How to Survive Winters in Central New York

My neck of the woods has been on the National news recently and has had close coverage with all the weather reports because of two dirty words: Lake Effect.

Lake effect snow is a meteorological phenomenon that is well known to us inhabitants of the leeward side of the Great Lakes and is now in the lexicon of even land-bound people far removed.

In a nutshell, when the large bodies of water are not frozen over and the surface temperature is relatively warm compared to the air temperature, it sets up the lake effect machine. Then when strong, cold winds blow across the lakes, they sweep up moisture and it's carried across the lake, picking up more moisture as it heads toward land.

When this moisture-laden wind blows across the landmass, the moisture is deposited as snow. Due to the normally bitter temperature, the snow is very light and fluffy. If these snow squalls persist in the same area for a while, considerable snow can be dumped in that area. Snowfall rates of one to three inches an hour are not uncommon, and can be as high as five to six inches per hour!

This is what happened recently on the East and Southeast ends of Lake Ontario. The winds were primarily out of the West, with shifting at time to the Northwest and Southwest. Snowfall amounts north of the New York State Thruway were measured in feet during a two-week period. My town, which is about fifty miles northeast of Syracuse, has had close to eleven feet of snow during this period.

And that leads into the survival mode. The weapons of choice for doing battle with the white menace (but, loved by snowmobilers and skiers!) are:

- A scoop shovel that is large and can push the snow instead of throwing it. Some are even equipped with small wheels to assist in pushing. This works well with the light, fluffy snow but not recommended for heavy, wet snow from normal snowstorms. Rudimentary, but very useful for areas and decks that you can't get a snow blower onto.

- A snow blower. I recommend a 10 HP or larger model, an intake of 28" or more, and make sure it's a double-stage thrower. It will make the job of snow removal much easier with these minimum specs. I've been using an Ariens snow blower for the past four seasons and love it. It always starts on the first pull, even when well below zero. I am also considering going to a larger model, like a 48-inch intake due to my very long driveway and width. If you don't have a long driveway, the 28-inch model will do nicely.

- A roof rake. Huh? What the heck's that, you ask? This is a tool that is foreign to probably 95% of the country, but commonly found in these lake effect Snow Belt areas. It looks somewhat like a rake, but instead of tines on the rake it has a flat blade and is angled backwards a bit to bite into the snow on the roof. It is about six feet long and has six-foot extensions that snap into the ends of each section, so you wind up with an 18-foot long rake. You then slide it up onto the roof as far as you can reach, and then when you pull back, it bites down into the snow and you can pull a load of the snow off with each pull.

Why rake your roof? If you have a sizable amount of snow on the roof, the load can become too much for your roof structure and a collapse is likely. It has happened here to a number of homes, barns, garages, etc. There's a pretty good surface area on your roof, and a great example are the Wal-Mart Super Centers that closed due to the load bearing on their roofs here. They actually had to hand-shovel the enormous roofs, as they were concerned about damaging roof equipment with snow blowers, etc. Yeah, it's that serious.

The other reason is to prevent ice dams from forming. When the snow thaws and then re-freezes at night, it forms ice on the drip edge of the roof. This will gradually build up and form an ice dam that can be quite thick. Water then backs up behind it, and can force its way between shingles to become a leak in the house. Then the real problems begin. So, to prevent this, it's a good idea to keep up with the snow accumulations on the roof.

This huge amount of snow in such a short time is kind of unusual. We can expect 10 to 12 feet per winter and it's easy to keep up with snow removal, as there are breaks between the snow squalls. With the equipment mentioned above, and the inherent "exercise opportunity" outdoors, you can peacefully co-exist with Mother Nature's lake effect child.