Here are a couple things to keep in mind as we get our first big snowstorm of 2021.

  • Don't be like me.  Get your shovel and ice melt at the ready.
  • Charge your phones.
  • Charge that little portable phone charger you got at the bank and thought you'd never use.
  • Test your smoke & carbon monoxide detectors.
  • Don't be chintzy with the thermostat.  Crank it incase you lose heat.
  • Close up any rooms that you don't use

And finally....

  • You've got booze, right?

How do you prepare for a snowstorm?

Well, if you're like me....you usually don't.  You cross your fingers and hope it misses you and then you can laugh at everyone else who spent time preparing.  I'd be the "grasshopper" to your "ant".

However THIS year, I'm a new man!  I put the yard stuff away and parked the 4 wheeler in the garage.  I dug out the generator and readied some gas tanks.  I got the electronics installed in my truck and even put the plow on before one flake of snow dropped from the sky.

Yup!  I'm getting good at this "adulting" thing.

But as the first snow fell this season I realized that I forgot to dig the shovels out of the barn.  A minor inconvenience. Just a small hike to through the snow to grab what I needed to clear a path.

Oh....the steps are icy? Well, let me grab some...eh...crap, where did I put the ice melt?  Ok so, I'm not as good as I had previously thought.  A Frankie MacDonald, I am not.

But I AM getting better!  That counts for something, right?

According to "Mental Floss" there are a couple things about winter that you may not be aware of.

  • Snow falls at 1-6 feet per second
  • More than 22 million tons of salt are used on US roads each year
  • Here's the equation to figure out wind chill
    WC=35.74 + 0.6215T – 35.75(V^0.16) + 0.4275T(V^0.16)
  • Freezing rain & sleet are different
  • 1 inch of rain equals about 10 inches of snow

TIPS: Here's how you can prepare for power outages

 

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