UKC

It will be interesting to see how this storm pans out, but the US authorities seem to be very confident that it is going to happen tonight. Supermarket shelves cleaned out.

I was in Plymouth, New England, at Easter 15 years ago when one of these storms hit (nothing like as severe as this one is predicted to be). We were staying in a Motel.

I've never seen snow like it. The roads very quickly became impassable, then there were total power failures as the weight of snow brought down power lines. I remember it becoming very cold and it being difficult to keep warm. We were on holiday and unprepared so far as adequate clothing was concerned. We just spent a lot of time in bed reading during the daylight hours.

We also got very hungry as the shops closed down as did most of the cafes, until we managed to find one with a generator. Spent hours sitting in it drinking coffee and soup.

Back in the motel we couldn't wash or shower due to no electricity and the pipe work froze

We were hunkered down for 3 days until it eventually passed and the snow plows started clearing the roads. Then the sun came out and the warm Spring weather returned.

In reply to Trangia:

This shouldn't be that bad, it's not that cold and it's a short storm. It'll last about 18 hours in total and then cool clear weather behind.

As long as people are sensible and just wait it out.

As it hits the main cities, apart from DC after rush hour and over the weekend it's not causing much of an issue for most of us.

We've probably had about 12-15 inches so far with another 6-12 due. It's drifting badly so it's hard to know how much.

In reply to Roadrunner5:
Where in the Eastern USA are you?

It's looking pretty grim on UK TV this morning with 3m plus of snowfall in some cities, people being told to stay indoors and a total ban on driving in some areas.

The weathermen say the storm will hit the UK later in the week, but by then it will be rain, not snow. Not that we need it!

In reply to Trangia:

They've reported 3 feet not 3 metres!

In reply to Escher:

French radio yesterday evening was even worse - 60 metres ! (guess it should have been cm)

In reply to Doug:

That really would be Snowmageddon. The Express would have a meltdown.

In reply to Trangia:
Philly, NYc had a ban just because people aren't sensible. They need to keep roads clear for emergency vehicles. Us DC, Virginia and NYC got it worst, but mugh of this was avoidable.

This was very well forecast, and even then thousands were caught out on the turnpikes and are only just being freed. Uni basketball teams for example. Those games shouldn't have happened, by 6-7 pm the roads should have been clear. We knew it was going to come down at 2-3 inches per hour, road crews could never have coped.

The worst thing has been the flooding on the coast.

We've had about 18 inches, drifts are much deeper so sections are a 2-3 feet deep.

In reply to Escher:

1m - slip of the key!