Getting ready for the big snow.

[oldtimer 0]

Up here in northwest Indiana we are expecting around 20 inches of snow and maybe more. We expect plenty of camera problems. Servicing the equipment is a lot worse than in the Bahamas. Anybody down there want to trade places???

[rory 0]

Sounds like some nice change to be made .. though not sure about the whole working in that cold snow thing

[oldtimer 0]

Well our snow is here! We can expect around 24 inches and wind gusts of 51 mile per hour. That means it will start drifting. Snow will pile up to around four or five feet. So if our friend from the Bahamas wants to come up this way, we will teach you how to shovel this stuff. One of our biggest client owns an ambulance service with over 200 ambulances, they will be very busy as that shoveling brings heart attacks. I know you are probably basking in the sun and pleasantly warm or maybe hot.

[rory 0]

LOL .. ive shoveled snow before you know ... I lived in NY .. also the UK.

But yes although it has been cold for us lately, Its not so bad right now.

[oldtimer 0]

And what do you call cold down there?

[Birdman Adam 0]

2 feet of snow!?! 50+MPH gusts!?! I hope you have plenty of gas for the generator...

 

Around here it seems if we get above 3 inches of snow, everything is closed, plus isolated outages. Add in a little ice, and everyone freaks out!

 

The pine tree is the ultimate winter-weather destruction device. Leaves that stay on in winter + leaves only near the top + skinny trunk + shallow roots = lots of power outages with even just normal snow.

Edited February 2, 2011 by Guest

[rory 0]

anything from the 60's and below

but recall, when i lived in NY we were sun bathing in the low 40's

One adapts to their surroundings. Here we really dont have seasons.

2 months of cold around New years then thats it, 80-100 rest of the year.

[oldtimer 0]

Golly you fellows should be up here. The power is off at our shop, which is around 9 miles north near Lake Michigan and the waves on the lake are 25 feet high. We haven't had conditions like this for years on end. As for the power at my house which is in Highland Indiana, I have a generator that is powered by natural gas. The same stuff we use in the furnace. It should get better by Wednesday night, but then it's going to turn real cold. I hate to think when this snow melts. We should have water everywhere. I can't even think of what this is doing to our outside cameras. We do installations at fast food places mainly and they all have outside cameras at the parking lots and the drive thru's. I figure just in this area, we have over 600 cameras in operation outside.

[Birdman Adam 0]

That can be the worst - when the snow starts to melt, then refreezes into a perfect sheet night after night.

 

It is always interesting to me how phone/internet communications stays up longer than power. I suppose since most phone lines are underground, maybe they are more reliable...

[oldtimer 0]

The majority of our phone lines are in the air except from the pole to houses are underground. I have Comcast for TV -Phone and Internet. If the power goes off, so goes cable because of their amplifiers that use electric power.

To get an idea of our conditions, go to the weather on Yahoo and get the Chicago Radar. We are just inside the Indiana border southeast of Chicago. They don't expect this storm to let up until Wednesday night. We are getting thunder at present. Thunder Snow is very rare and it indicates heavier snow is on the way.. The tail end of the storm is down in Kansas at present and it is moving very slow. I have been checking some of our CCTV locations online and all the business acounts are closed. As you probably know, places like Dunkin Donuts and Mc Donalds never close as a rule. So you can see the intensity of this storm.