HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Photography Forums > My City Photos


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1  
Old Posted Dec 30, 2022, 4:07 PM
benp's Avatar
benp benp is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 622
Buffalo Blizzard in My Neighborhood

In and around my immediate neighborhood in North Buffalo during and after the blizzard which began 1 week ago today. Blizzard conditions with up to 70 mph (>110 km/h) winds, temperatures less than 10 degrees F (< -12 degrees C), heavy snow, and whiteout visibility between Friday 12/23 and early Sunday 12/25/22.

Just as the storm began, seen from front windows.




Storm continued overnight and next day.




Wind driven snow comes through nooks and crannies into windows and porches




During storm had to exit from porch to clear side doorway path and keep furnace vents clear of drifts that were over 4 feet (1.4 meters) and still growing


Yardstick in the snow




By very early Christmas day the blizzard conditions stopped, although additional snow and wind continued on and off for 3 more days.








We attempted to walk 2 blocks to another family member's house on Christmas Day, but it was impossible to walk at this point without snow shoes, and had to turn back after a short attempt.


By 12/26, some cleanup and foot paths had been developed, and a few streets had paths cleared for emergency vehicles.










By 12/27 the big trucks had moved from the main roads onto the side streets


By 12/28 the side streets were clear enough to make it easy to walk to neighborhood stores








Cleanup continued on 12/29, all roads are open, temperatures are rising, and the snow piles got higher.




By 12/30, 1 week after the start of the storm, temperatures are in the 50s (> 10 deg C), and the melt will continue until next week.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #2  
Old Posted Dec 30, 2022, 5:15 PM
sopas ej's Avatar
sopas ej sopas ej is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South Pasadena, California
Posts: 6,846
Wow! Amazing photos. And I must say, quite foreign to me, being from/in southern California. And I will admit, I HATE snow. I can only stand it for a few hours, maybe, let alone all of that.

Kudos to you for having had to endure all that.

And I've never seen furnace vents along the lower side of a house like that before. Very interesting; here in California, our furnace vents are on the roof.

When was your neighborhood built, if I may ask?
__________________
"I guess the only time people think about injustice is when it happens to them."

~ Charles Bukowski
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #3  
Old Posted Dec 30, 2022, 5:34 PM
OhioGuy OhioGuy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: DC
Posts: 7,648
I've always loved a good snow storm while it's happening, but once it has ended I've always loathed the aftermath dealing with dirty slush and compacted snow that turns to ice on sidewalks that businesses & homeowners were too lazy to clear. At least the weather warmed up quickly enough to already begin melting the snow. Thanks for sharing these pics!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #4  
Old Posted Dec 30, 2022, 6:12 PM
benp's Avatar
benp benp is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 622
Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej View Post
Wow! Amazing photos. And I must say, quite foreign to me, being from/in southern California. And I will admit, I HATE snow. I can only stand it for a few hours, maybe, let alone all of that.

Kudos to you for having had to endure all that.

And I've never seen furnace vents along the lower side of a house like that before. Very interesting; here in California, our furnace vents are on the roof.

When was your neighborhood built, if I may ask?
The vast majority of the homes in the area were built in the 1920s, with some clusters from the 1930s and 40s. The range of ages, though, goes from 1860 former farmhouses to 2022 new single family infill on former railroad ROW.

Here is a link to my North Buffalo Flickr Album for more images.

Those furnace vents are for newer high-efficiency condensing gas furnaces of the last few years, which can achieve efficiency ratings of 90 or above. It uses a venting system to extract waste heat before venting. What is vented is a residual corrosive condensate of water and carbon dioxide. This residual liquid is highly acidic. It will ruin the standard venting equipment that is used in conventional gas furnace ventilation systems.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Dec 30, 2022, 6:23 PM
Crawford Crawford is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Brooklyn, NYC/Polanco, DF
Posts: 30,497
Wow, really cool pics. Glad you were safe, and happy to hear that the mild weather is removing most of the snow.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #6  
Old Posted Dec 30, 2022, 7:41 PM
pj3000's Avatar
pj3000 pj3000 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Pittsburgh & Miami
Posts: 7,524
You guys got hit pretty good. Still surprising to me that so many people unfortunately died due to the storm... other than the hurricane-force winds, it wasn't that uncommon of an occurrence.


Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej View Post
And I've never seen furnace vents along the lower side of a house like that before. Very interesting; here in California, our furnace vents are on the roof.
High-efficiency condensing furnaces vent through side walls in California too.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Dec 30, 2022, 7:52 PM
benp's Avatar
benp benp is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 622
Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000 View Post
You guys got hit pretty good. Still surprising to me that so many people unfortunately died due to the storm... other than the hurricane-force winds, it wasn't that uncommon of an occurrence.




High-efficiency condensing furnaces vent through side walls in California too.
This is only the 3rd declared blizzard warning in Buffalo history, so the combination and severity of conditions truly is rare here. Many people assumed that the storm was similar to other storms. In ‘77 I had to walk a block in similar conditions and I recall it was so difficult and disorienting I thought I may not make it. It can be hard to imagine unless you are in it.

FYI I only have blizzard pictures where you can see something. There were many hours where I couldn’t see past the tree in front of my house, or the lit street light at the corner at night.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #8  
Old Posted Dec 30, 2022, 8:21 PM
sopas ej's Avatar
sopas ej sopas ej is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South Pasadena, California
Posts: 6,846
Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000 View Post
High-efficiency condensing furnaces vent through side walls in California too.
Ah. I know nothing about high-efficiency condensing furnaces; I've never heard even heard of them. I guess because I'm not a homeowner.

My parents' house just has a regular natural gas furnace. It does have a downward-pointing pipe located on the outside of one of the side walls, maybe a foot or a foot and half above the ground, but that's to drain the condensation from the central A/C. When I saw the photo with the side vents, that's what it reminded me of, and I found it odd to see upward-pointing pipes.
__________________
"I guess the only time people think about injustice is when it happens to them."

~ Charles Bukowski
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #9  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2022, 12:14 AM
craigs's Avatar
craigs craigs is offline
Birds Aren't Real!
 
Join Date: May 2019
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 6,597
Epic storm! I love snow, but . . . not that much!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #10  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2022, 1:00 AM
AviationGuy AviationGuy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Cypress, TX
Posts: 5,310
What really amazes me is the snow gradient in the Buffalo area due to the lake effect.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #11  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2022, 12:57 PM
hauntedheadnc's Avatar
hauntedheadnc hauntedheadnc is online now
A gruff individual.
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Greenville, SC - "Birthplace of the light switch rave"
Posts: 13,286
Your neighborhood looks really nice on Google Maps.
__________________
"To sustain the life of a large, modern city in this cloying, clinging heat is an amazing achievement. It is no wonder that the white men and women in Greenville walk with a slow, dragging pride, as if they had taken up a challenge and intended to defy it without end." -- Rebecca West for The New Yorker, 1947
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #12  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2022, 7:03 PM
pj3000's Avatar
pj3000 pj3000 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Pittsburgh & Miami
Posts: 7,524
Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej View Post
Ah. I know nothing about high-efficiency condensing furnaces; I've never heard even heard of them. I guess because I'm not a homeowner.

My parents' house just has a regular natural gas furnace. It does have a downward-pointing pipe located on the outside of one of the side walls, maybe a foot or a foot and half above the ground, but that's to drain the condensation from the central A/C. When I saw the photo with the side vents, that's what it reminded me of, and I found it odd to see upward-pointing pipes.
Yeah, they’ll usually put the exhaust vent facing up and the intake facing down or straight out… so the intake won’t pull in the exhaust gases.

It’s not that you can’t vent condensing furnaces vertically up the chimney, but you’d have to fit the chimney with a PVC pipe that is also shielded from the heat of other chimney uses (i.e., fireplace). It would be a big pain and just more cost-effective to run it out the side of the house. Similarly how tankless gas water heaters also are vented out the side. The only reason I know a bit about this is from installing my furnace a couple years ago… something I will pay a professional to do next time
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #13  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2022, 8:03 PM
pj3000's Avatar
pj3000 pj3000 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Pittsburgh & Miami
Posts: 7,524
Quote:
Originally Posted by benp View Post
This is only the 3rd declared blizzard warning in Buffalo history, so the combination and severity of conditions truly is rare here. Many people assumed that the storm was similar to other storms. In ‘77 I had to walk a block in similar conditions and I recall it was so difficult and disorienting I thought I may not make it. It can be hard to imagine unless you are in it.

FYI I only have blizzard pictures where you can see something. There were many hours where I couldn’t see past the tree in front of my house, or the lit street light at the corner at night.
Yeah, I guess it was the duration of very strong winds in combo with the heavy snow and frigid temps hitting the most densely-populated parts of the region. I definitely understand your descriptions since I grew up in the "snowbelt" and have fully experienced the disorienting and frightening 'twilight zone' effect of being caught in unrelenting lake effect squalls.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #14  
Old Posted Dec 31, 2022, 10:47 PM
bilbao58's Avatar
bilbao58 bilbao58 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Homesick Houstonian in San Antonio
Posts: 1,675
Quote:
Originally Posted by AviationGuy View Post
What really amazes me is the snow gradient in the Buffalo area due to the lake effect.
I lived in Toronto, which is about 60 miles northwest of Buffalo, for a couple of years when I was a kid. Buffalo always seemed to get 50% more snow than we got and usually the day before we got it.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #15  
Old Posted Jan 1, 2023, 12:59 AM
Crawford Crawford is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Brooklyn, NYC/Polanco, DF
Posts: 30,497
Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbao58 View Post
I lived in Toronto, which is about 60 miles northwest of Buffalo, for a couple of years when I was a kid. Buffalo always seemed to get 50% more snow than we got and usually the day before we got it.
It's amazing to see the snowfall variance even within Buffalo. You can have 2 feet of snow in Orchard Park and barely a dusting in Amherst. Really weird stuff, from an outsider perspective.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #16  
Old Posted Jan 1, 2023, 1:44 AM
geomorph's Avatar
geomorph geomorph is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Newport Beach
Posts: 3,552
Very nice concise document of the event!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #17  
Old Posted Jan 1, 2023, 2:03 AM
jdcamb's Avatar
jdcamb jdcamb is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Rochester mostly
Posts: 280
I think one of the reasons storms are so devastating now is because all those Mom and Pop stores are closed and your forced to drive to Jefferson or Military rd to buy food.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #18  
Old Posted Jan 2, 2023, 5:03 AM
pj3000's Avatar
pj3000 pj3000 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Pittsburgh & Miami
Posts: 7,524
Quote:
Originally Posted by bilbao58 View Post
I lived in Toronto, which is about 60 miles northwest of Buffalo, for a couple of years when I was a kid. Buffalo always seemed to get 50% more snow than we got and usually the day before we got it.
Totally different situation due to location of the two cities in relation to the lakes. Toronto is on the north side of the lake, so it’s not going to get anywhere near as much lake affect snow as Buffalo or Erie or Rochester or Syracuse gets. These are the 4 snowiest metro areas in the US because of their locations south and west (in the case of Buffalo) of lakes Erie and Ontario.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #19  
Old Posted Jan 2, 2023, 3:54 PM
montréaliste montréaliste is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Chambly, Quebec
Posts: 1,995
Important snow storms and blizzards are certainly scary events if you are driving in them for any length of time. I can't get over the Ninja mentality of drivers who seem to drive with extra weight on the pedal in these conditions.

In spite of the rigors of big snow events, I am much more worried about rainfall and eventual drops in temperature following prolonged rain in winter. I dread the possibility of another ice storm, like the 1998 one that wreaked havoc on parts of the maritimes, Québec, Eastern Ontario, and Maine, and NY. I'm hoping that the rebuilt infrastructure can hold up next time.

Buffalo is certainly a sister city to Montreal. The real thing, lol.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #20  
Old Posted Jan 2, 2023, 6:49 PM
EastSideHBG's Avatar
EastSideHBG EastSideHBG is offline
Me?!?
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Philadelphia Metro
Posts: 11,212
Wild stuff, thanks for sharing!

Quote:
Originally Posted by benp View Post
This is only the 3rd declared blizzard warning in Buffalo history, so the combination and severity of conditions truly is rare here. Many people assumed that the storm was similar to other storms. In ‘77 I had to walk a block in similar conditions and I recall it was so difficult and disorienting I thought I may not make it. It can be hard to imagine unless you are in it.

FYI I only have blizzard pictures where you can see something. There were many hours where I couldn’t see past the tree in front of my house, or the lit street light at the corner at night.
I've been through a few blizzards in Harrisburg and when I was young my friend and I decided to try to walk somewhere during one for the fun of it. We didn't get very far and had to hunker down underneath a trailer that was parked near a construction site to get our wits back and then we turned around and went home; you don't realize how crazy and disorienting that can be until you're out in it.
__________________
Right before your eyes you're victimized, guys, that's the world of today and it ain't civilized.
Reply With Quote
     
     
This discussion thread continues

Use the page links to the lower-right to go to the next page for additional posts
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Photography Forums > My City Photos
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 10:02 AM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.