Blizzard in Suburbia

[Mike Buckley]

Though a blizzard is a combination of snow and wind and though all of the photos in the thread were taken during a blizzard, some of them only show the snow and don't convey the wind.

The series of photos is not intended to be a complete story of the effects of a blizzard in suburbia. That's because all of the photos were taken only during a 40-minute walk within three blocks of my home; definitely more time and neighborhoods would be needed to compile an effective, complete series. Even so, I hope you find them enjoyable in the context of a blizzard in suburbia.

It's just a point of interest that I haven't come close to getting so many keepers in a 40-minute period as happened when I took these.


Photo #1



Photo #2



Photo #3



Photo #4



Photo #5



Photo #6

[rpcrowe]

Nice set! My wife keeps telling me that she'd like to live in a location that experiences four seasons. I agree with her, as long as the year-round temperature doesn't vary much between 50 and 80 degrees!

[Shadowman]

If you get a chance use some flash at night on the flakes. Weather through it, nice captures.

[Wavelength]

Oh.... i am surrprised; here we have only two predominant seasons :summer and monsoon....I think these images would be more interesting in color; to see splashes of colors here and there in an otherwise white dominated frame would be of nicer

[Rebel]

Nice images Mike, I really like the PP too.

[Rob Ekins]

#6 is stunning Mike!

I have a challenge for you, reproduce this series in Spring. I think it might be quite interesting.

[pnodrog]

A camera should be kept out of snow, rain. fog, dust, wind blown sand, temperatures above 25 deg C or lower than 16 deg C etc.

Very glad you broke the rules. Looks difficult to walk in. Have you got a photograph of your footprints? Yes you definitely got some keepers.

[tao2]

Nice set! My wife keeps telling me that she'd like to live in a location that experiences four seasons. I agree with her, as long as the year-round temperature doesn't vary much between 50 and 80 degrees!

Hi Richard,

come tae Scotland, ye can experience all four seasons....... in one hour !

[pnodrog]

Hi Richard,

come tae Scotland, ye can experience all four seasons....... in one hour !

Did you not notice the between 50 and 80 degrees! ( I assume that was Fahrenheit - that at least gives Scotland a remote chance)

[DickyOZ]

Hi Richard,

come tae Scotland, ye can experience all four seasons....... in one hour !

You can do that in Melbourne in ten minutes!

Great series Mike. The Boss would have me out there with a broom to knock those icicles down.
Dicky.

[IzzieK]

Hey Mike, I like the frozen flag in #4...I hate to think that most of the snows beside that mailbox was an addendum from the snowplow in your street...and to think that I was complaining of 3" here in the Midwest until I saw the record already dumped in WV at 40"...yes 2016,not 1816...

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

I was sometimes walking in snow up to my knees, such as when taking the photo of the icicles. (Sorry Paul, no photos of footprints.) Now that I've seen the weather statistics, I realize I was taking the photos in the height of the winds.

Izzie mentioned the frozen flag. It was actually blowing and being held sideways despite that it had been in constant snow for 26 hours and probably very wet and heavy. I probably should have used a slower shutter speed to convey obvious motion in the flag but I was concentrating on the ideal shutter speed to show motion in the snow, which worked very well in that photo.

Izzie also wondered about whether the snow around the mailbox was put there by a snowplow. No, that had to have been snow shoveled there by the resident. As an example, a chain link fence separates my and my neighbor's yard and is in between our driveways. You can't see the fence from either side because I and my neighbor shoveled so much snow from our driveways onto the fence.

The wind was so strong for so long that I have a drift about 5 feet (1 1/2 meters) deep close to the house in my backyard. Similarly, the door to my makeshift studio is at the protected end of my carport. Despite that my car is in the carport (covered with snow), the wind was so bad that there is snow on the door to my makeshift studio. Neither has happened before in the 30 winters I have lived in this house.

[bnnrcn]

Nice images Mike. Stay safe and warm

[Manfred M]

Mike - I hate to say it, but the snow you are showing in these shots reminds me of the winter conditions we get up in this part of Canada. The main difference is that we are a bit more subtle about it and built the snow up in layers over the winter; 5 or 10 cm / 2 - 4 inches at a time, rather than trying to do it all at once the way you did.

We can get a foot or more at a time (30 - 45cm), but that tends to happen once or twice a winter.

It's good to see that most people seem to be taking it in stride. We seem to get a few deaths (usually heart attacks from shoveling snow) or traffic accidents whenever we get a heavy snowfall over a short period of time.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Binnur and Manfred!

Mike - I hate to say it, but the snow you are showing in these shots reminds me of the winter conditions we get up in this part of Canada. The main difference is that we are a bit more subtle about it and built the snow up in layers over the winter; 5 or 10 cm / 2 - 4 inches at a time, rather than trying to do it all at once the way you did.

That's exactly what made this snowfall national news. CNN covered it almost non-stop with no other news coverage for at least two days. Cities got as much or more snow in a day than they normally get in a season.

I got very tired days in advance of the snow storm hearing CNN calling where I live the bulls eye of the storm. In the end, it seems that Baltimore, just an hour's drive north of where I live, got the most amount of snow, which set their record. New York City was expected to get a relatively small amount of snow but they came within 0.1" of their record.

We seem to get a few deaths (usually heart attacks from shoveling snow) or traffic accidents whenever we get a heavy snowfall over a short period of time.

That was also true in Virginia for this snowfall.

[tbob]

I think you did a brilliant job of capturing the snow event. As I said on the other thread, the black and white is great for the snow textures. I was particularly impressed by the free form sculptures on the roofs and around the mailbox.

Hopefully you get several more blizzards this year, now that you are so adept at snow images!

[Mike Buckley]

Hopefully you get several more blizzards this year

I used to like you until you wrote that.