ManiacalShen t1_j1vqky0 wrote on December 27, 2022 at 7:33 PM

Reply to comment by Kristalderp in Western NY death toll rises to 28 from cold, storm chaos by novotlr

>But this storm rapidly changed from "wow it's heckin windy" to "I can't see 1ft from my face, it dropped from 38f to sub-zero in under 4 hours, the snow wont stop AND it's STILL WINDY--THERE GOES MY ROOF SHINGLES" all within friday.

That sounds like The Children's Blizzard, which killed over 200 people in 1888. Mostly kids walking home from school, but also some people whose shelters couldn't withstand the winds and who ran out of things to burn, if they could start a fire at all. There's a good book about it, but the point is it got so bad, so fast, people got lost five yards outside their own front doors.

I don't think anyone is really ready for a storm like that. I wouldn't be.

Kristalderp t1_j1vtedn wrote on December 27, 2022 at 7:51 PM

With our current weather forcasts we knew it was gonna be a nasty snow storm due to the lake effect (I'm in Montreal. More north-east. We got freezing rain and then snow after and didn't get the lake effect whiteouts) but it turned from a "this is a big blizzard" to "oh fuck this is real" when the wind kicked up.

I'm just thankful I have a fireplace in case I ever do lose power so I could stay warm and cook. My family learned after we dealt with the 1998 ice storm here in Montreal. It crippled our power grid and we were out of power for 3+ weeks.

Now we refuse to buy a home without a wood burning fireplace/stove as we don't wanna freeze like that again.