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February 4-5 Snow, Ice, Sleet, Rain Obs


Ralph Wiggum

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I was woken up at 6am by a recording from PECO telling me they have "restored" my power. I drive 45 minutes home from my Sisters Apartment to find we still had no power. I called PECO and they said they apologized" for the "call errors." This is not something they can have "errors" with. I still have no power and I called PECO this evening who told me they would "restore" my power by tomorrow night at 11pm. If I get that call again at 6am I won't believe it until I find out through other people. I am leaving this thread pinned until all of our fellow poster's power is restored. 

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I was woken up at 6am by a recording from PECO telling me they have "restored" my power. I drive 45 minutes home from my Sisters Apartment to find we still had no power. I called PECO and they said they apologized" for the "call errors." This is not something they can have "errors" with. I still have no power and I called PECO this evening who told me they would "restore" my power by tomorrow night at 11pm. If I get that call again at 6am I won't believe it until I find out through other people. I am leaving this thread pinned until all of our fellow poster's power is restored. 

 

That sucks.  So much for my theory...

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1994 was far worse in terms of ice, and as the years have passed, I began to think I'd never see anything that rivaled it (which this does, at least in terms of impact).  I was without power for days back in 1994 (lived in West Chester), but thankfully have had no power loss here in Collegeville.  I feel for the people who are cold & in the dark right now.

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The heavy, wet, snow on the trees caused the effect of the freezing rain to be maximized even with less ice accretion. I didn't think there could be ice storms with heavy rain and temperatures around to just below freezing but I was wrong.

 

Yes, all the snow maximized ice accretion.  All that extra wet snow surface on the trees greatly increased the surface area which ice could accrue to, so the 1/3 to 1/2 inch of ice plus the snow ended up acting more like the inch of ice from 1994.  Note that while there was only 1/3 to 1/2 inch of ice with this storm, most areas saw well OVER 1 inch of precipitation, so the icing was definitely less efficient due to the higher precip rate and more marginal temps.  But the greater total precipitation plus snow compensated.

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Yes, all the snow maximized ice accretion.  All that extra wet snow surface on the trees greatly increased the surface area which ice could accrue to, so the 1/3 to 1/2 inch of ice plus the snow ended up acting more like the inch of ice from 1994.  Note that while there was only 1/3 to 1/2 inch of ice with this storm, most areas saw well OVER 1 inch of precipitation, so the icing was definitely less efficient due to the higher precip rate and more marginal temps.  But the greater total precipitation plus snow compensated.

Pretty much what I said what would happen on 2/4/2014. Now I dread all that high water content in the snow-the flood potential is out of this world

 

 

photo-thumb-10087.jpg?_r=1388643641 Posted by windvane on 4 February 2014 - 01:23 PM in Philadelphia Region

My experience of living through  severe ice storms in the mid south is this: Once the snow clumps come off the trees with sleet or freezing rain, ice starts accruing real quick because of the thin coating of snow left behind on the limbs still remains. If the temp is not rising watch out. The second issue is that any ice accrual over .5 of an inch will definitely cause power outages because the tree branches are still weak from Sandy. I have been picking up and cutting branches for two years from that storm event because many broken branches are still hanging in the trees. The last issue that if we get any wind, we are screwed big time. The wind will worsen the situation greatly

 
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Pretty much what I said what would happen on 2/4/2014. Now I dread all that high water content in the snow-the flood potential is out of this world

 

 

photo-thumb-10087.jpg?_r=1388643641 Posted by windvane on 4 February 2014 - 01:23 PM in Philadelphia Region

My experience of living through  severe ice storms in the mid south is this: Once the snow clumps come off the trees with sleet or freezing rain, ice starts accruing real quick because of the thin coating of snow left behind on the limbs still remains. If the temp is not rising watch out. The second issue is that any ice accrual over .5 of an inch will definitely cause power outages because the tree branches are still weak from Sandy. I have been picking up and cutting branches for two years from that storm event because many broken branches are still hanging in the trees. The last issue that if we get any wind, we are screwed big time. The wind will worsen the situation greatly

 

 

Well if you want a contest of time... ;)

post-39-0-48095500-1391759669_thumb.jpg

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The hype for "future storms" has gotten so great that our home owners insurance said they won't take care of the fallen trees in our yard for 2-3 weeks, because they feel more damage may happen.

That is complete BS. You are entitled to keep your property safe, secure and dry. You do not have to wait for the adjuster. Take pictures...document. Know your limits...they pay X for tree cleanup....Y for exterior property damage....Z for loss of fridge contents....etc etc.

Post sandy so many people were basically sitting their with holes in their house waiting for the insurance company and watching the rain or snow cause further damage, all because some agent or adjuster told them don't do anything until we get there. Complete BS.

I would keep my home and property safe and secure, not do a full property cleanup until spring and get my claim processed so the heck arrives by end of month.

As for the worried about what's next excuse not sure if that is about social media or just the obvious point that this has been a hard winter....has more time left....and the intent might be do not pay for the cleanup until we thaw and expose all concerns. That last one is just common sense once safety has been satisfied.

Stay safe

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PECO once again called me at 6am to tell me my "power was restored." I don't believe them and in fact when I called for an update it said "we are working to restore you service, but they can't provide an estimate when power would return" after telling me yesterday they would have my power restored by 11pm tonight. I give up with them. I have no idea when my power will be restored.

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Thanks SP. I'm on the fence about documenting the damage and then clearing it ourselves like you said, but two guys just a couple streets over from mine were clearing some large branches themselves and another large branch came down hit one guy in the head now he's coma. That's obviously one of the worst case scenarios but it makes you remember the danger. I'm quite torn really.

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1994 was far worse in terms of ice, and as the years have passed, I began to think I'd never see anything that rivaled it (which this does, at least in terms of impact).  I was without power for days back in 1994 (lived in West Chester), but thankfully have had no power loss here in Collegeville.  I feel for the people who are cold & in the dark right now.

Jan 1994 had a more widespread impact across the entire metro area however this event was significantly worse in Bucks, Chester & Montco than 94.

 

Again the one saving grace with this event was the lack of wind, had we experienced the strong winds that followed the 94 ice storm you would have been talking Sandy like impact in these (3) counties.

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Jan 1994 had a more widespread impact across the entire metro area however this event was significantly worse in Bucks, Chester & Montco than 94.

 

Again the one saving grace with this event was the lack of wind, had we experienced the strong winds that followed the 94 ice storm you would have been talking Sandy like impact in these (3) counties.

I think a lot of people consider the Wednesday ice storm to be very Sandy-like...

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Thanks SP. I'm on the fence about documenting the damage and then clearing it ourselves like you said, but two guys just a couple streets over from mine were clearing some large branches themselves and another large branch came down hit one guy in the head now he's coma. That's obviously one of the worst case scenarios but it makes you remember the danger. I'm quite torn really.

 

I was not suggesting you do the work but rather not delaying the hiring of a crew to make the area safe. When the demand is high for such services (prices are high too) it might be better to address dangerous conditions first and leave the full clean up for later, which you could potentially handle yourself or hire.

 

For example, we had trees on structures, blocking access, crushing fence lines and many branches which could have fallen at anytime. So we handled that stuff ASAP in November and did not complete the clean up job until April. We did replace the roof in November because 1/3 of it was gone and even that job was handled before the adjuster came. I simply handed him a package of photos, quotes and final invoices. Most impressive was the pictures of thousands of pieces of roof tiles that littered the surrounding area paired with the damaged roof photos.

 

BY all means be safe when it comes to tree work. It is VERY dangerous when clearing damaged woods. If the limb you are looking at does not get you the one behind you that you did not realize was loose will.

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You didn't really answer the question...

 

Ray - How do you determine ice accretion with uniform coating plus icicles hanging down. Highly variable from branch to branch and wire to wire but a significant component compared to other local ice storms. I presume due to the heavy rain and marginal temps.Particularly on some wires icicles must have been the predominant weighting.

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