2/11-12 Winter Weather Thread

  • After Iowa State won the Big 12, a Cyclone made a wonderful offer to We Will that now increases our match. Now all gifts up to $400,000 between now and the Final 4 will be matched. Please consider giving at We Will Collective.
    This notice can be dismissed using the upper right corner X button.

BoxsterCy

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 14, 2009
43,611
40,121
113
Minnesota
Even though I was born half-man half-shovel I am thinking of firing up the smaller snowblower today. Neither Little Fran or Big Chuck have been used this season up north here in Gopher country.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: bosco

dosry5

Well-Known Member
Nov 28, 2006
7,314
6,055
113
Johnston
I wonder if it will get bad
Dubuque is my hometown. Went back this weekend and holy **** did they have a ton of ice covering everything. Got hit with snow on the drive back Sunday and it sounds like they got it again last night.

I was in Dubuque on Friday for work and thought maybe the streets dept and had just said “**** it” and stopped even trying.
 

Trice

Well-Known Member
Apr 1, 2010
6,855
11,203
113
Between Sunday's snow, chipping away at the ice/slush glaze that's frozen to the driveway, and last night's snow...I'm officially over winter. Up until mid-January was pretty mild but we've packed an entire winter into the last four weeks.

Maybe we'll get a real spring this year.
 

jdcyclone19

Well-Known Member
Apr 14, 2017
3,493
4,806
113
Iowa
Residential streets across the CR metro have not been touched so not much is happening today. Three neighbors got stuck on our street trying to get out while I was clearing our driveway.

To reignite the snowblower debate. My two stage ate right through it while my neighbors single stage kept choking out.

I have a 8hp -26" toro 2 stage I picked up for $300 bucks 6 years ago. I don't know people even bother with a single stage in Iowa. You can get some small compact 2 stage blowers and are 10x the machine of a single stage. I cleared by 12' by 100' concrete drive way in around 30 minutes with 5 inches of snow.
 

Gunnerclone

Well-Known Member
Jul 16, 2010
68,593
68,505
113
DSM
Between Sunday's snow, chipping away at the ice/slush glaze that's frozen to the driveway, and last night's snow...I'm officially over winter. Up until mid-January was pretty mild but we've packed an entire winter into the last four weeks.

Maybe we'll get a real spring this year.

A “real spring” for the past decade is just large amounts of rain compounding the snow melt to create massive flooding issues.
 

laminak

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2010
6,364
9,521
113
Marion
I wonder if it will get bad


I was in Dubuque on Friday for work and thought maybe the streets dept and had just said “**** it” and stopped even trying.

That's surprising. Dubuque was my hometown and I thought they had excellent snow removal, probably due to the many hills. It shocked me how poor my other hometowns of Ames, Cedar Rapids, and Marion were at snow removal compared to Dubuque.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DFWClone

BoxsterCy

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 14, 2009
43,611
40,121
113
Minnesota
Currently live in Dubuque, and this is accurate.

All of the Dubuque posts gave me a 1970's flashback. Drove from Mpls to see gal in Dubuque during a big snow dump. Could not get up Loras so went around backside via Grandview to high ground and worked my way down to get to the house on the hill on Prairie Street. Rear wheel straight six Nova that weighed about 100 pounds with cheap general purpose Coopers for tires. :rolleyes:

72_Nova Dubuque cf scale.jpg
 

jbindm

Well-Known Member
Dec 2, 2010
13,073
7,604
113
Des Moines
Kirkwood closed for the day, may open for night classes.
I hope they can open for night. They've missed so much class (I think they've met once in the last 4 weeks) that it starts to open an argument for refund.

That sounds similar to my night class - we've met once in the last three weeks.

Not much the schools can do about it. If the weather is crappy then that's that. Top priority is keeping everyone safe.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Entropy

Entropy

Well-Known Member
Oct 27, 2008
8,756
14,288
113
Cedar Rapids, IA
What debate? If you want a single-stage snowblower, just get a broom and call it good.
When I lived in WI, the landlord bought a single stage for the property so he wouldn't have to make the 50 minute drive to clear snow. That cured me of ever wanting to use a single stage. What a piece of garbage. Any snow it's useful for can be done more quickly and easily with a shovel.
 

dosry5

Well-Known Member
Nov 28, 2006
7,314
6,055
113
Johnston
All of the Dubuque posts gave me a 1970's flashback. Drove from Mpls to see gal in Dubuque during a big snow dump. Could not get up Loras so went around backside via Grandview to high ground and worked my way down to get to the house on the hill on Prairie Street. Rear wheel straight six Nova that weighed about 100 pounds with cheap general purpose Coopers for tires. :rolleyes:

View attachment 62336

Are you John Cuzak? Sounds like that movie “The Sure Thing”....
 

VTXCyRyD

Well-Known Member
Sep 2, 2010
5,318
2,432
113
47
Residential streets across the CR metro have not been touched so not much is happening today. Three neighbors got stuck on our street trying to get out while I was clearing our driveway.

To reignite the snowblower debate. My two stage ate right through it while my neighbors single stage kept choking out.
I've decided it is just easier to take a shovel and push everything to the end of my driveway and wait for the plow to push all the road snow into the same spot and then take the 2 stage and go through it. My drive faces downhill slightly so pushing the snow is easy and quicker than blowing the entire drive.

I have been one of the people that say a large single stage could do most everything I want. It would probably have had problems with these last two storms cleaning out the end of the drive.

My solution is to stop shoveling or blowing snow and just drive my truck until the spring thaw. Let it pile up.
 

VTXCyRyD

Well-Known Member
Sep 2, 2010
5,318
2,432
113
47
All of the Dubuque posts gave me a 1970's flashback. Drove from Mpls to see gal in Dubuque during a big snow dump. Could not get up Loras so went around backside via Grandview to high ground and worked my way down to get to the house on the hill on Prairie Street. Rear wheel straight six Nova that weighed about 100 pounds with cheap general purpose Coopers for tires. :rolleyes:

View attachment 62336
You look like Jack from "This is Us"

tenor.gif


And now all the Cyclone Fanatic ladies are swooning.
 

Herkster

Active Member
Feb 12, 2016
444
241
43
We received about 6" of snow last night, which is 6" more than my wife ended up getting last night :(

Gonna blow like a bastard this afternoon, schools are closed, businesses will be closing. If we get 40 mph winds with this light and fluffy snow, it's gonna be nasty out there.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: CycoCyclone

jbindm

Well-Known Member
Dec 2, 2010
13,073
7,604
113
Des Moines
Agreed. I don't even have a snowblower. I chuckle at my neighbors who fire up their two-stage for 2 inches of snow. I best them with my shovel every time.

It is nice to have both options. My snowblower crapped out and I'm still waiting for it to get repaired, so I've had to shovel everything that's fallen since Saturday night. Last night I thought I'd be smart and break the shoveling job into two sessions, so I was out at about 9 pm doing the first sweep. It was actually kind of nice. Not too cold or windy, very quiet. Made this morning a pretty easy affair, too. Neither pass took more than 40 minutes.

With all that said, it sure would have been nice to have had a snowblower blast it all out in one shot.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: CloneLawman