NYC Area Blizzard
 

Ah my favorite way to start week 4. A potentially record setting snow storm, and an expected 2.5 days of cancelled school. This is the second year in a row where my team is getting locked out of our building due to weather, when we could be having so much extra build time as classes are not in session for state tests.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

We're in a similarly leaky boat. We missed Saturday and will now miss today, tomorrow, and possibly Wednesday. It's all part of the fun!

My team feels your pain. We are in CT and have lost two build days already, not including today or what may be to come. Top it off with the fact that we don't do Sunday's, and for some reason haven't been doing Friday's this season.

Going to a very hectic next two weeks!!!

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

We already know that we will not be able to work today or tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to make up some lost time by working longer this coming weekend.

Luckily for us, the snow that we got in Northern Jersey this past Saturday actually gave us more work time; we decided to add a meeting on Sunday to make up the time we thought we were going to lose, but ended up being able to meet later in the day on Saturday, too.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Same :/ why does this happen every year :mad:

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

We're being hit with the storm too. We already missed Saturday because we didn't expect the school to be closed. Hopefully we will be able to take enough materials out of the school so we can work at someone's house and be productive for the next couple of days. I just hope we don't lose power.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Same. I would prefer not to have to take our operation into a mentor's garage again in order to stay on schedule, but hey, ya do what ya gotta do. :eek:

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

So how many of you remember 2010?

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Depending on where you are, and as much as it may stink, I might suggest not. With possible snow accumulation ranging from a foot and a half to upwards of over three feet, it may be in everyone's best interest to simply stay home and off the roads for the next day or so. Let the DPW and first responders do what they must to get everything back to normal again, and stay out of their way. If it is a State of Emergency, no one should really be out and about anyway. We might all wish to keep on building and hate losing valuable time, but weather is weather.

Safety > Robotics.

I do...ironically that was probably our best year yet. Go figure. :rolleyes:

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

It's nice to see a team with a plan rather than just a complaint. I'd be interested to hear how the other NE teams deal with weather delays, especially since they can be expected nearly every year.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

I definitely agree that people shouldn't try driving in this, but a lot of the team lives pretty close to each other, so we can walk (or ski as I did once in 2013 :)).

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

I feel glad to be located in the south, but that really blows! This is one of our mildest winters in years. Christmas was 60F and today is supposed to get up to 70F. Nevertheless, stay safe and I strongly encourage you NOT to drive on snow/ice. Most automobile accidents during winter storms here are from people from up north who think they are pro at driving on snow, to hard truth comes when its not snow, but Ice! STAY SAFE OUT THERE!

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Surely you mean New England blizzard (which may impact the NYC area)
:p

Good luck everyone and stay safe!

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Usually on snow days we hunker down at our sponsor's shop but its work to get everything we need out and its not ideal since most of the tools we need are back in the shop and then we need to move everything back and....

We'll be taking the time off and work around it/plan ahead. We didn't meet Saturday but moved to a smaller meeting yesterday where we made a good number of parts for the practice robot. This will slow us down mixed in with not getting waterjet parts back until the end of next week but we'll work around it as best we can and not stress too much.

We do live in New England. Snow days and blizzards are to be expected and every year they show up and make a mess in late January/February so this shouldn't be a surprise.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

It sucks losing a day, nevermind 2 or 3. Just like 2013.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Actually, tomorrow will be perfect for testing our snowblower prototype, sized for totes...

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

My driveway is available if you need more test space :)

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Samuel Clemens once wrote " If you don't like weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes."

We are all used to this. Its nothing new. Last year the Suffield Shakedown was closed early. We had snow in Atlanta and most of the lower states. First even gave a few extra build days or something like that.
New Englanders are strong and we will use our Yankee ingenuity to overcome this like we always do. If it helps you can just remember that some one always has it worse than you. Canada:yikes:

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

It's just so painful sitting at home, knowing you could have been building a robot, had the blizzard not come, and knowing that you're going to miss probably 2 more days this week, and have already missed 2

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

This is a great opportunity to work on the awards and write essay's :rolleyes:

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

For a non-east coaster, can someone explain why this is such a big deal to be nation wide news. 16" is a nice amount of snow but I just don't get it.

When a storm like this happens in Michigan we just look outside and say "oh, it's Tuesday."

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Well, 30" in a 24 hour period in Boston is pretty rare from what I understand.

Idk, as a fellow Michigander I just think "ah, tuesday" as well. I mean, I'm still not driving in it but it's not nearly as Snowmahgawd as people are making it out. Hoping to snag some cool footage from my quadcopter.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Welp, goodbye to a few days of building...:ahh:

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Hello CAD, I think we'll be seeing a lot of each other for the next few days.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

As another Michiganian (and Yooper), we had one Groundhog Day where it snowed 24" in about six hours. School was already in session when it started, and they did not release us early because plows were getting stuck. Took the school bus home and had to wade through quite a bit of snow to get to my front door (there was like a 3-foot wall at the end of the driveway).

And Michigan Tech almost never closes due to weather.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

It's all dependent on what the area is used to. My dad lives in Minneapolis, where it's business as usual when it's 10 below and snowing several inches per hour, but here in Oregon, we had a day off of school this fall where it literally looked like someone had sprinkled powdered sugar on the ground. It melted by 10 AM, but school was canceled (not that I'm complaining).

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

It has to do with the population density of the Northeast and to explain to the folks in Iowa why there are so many Connecticut plates in the supermarket parking lot. The shelves are wiped clean here.

Apparently we need to have 10 days of provisions for each anticipated day of snow.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

It snowed once in our area three or four years ago. Maybe 1/4"?
Most exciting weather in a decade.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

I remember the one time Kettering closed due to inclement weather. Still had to go to the school to finish a lab... that may or may not have involved making roombas chase people around a room.

It's times like this that I sincerely miss Florida.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

It's a combination of population density and the type of snow.

There are 4.6m people living within ~30 miles of Boston*, so even a 4" snow storm hitting during weekday rush hour causes massive traffic congestion and limits road plowing.
In the coastal areas of New England we get very wet snow which tends to down trees and take out overhead power lines. One day of travel difficulty is disruptive but tolerable - however a week of no power/heating followed by burst pipes is disastrous.

I couldn't easily find typical storm amounts for Michigan but I see that last winter the 3rd largest storm ever recorded in Flint dumped 17" of snow. Perhaps 20"+ isn't that typical for the more populated parts of the state.

But I agree we get it easy on the East Coast. A good friend of ours lives in Valdez, Alaska the snowiest town in the US where 40"+ storms are not unheard of.

* For comparison that's 15 times the population of Michigan's Upper Peninsula in less than 25% of the area.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

That applies to us here in Texas as well.

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This definitely underscores the issues here in NYC as well. While New England may get a few more inches of snow than we do, we have something like 20mil people in that same ~30 mile zone. Even with the most extensive public transportation system in the world, theres still close to the population of Boston driving home to work every night on our roads.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

I have to add this although I'm thinking no one wants to hear it:

Welcome to the 'real' world.... deadlines and constraints happen all the time in business.

Adjust, adapt and overcome...... that's the only advice I can offer

BTW the 2 teams I mentor are on Long Island and are affected as well.

Good Luck!

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Turns out the Philadelphia area was quite over-estimated for snow totals, nice to get a few days back.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

After living in the steamy swamps of south Florida for 2 years back in the early 80s, I swore I would never again complain about a Michigan winter.

And I never have.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

No you are completely right. Overall just going into the Blizzard that never was, I was really just intending on sarcastically portraying my interest in enjoying the excitement of build season. We are actually quite far along in our process, and honestly I'm the schools librarian, (and our teams only mentor) so deadlines and constraints barely come into my mind, I just enjoy providing the students with the opportunity to work through the process of creation.

So no build this past weekend, no build yesterday, no build today, and no build tomorrow. Yay (sarcastic) oh and another snow event for Friday.

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Wow we're really on a roll here (a bad one)

Re: NYC Area Blizzard
 

Well, thanks to the storm moving further to the East to expected, our team's school district was closed today, but thankfully our awesome custodial staff was able to get the parking lots plowed and opened the school for us from 1 to 6 today (which was probably our most productive meeting in a while). A great outcome compared to what we were worried might happen due to the weather. Hope everyone else is getting by okay.