North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

As in years past...there is yet another snow storm that will hinder in the building process of robots.

This year it hits at the beginning of week 6 and comes with the promises of 8-12 inches (in NJ according to Weather Channel).

What do you think will happen...will it hit us...how much will we get?

Most importantly how will it affect your robot?

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

hey we are up here in Alaska we have had a few blizzards volcanic eruptions, hurricane force winds and are still going strong so get over it you sissies, :cool:

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

No snow here yet. :rolleyes:

Silly weathermen.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

No snow here. some solid precip but nothing that has slowed fabrication.

Not only is the weather quieter than it has been in season's past, things overall are quiet. Just an observation.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Whaaaat?!? How can you let mother nature come before the ship date? Nothing comes before the ship date! :p

The weather service is predicting about a twelve inches for our area, but I think we are going to have a meeting through the storm anyway. The only way this changes our plans is now we are going to have yet another snowball fight at like 2 AM. :p

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

We had a snowball fight immediatley following shipping the crate last year... Was quite a good end to a build season... Worst comes to worse, we get snowed in, and advantage of that? More time to work on the robot. :D

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

::looks out window::

We're getting snow here (central NJ), though nothing heavy yet. Still, our school has decided it won't take any chances and is already closed for the weekend, forcing us to relocate and throwing a bit of a wrench into our building plans. The snow better not disable us too much. Didn't anyone tell mother nature about the ship date?!?!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

It's supposed to begin soon. I don't think there will be too much affect on our robot, but that's just our team.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

It'll affect the robot a little bit, more because of the facility we use the snows going to make us lose a day tomorrow, which just means we work later tonight so no real 'time' lost just a long night. Sides every night now is long

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Yes unfortunately we miss tomorrow which i guess means less driver practice...blizzard like conditions are in the forecast...oh well...thats what we get for living in CT...we'll be ready though

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

I think this minor snow storm has perfect timing, it's forcing my team to rest (or catch up on Homework) on Sunday so we're extra ready for this last week of build!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

We have the luckiness of liveiong on the other sid eof the Appalachians, so we won't get hit unless that storm is really strong. Unfortunately, we get lake effect off lake erie, so we still get the lost time.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Actually, the most hindering part of the build so far for us in CT has been the fact that we knew there was no school on the last 2 days of build. Presidents day holiday and all.
That's annoying.

As for the snow, it hasn't hit CT yet, but we are expected as of a few hours ago to get hit around 1am and get 10-12" of the white junk.
We will know by 11am tomorrow whether or not we can build.

I thought we were done with winter.

Groundhog.. I hate you. :mad:

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

It's not too bad here, just a about a quarter inch and it's slowing, we're gonna be here a while...

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Colorado didn't have a blizzard this winter, yet. Actually, we so far have a relatively warm winter (down here in Denver area). I wonder if we are getting a blizzard in late April again? Frozen tulips just broke my heart last year. </3

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

luckily here in rochester, we arent supposed to get much snow from this except a couple inches but we get some lake effect here off of ontario but it hasnt hurt us yet..........at least its better than the ice storm we had a couple years ago :)

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

This is the actual photo of what the groundhog saw

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Were having the type of snow that we hate but the mentors love. Constant snowfall but only precipitation on side streets and grass. My backyard has 6 inches, my driveway has 0 (Mainly because I plowed it, but it would still only have 1-2 inches of snow on it).

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

well, for the first time ever because of the snow , they forced the mechanical sub team out of the warehouse on time, so were going to have to kick it up a notch this year, if it snows next week, were going to end up in somebodies basement finishing it up.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

The snow is falling and the roads are pretty icey. But that has never stopped team 888. We've been known to break into the school to get some work done. Of course, there's always time for snowball warfare.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

I'm just happy its not next week right before ship. We'd be stuck in school with robot work that HAS to be completed.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Well, since we can't meet on Sunday anyway, its no great loss. Our team is slightly ahead of schedule, so as long as the district doesn't pospone on Monday, we're good.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Well, lucky for us, we got our robot pretty much built and ready to go. We need to make a few minor additions and tweaks here and there, but it is in fully fuctioning condition right now. The snow is not really going to affect much, and even if it did, it would only delay school on monday, if that. No time lost at all...

If we need to, we'll have our progarmming guys walk a mile through the snow to get our code fixed up...

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Team 237 (Watertown) has 11 " so far.......

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Team 41 (Warren, NJ) is 13-14" and counting...

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

It is snowing we got a foot and may have foot more coming. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

as of now, in north brunswick, we have 16.5 inches, and its still coming!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Everybody was forced out of the school at 1:00 pm yesterday - we might not meet today, too. Uh-oh.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

13" and counting! We are supposed to get 14"+ by the time it is all done. The school told us we can't go in and work today. Hopefully we will be allowed in on Monday.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Yep, there's a lot of snow on the ground!

This happens every year, so we kind of expect it sooner or later. Last year it was the last two days of build season...that was kind of bad...now we're looking at another snowstorm for friday/saturday, so I dont know how that will affect our scrimmage...

Oh well, I see some all nighters in our future... :ahh:

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

For once Rochester is missing out on all of the "fun".

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

the unofficial snowfall count at my house is 14 inches!!!! lucky for us our robot is D-O-N-E, that is if you forget about autonomus.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Hey well here in Suffield, CT we have 16inches of snow an its still comming down. Unfortunatly i dont think we will be able to go to our shop today. :mad: The roads are very bad. an the worst part is shows no sign of stopping anytime soon!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

We have 8 inches here. It knocked us out today and probably tomorrow, we are at a point where his could hurt us bad. A couple kids took a bunch of the parts home to work on them. I'm going to build our electrical box at my house! :D Overall this really couldn't have come at a worse time.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Your blizzard is 8 days too early. It would be better if it delayed ship date like a few years back ;)

We'll do our best to pick up the slack by delaying ship date with an earthquake.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

We've got plenty of snow here in Leominster, MA. I'm in shorts and a robotics tshirt, so i'm not going to measure it, but the bed of my truck is well past full...if that helps. I'll ty to get a guesstimate before i leave for work.

I don't think it will affect building too much....all we have left is a minor motor problem...we need to pull the gearboxes and fix it...easy enough.


stupid snow.....2wd pickup + too much snow = big ol' mess.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

We've got somewhere between 12 and 14 inches of snow, but that isn't stopping our team. Most of us didn't head home until almost midnight last night, and there was only an inch or two on the ground then. And we're still meeting today at noon. Time to start shoveling :D

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

I'm kind of sad that Syracuse is missing out on a lot of snow this year, we're only at 85" :( (We're still the snowiest though :D )

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

I stand corrected...in several feet of cold, vehicle blocking snow. Guess I'm not debugging those interrupts today! To be honest I don't know if anyone made it to the shop, we're pretty much shut down.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

22" and counting...

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Hey, I live in the south and i never see any snow. So be happy :mad:

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

I just measured 26". And we have 4'3" snow drifts in my back yard.

Snow weighs about 20 pounds per cubic foot, my driveway is about 30 feet long and about 12 feet wide. At roughly 2 feet, that leaves me, if my math is correct, 14,400 pounds to shovel....Not accounting for snow drifts. Better get to work.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Inscrutably, western Washington is experiencing its third day of sunshine in a row. Unfortunately, the school will only let us use its shop with a teacher present, and none are available until Wednesday. So, the week before ship, we have three days when the shop isn't open. We have work teams in garages all over town. Sigh.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

its still snowing here in Hillsborough NJ, there is between 12-16 inches on the ground, and WE ARE NOT ALLOWED to go to the warehouse today, even though the roads are cleared


i hate the snow... it was in the sixties and the fifties like two weeks ago :(

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

well here in pawtucket, ri snow started around 3 am and we have about 9inches and its still coming down!!! supposed to stop by 7pm..lets hope so, so i can get back to college...usually Cooley (our sponsor) is closed on sunday, the one sunday they decide to open up, IT SNOWS, hopefully if the snow clears up in time the team will get a chance to work on the bot

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Are you kidding;) it's crowded here!
The sled dogs take up a lot of room though!

We're getting ready for a food run now.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

this storm is crazy! we are heading into the 2 foot range on snow and the weathermen are predicting it to taper off after 6pm soo 4 more hours of this. there's a rumor that there may not be school tomorrow which will really affect our build, but luckily we will be able to go and take our stuff off site if need be.

good luck to all the north eastern teams with the snow.... remember your health is more important than a days worth of work on a robot! :yikes: :ahh:

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

I'm still stuck on this side of the snow, take a look at my interrupt code for me ;-)

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

It very annoying done here in South Jersey, we are still battling the storm and we can not get a break. I am shoveling like crazy and can not get any help. Why now?

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

I woke up with 18+ inches of snow outside. :ahh:

This is crunch week for most teams!
Today’s snowstorm is going to be a big setback for teams in the northeastern region.
The NYC schools are not going to open for any teams today.
Tomorrow is also questionable.
:(
All I can do today is chat, email and post on CD..... :D
(Let's all pray for an extension like 2 years ago)

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Gah! We're already behind as it is!

We can't afford a snowstorm!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Many schools (build shops) up this way are closed to teams today due to snow; tomorrow due to snow and/or Lincoln's Birthday; closed to teams after 2/17 due to school vacation weeks... it never ends!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

happy? I just spent four hours shovelling happiness off my driveway :(

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Shoveling/Plowing has replaced building a robot for now...but that will be reversed soon enough

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Wow, just got word our school is closed tomorrow!!! Good thing our base and launcher are off site. I hope the team can get some work done with the gift of some off time. I will keep making buttons, until we can get back to work on the shipping crate, We will make it with only one week to go !!!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

We have a delayed opening tomorrow...lets hope schools don't close as we really need to work on our robot!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Gosh that's too bad. Weather took a turn for the worse here as well. After two days of + 70's, the temperature plunged to a daytime high of 69, and mostly sunny. Really brutal. The fruit trees are starting to blossom. Our team continued to build field elements outside, but it is hard to fight spring fever and a high pollen count :rolleyes: . Well later, gotta catch some rays outside.

Dr. Bot,

San Jose, CA

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Our team got lucky. Our meeting finished on Saturday before any snow hit the ground and we don't have another meeting until Wednesday. We got around 20 inches here, so I'm glad we didn't have a meeting today.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

well I'm here form the Arctic Ice bears and we got our roller for our collector but its kinda hard to got our launcher going.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Isn't it funny that when we go down to Portland there is always someone (usually a spectator, or non-FIRST person) who assumes that because we are from Canada that we've had a cold winter? Right now the daffodils and crocuses are blooming and the tulips are well on their way.

Perhaps it is because we say things like, "No, not at all... it got up to FIFTEEN degrees the other day."

A considerably different statement in celsius than farenheit. Or perhaps it is because the GTR has conveniently arranged for snow to fall on competition weekend the past two years.

Of course some of them are just joking... like the guy last year (again, not a graciously professional FIRSTer) who wanted to know "If we had cellphones in Canada yet?" (Credit to the student on our team who answered "Yeah, but they're ROTARY DIAL.")

In any case, hope the snow clears soon.... I'm sure Murphy is going to find some way to impose his laws on us out here on the wet coast, too.

Jason

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Yeah, there could always be a world shortage of overpriced coffee, for example... See you in Portland.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Well, our school is closed today (but the administrative offices are opening on a delay) so maybe, just maybe, we will be able to work today!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

well, i feel for all the teams experiencing the wrath of mother nature. hopefully there will either be an extension of time or you will be able to get things completed on time. on a side note, we're going to the boston regional and really hope that the next snowstorm(not too bad but enough to play with) will occur during that weekend. so many kids have never had a snowball fight, or made a snowman, or snowangel....

we were under a freeze warning this weekend - bringing in the pets and plants :) even had to turn on the heat!

9 more days of insanity

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

you could send the south some of that snow. it's cold enough our high is in the mid to upper 40's. :eek: :eek:

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Has anyone converted their ball collector into a snow blower?

You could raise some $$ clearing sidewalks. (I hear that kids really do shovel sidewalks for cash - that's something the kids here in SoCal don't get to do ;) !)

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

WOW 40's??? where is my t-shirt and shorts?? :) :) :)

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

I've been in New York city all weekend attending Toy Fair.

I'll tell ya, 29" of snow falls and the city just shuts down. Its amazing, but this is being called "The Blizzard of '06". Blizzard? it wasn't even 29 inches! Less on the streets, since it all melts as soon as it touches the ground (subways = warm streets)

Oh well, I guess I'll keep my mouth shut as long as I'm in the city. Everyone seems proud of it, so who am I to remind them that it's just not that much snow.


From Javitz-
-Andy A.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Anything over a couple of inches is a lot to New Yorkers. ;)

Wow. How did you get a nice job visiting the Toy Fair in NYC?

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

All I know is that School is Closed! Sure, its one less day to work on the robot so close to ship, but luckily for us all pretty much everything mechanical and electrical is complete.

Looks like our programming guys are going to need to step it up though...

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

we don't get out today :( we missed two days of robotics.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

We didn't have school today, which worked to our advantage. Since we were shorted of yesterday's meeting, this meant that we could start working on the robot at 9 AM and get a 12 hour workday in (instead of 2-9 PM if there was school today).

At this point in the build season, if it ain't a snowing more than a foot a day, we gotta build ourselves a robot. :D

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

It really didn't matter, as we usually don't meet full force on Sunday, and we'll finish on time ... We hope.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

:D Are y'all back in school yet?? No fair I want to see snow down South. :ahh:

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Hey, All,

Well, we're working a little too hard to hang out at the beach, but on the tails of all the "this is why we work in...." posts, here's one of the best reasons to work in ISRAEL!!

BeachCam

It's incredibly beautiful today, about 68 degress and sunny. I'm actually writing this from my roof terrace.....but I'll be back down in the dungeo...I mean LAB...in a couple of hours.

:)

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Have you guys ever heard of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan aka the U.P.?? Sometimes we get 2 feet of snow and still have school!! You guys are just getting some light flurries :P ;) lol jk. Hope the snow doesn't hamper you guys too bad!! Best of Luck to everyone!


Check this out! 3 Guinness World Records!!

• Biggest Snowball!!
• Most Snow Angels!!
• Biggest Snowball Fight!!

We also have Winter Carnival snow statues:
Snow Statue Index

Just some ways we cope with the snow! ;) Enjoy!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

The problem out here really isn't snow, it's the small budgets for removal, and the lack of enough equipment.

You're correct, in Iowa, as well, school would not have been cancelled for this snow (16" here). But, they have the equipment and budget for its' removal, since they expect to get hit this hard on an annual basis.

I moved out here to get away from that constant expectation of snow, and the annual 50 below zero (fahrenheit) wind chill factors. Unfortunately, every three or so years we get on the edge of a cold front and a moist front, and end up getting dumped upon.

However, we had 40 degrees today, and the next three days will be 50+ degrees, followed by three more days around 40. So this 16" of snow will be pretty well gone by next week (unlike Iowa). Not much opportunity to get "cabin fever" out here!

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Well we are having a day or too.
last night they thought we would have an ice day and we didn't.
Tonight there were toronado warnings. :eek:

This too is Michigan. Just wait 5 minutes and the weather changes. :ahh:

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Up here in NH, we've had some very strong winds. We have not had power in parts of the state since Friday afternoon and the word is it may not be back at least until Monday. Last I heard, there were still over 85,000 customers in the state without power. Crews from Mass and Canada have been sent in to help our line crews. Don't know how Vermont and Maine were affected. We are really hoping for a 1 or 2 day extension on the ship date. Anyone else affected by this who is still able to post?

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

over here in rochester we have outages. didnt affect us any though. yesterday the weather channel actually played a clip of the winds here that knocked over a tree and killed a couple people. we had the highest winds from this clocked at 80mph

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

We were supposed to have snow on Friday, but it didn't start until Saturday. On that day we had the most snow since like the ninteenth century. Something like two feet. However, we were all already at school working on our robot, and after we had an epic battle of awesomeness.

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

team 1831 was hoping for snow and an extension , but we got a whole 1/8 inch plus the killer winds that have knocked power out in parts of our town. but other than that we have been putting in 14 hours a day this weekend. SOMEONE SHOOT ME NOW!!! :ahh: I've been staring at the robot, willing it to come work perfectly, waaaaaaaaaaay too long. :eek:

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

So what is the 'rest of the story'? I've wondered throughout the last of build and into the competitions as storms and tornadoes moved across the midwest and out to the east. A few times.

Obviously, the robots were completed and shipped, and everyone competed - but how did the stories end? - Herculean efforts occur throughout the FIRST build experience - any of these have to do with the weather?
Jane

Re: North Eastern "Blizzard"
 

Arctic Warriors had a blizzard.

81 mile per hour winds.

This on our second to last build day.