Tuesday morning I woke in my New Jersey home to 2 inches of white stuff on the ground. It’s refreshing to see “normal” snow. Well, mostly snow. But also some freezing rain. Still, it’s refreshing to get snow that’s not 12 to 31 inches deep with 40-mile-per-hour winds.
I took up the art of snow shoveling when I was six. In eighth grade, I went pro. After college, shoveling became a good source for funding my habit (that being playing music, of course). One year, I spent over 200 hours – or one-tenth of a work year - shoveling snow. I retired about five years ago as my touring frequency grew. Just before the Pandemic hit.
Since 2004, I have lived in a very small apartment in a very large house. The house sits on the corner so we have walks on two sides. The side walk is by far the longest stretch on the block. But the front walk is even longer. There is also a walk in the back of the house. And, … there are 5 porches, 32 steps, 2 Bilco doors, 1 huge deck on the side, 1 wrap-around wheelchair-accessible ramp, and an 8-car driveway.
For fifteen years, I was the guy in charge of shoveling the snow
To do the job properly, I owned (and still own) 3 long-handled plastic shovels and 2 long-handled metal shovels. Each shovel came with metal blades. Each plastic shovel has a different degree of flexibility. There is always one that can bend just right to raise up some snow that otherwise clings to the sidewalk. But once the blade wears out, the plastic shovels become useless.
However, the metal shovels, while not as flexible, become even more useful when the blade falls off. In fact, one of my shovels not only lost its blade but from all the scraping on the cement sidewalks, has worn down to about half its original size. This causes the shovel to kind of bounce if you drop it just the right way onto a piece of clean sidewalk. Then, while it is still micro-bouncing you can shove it under the snow, and certain types of snow that you couldn’t get up before lift right up off the walk. It’s a beautiful thing!
My arsenal also includes a coal shovel, an ice chopper, ice scrapers, a long-handled broom to sweep steps, porches, and cars, and a hand broom to sweep corners and the bottom of car windshields where the blades sit.
“Heave! Ho! Shoveling Snow!”
I might use a melting substance in the song above. But I seldom use one in “real” life. Salt destroys cement sidewalks. Other products do less damage to cement, but I am not convinced of their environmental safety. Instead, I work with the sun, But the sun can be friend or foe.
You see, shoveling a few inches of fluffy snow isn’t all that hard, but over the past two decades, we’ve had an inordinate number of nor’easters. Nor’easters plus sun can add up to danger. I’ll explain that in a minute. But first, let’s talk about nor’easters.
Nor’easters are Backward Storms
They seem to follow remarkably similar patterns and almost everything about them is backward. They come from the south but the wind blows from the northeast – hence, “nor’easter.” They arrive as warm fronts with big fat fluffy flakes but exit as cold fronts. As temperatures drop, the snow turns to rain.
In “normal” snow events, if it snows at all at 37 degrees, it will melt when it hits the ground. But nor’easters usually follow exceptionally cold weather. So even though the air temperature starts well above freezing, the ground is still frozen, and snow piles up right away. It is not unusual to get two to three inches per hour for several hours. Soon you have over a foot of snow.
It Gets Even Meaner
Nor’easters can start any time during the first day. But sometime around 4 AM the next morning, the temperature drops below freezing and continues to drop. Like clockwork, when the temp dips to 29 or so, the snow turns to rain. That’s because everything is backward.
With 12 to 31 inches of accumulation, the weight of the snow warms the bottom layer causing it to melt and lift just enough to make it relatively easy to shovel. It may still take three shovels full to get to the bottom, but it comes up easy. However, once it starts raining as temperatures fall, the snow gets heavier and denser. Now the race is on to get up as much snow as possible before it freezes.
Things get worse when the sun comes out
Wait! What? Yup! Around 8 or 9 AM, like clockwork, the sun starts working its way through thinner and thinner clouds. Sunrays penetrate the snow, further heating and melting the lower layer and making it easier to lift. But that leaves more water on the sidewalks that when exposed to the freezing air immediately freezes. So, you end up replacing feet-deep snow with a sheet of ice.
The driveway is a whole nuther beast
By around 10 AM, the little bit of sun squeezing through the rain has shifted from the front of the property to the back where the driveway is. The driveway is black so it holds more heat from the sun which helps it melt. And because the driveway is on a slight incline, melted snow will drain off if you shovel a path down the center of the driveway, out into the street, and all the way to a storm sewer.
But that’s a lot of work. It means, in addition to shoveling the sidewalks, porches, steps, Bilco doors, deck, ramp, and driveway, you also need to shovel the “fan” of the driveway into the street, and a path in the street for the melting snow to flow into the storm sewer. Otherwise, it will freeze into a foot-thick block of ice and render the driveway unusable. When done with this, you rush back to the sidewalks which are now in the shade to fight what’s left of the snow before it is freezing.
The clock strikes 12
The sky clears. The snow stops. It’s 26 degrees and dropping. The wind is hawking. Sure enough, around 12:30, the wind shifts to the northwest. Fluffy black clouds begin to form. Soon they obscure the sun, cutting off its warming rays. A reasonable portion of the driveway has already melted and you still have a few minutes left before the wet snow freezes. So, seven hours into shoveling, you abandon anything else and bear down on the driveway with all of your might.
Every successive shovel full gets harder and harder to get up. Soon you dash inside and grab the ice chopper so you can break the ever-crusting yuck on the driveway.
Around 1 PM, the truth sets in
You know that any additional effort is fruitless. So you stand back looking at a solid sheet of black ice on the driveway. The rest of the sidewalks, steps, porches, ramps, and Bilco doors are mostly clean but some spots are still covered with ice.
It’s been another eight-hour war, with Nature. And Nature has won again. So you call a truce and head inside to tend to your blisters and thaw.
As you hang the last of the shovels, choppers, scrapers, brooms, and picks in the basement, you notice out the window that the sky has opened up again. Snow squalls will add another 2 to 3 inches of snow, covering all of your work. And some of it will sit atop black ice.
You find yourself peering at the bag of salt the landlord left, and you hear a voice over your shoulder tempting you to use it. But you declare, out loud, as you stomp snow off of your boots, “Nope. I ain’t gonna do it! I’m just saying No!”
And then, right at that moment, you hear another voice. A pleasant voice. It’s Jennifer. She hollers down the steps, “Spook. Is that you? C’mon up. There’s chocolate hot on the stove.”
Why not share your winter adventures with your friends? It’s one way to …
Keep the Flame Alive!
N.H. here...you describe N'Easters perfectly! I hate snow!!
Brrr