Soup Town JJ: Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

The last I remembered Pancake and Gnocchi were out on a cold January morning when it was still snowing. Gnocchi came in. They don’t stay out long in this freezing weather with over 2 feet of snow on the ground. Around noon I become worried about Pancake. I check every nook and cranny in the basement. He hadn’t shown up at either door. “After we finish here,” I tell Ed, “I’m going to have to go outside and look for Pancake.” “Don’t worry about her,” Ed says. “Did you let her in?” Of course, he doesn’t answer until I asked him four more times and threaten him. He finally says, “No.” All morning I had been calling at both doors, “Here kitty, kitty, kitty. Pancake. Pancake”. Finally I dub my big winter boots, coat and hat and call and search. No Pancake anywhere. Its hard work trudging through thigh-high snow around the house. I kneel down and check under the deck on all sides. No Pancake. I check each window well. No Pancake. Did the snowplows run over her or bury her in deep snow? Did Frank's snowblower gobble her up? She would never stay out this long on her own. I’m covered with snow when I come in. DeRay is no help. “If a cat doesn’t want to be found, she won’t be.” I continue to call at the front and back doors every few minutes. I start to think about what life will be like without Pancake. I wonder how we will tell Amy. Should we call and warn her?

Around 3, I feel something brushing my leg and a warm, lazy Pancake moseys by. Has she been indoors the whole time? Did Ed let her in?

As I recall my heroic efforts to find Pancake, who wasn’t lost, by looking under the deck and in every window well, both DeRay and Amy question, “Why didn’t you check the window wells from inside?”

“What would be harrowing and adventuresome about that?” I retort. "And how can you get snow pictures from inside the house?"

SALT LAKE TRIBUNE January 28, 2013 By Jim Dalrymple II

Another “full on winter” storm predicted for Tuesday morning’s commute could stage a repeat performance of the slippery, often impassable, conditions encountered by drivers on Monday.

In a weather briefing issued Monday afternoon, National Weather Service hydrologist Brian McInerny described the next wave of the storm system as “full on winter.”

“The event will bring widespread snow across the state with some pretty good winds,” he said.

Expected snow amounts range from 8 to 16 inches in northern mountains, 2 to 5 inches in valley areas, and 4 to 8 in central mountains. The storm will continue into Tuesday afternoon in valleys, and through Thursday in mountain areas.

Sunday night’s record-breaking snowstorm resulted in stop-and-go traffic Monday morning on I-15 in both directions and on surface roads into Salt Lake City. While the city said all of its 45 snowplows had been out all night clearing streets, residents were grumbling about road conditions.

The big snowstorm of several weeks ago followed by very cold temperatures created conditions that made Monday’s plow work more difficult and slower.

“Our snowplow crews are dealing with the effects of a substantial snowfall, a freezing event, and more snow,” he said. “The snow that came down [Sunday into Monday morning] fell on frozen roads and it’s difficult to get the blades all the way down to the asphalt.”

Sunday’s overnight storm dropped 9.9 inches at Salt Lake International Airport, a record-breaking amount for that date, according to the National Weather Service. Twelve inches were reported in Centerville and Bountiful.

While the heavy snow made travel difficult, it offered relief from weeks of inversion and polluted air.
From the Deseret News January 31, 2013

FARMINGTON — All the snow that the state has seen over the past few weeks is putting a lot of wear and tear on the snowplows.
Crews along the Wasatch Front are doing their best to keep the plows on the roads, but all that around-the-clock work takes a toll on the trucks.
Schmalz said his trucks have worked every day over the past 2 ½ weeks. Even when it wasn't snowing, his drivers were busy putting salt down to keep the fog from freezing on the roads.
"The roads were slick (because of the fog)," Schmalz said. "In fact, sometimes they were even slicker than they would have been with just a snowfall."
The Utah Department of Transportation has also spent a good amount of money on repairs to its trucks. So far this winter season, the state has spent more than $1.3 million on maintenance and repairs on its 510 plow trucks.
SALT LAKE CITY —The weather forced the airport to make the rare decision to shut all runways down last week and then to intermittently close runways on Sunday. And while the snow was back in force Wednesday, it came after a good Tuesday.
“Davis County is getting pounded (with snow) right now, Utah County is getting pounded right now, and we've got a skiff," Dave Korzep, superintendent of airport operations, said Tuesday morning.
It was a welcome light day after a record snow day Sunday and freezing rain last Thursday the likes of which Korzep had never seen in Utah. There is a snow and ice plan in place at the airport and rarely is it necessary to close it all down. But the freezing rain was something else.
"The ice day was the first time I can recall closing," said Korzep, who has been at the airport 23 years. "There have been instances where we've closed for an hour or two, but that ice thing shut us down for three hours and that's very rare. It was a freak thing."

There are 150 pieces of equipment used for snow removal at the airport, but the numerous plows are useless on ice. Instead, airport crews rely on a large truck with a large tank that distributes the potassium acetate they use to help with traction.
"We would rather plow 18 inches of snow than an inch of ice, because you can't plow ice," Korzep explained. "The only thing you can do with it is treat it with potassium acetate, which is a special chemical for airports, because you can't use salt on a runway. If you use salt, airlines get mad at you because you rust their planes. … This is the airport's version of snow melt that's aircraft-friendly."

It's been an above-average snow year already. Between October and April, an average of 61 inches of snow falls at the airport. As of Tuesday, almost 50 inches had been recorded.

Personally, here at 986 Raymond Road, we got a foot of snow Sunday/Monday and 7 more inches on Tuesday. Our mailbox has disappeared. We got more snow than the ski resorts (in two of these particular storms--not overall; the lake effect) we got more snow than SLC, we got more snow than Cache Valley. I’m not even sure the rest of Fruit Heights got as much snow as we did. I think it is just snowing over our house or maybe just our circle. Wednesday: It was snowing when we got up and it is still snowing at noon. Snowing without ceasing.