It’s been a record setting year here in the New England/Boston area.
The good part has been we have not had an ice storm, and we have not lost power.
Icicles from roof to ground are not uncommon. This building, a bookstore has buckets everywhere as there are many leaks. When it warms up, the ice is under the shingles and drips inside.
The bad news is everyone is having roof problems. So far we have had no leaks, and no danger of the roof collapsing from snow piling up higher and higher. A record breaking winter means many roofs are not designed to hold the huge amounts of snow. Even more of a danger at this point is rain.
Rain means weight. The soft fluffy snow on the roof simply soaks it up like a sponge. Nightly news programs start with what building or home has had a roof collapse. Sadly, several barns have collapsed trapping and killing the animals inside.
Snow that fell off a one story metal roof. Photo by DW Brooks
While warming up may be seen as a good sign, it also can cause leaks. Even more dangerous is snow falling off the roof. This is no longer the soft fluffy snow that fell, this is compacted snow and ice. This week a small dog was killed when snow fell off a roof.
Removing snow from your roof is imperative, but also difficult. I live in a small Cape Cod home, so raking as much of the roof as possible is important. The snow rake reminds me of a visit from my son in law, who grew up in South Africa. He was enjoying his first real contact with snow, when my husband told him it was time to take out the “snow rake”. My son in law assumed somehow we were going to rake the yard, much like we raked up the leaves in the Fall.
(the happy side of winter, snow can be fun)
Spring will come, eventually, and that will mean flooding. When all the snow melts the water has to go somewhere. If the warm up is slow alteration between warm days and cold nights, then it is not too bad. If we have a Spring of too many warm days in a row, flooding will happen. New England is filled with dams to help control this flooding. Many of these dams are quite old, after all people have been living here for a long time, so people in towns like Keene NH can get very nervous when the snow starts melting. Will the dam hold?
A very dangerous situation at this home This could easily collapse and hurt someone.
I hope this post will help educate all the friends of the blog lucky enough to live down South or in warmer climates across the globe! “How is your roof doing?” is a common greeting these days in New England.
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Categories: new hampshire
Two Different Girls 
Thanks for the education Kitty. Never thought of the danger of this. I’ve been in the snow a few times but all I know of daily life in snow areas I learned growing up looking at the peanuts and Calvin & Hobbes cartoons.
Beautiful day here in California.
Sorry
Bah. Snow.
I grew up in the northeast, and spent many of those years living near Buffalo. In fact, I was working in a shoe factory as a stitcher in Batavia, NY during the winter of 1976-77. I have never seen so much snow as I did that winter. Large earth moving equipment was needed for snow removal.