Winter 2008

March 8, 2024: Snowmageddon 2024!? (60 Photos)

It has been a pretty crazy winter this year especially in regard to snowstorms and snow accumulation as you've seen here in my many 2024 storm articles. Recently we've experienced a relatively common warm spell here on the east coast which really did a number on our snow pack over the course of about a week.

However that all changed this week when a forecasted major snowstorm actually hit us dead on here on the Avalon peninsula beginning early Friday morning.

The snow was steady with moderate winds and sub zero temps but never reached the intensity of a full on Blizzard event. In a blizzard we will experience higher snowfall rates resulting in much more accumulation per hour. This storm was more of a marathon vs a sprint.

As darkness arrived Friday evening, the storm showed no signs of letting up and remained steady until I went to bed near 3am.

I got on the go fairly early Saturday morning and headed outside around 8am. According to forecasters we were dealing with accumulation of 80+ centimetres, many of us dubbed this snowmageddon 2024 as it was the most snow we've had since that crazy storm back in 2020.

Snow drifts were just insane and filled in the driveway like nothing I've ever seen before, even after snowmageddon 2020. During that storm winds were higher and temperature colder so the snow moved around a lot.

This stuff was very sticky so after it blew around a bit it stayed put and just kept building up. Once touched or walked on it packed down like cement so snow removal strategies would have to be adapted to this punishing event.

Snow was half way up my 8' overhead door and drifted even higher between the garage and our vehicles.

It was a tedious process of run the machine ahead, reverse, knock down snow with a shovel and clear out again with the blower.

The 6-7' tall drift continued over to the basement door and also filled in the space between the house and garage. Moving all this will be a task!

Snow was still over 3' deep feet for a distance of 20' going out the driveway near the lamppost. Thankfully I did most of this in two passes letting the tracks ride up over the snow taking off the top layer, then coming back later to clear away the rest. This worked great except for the last 2 passes where the bottom layer of snow was too soft, so it was back to clearing away, knocking down the tall bank with a shovel, and repeat.

That's what an hours worth of work looks like. A single cut out from the garage and most of the end of our 80' long driveway cleared so I could pull the vehicles ahead.

Sandra's rig was completely encapsulated in snow, the undefeatable traction control would not let me drive it out so I used my Silverado 2500HD to free the Murano from the drift.

Where I was able, I set the chute high and sent all the snow out into the backyard. With snow clearing almost complete I actually run the blower out of gas clearing only my property. This was only the 2nd time ever since owning it, the other event being snowmageddon 2020.

After I got my driveway cleared I started returning missed phone calls, the first of which was my buddy Doug who's Honda 7/24 stopped moving after getting only half his driveway cleared. I loaded up my machine along with some tools and headed to Paradise.

Doug's machine threw off the drive belt which was only a few years old. This is usually a sign of worn bushings on the pivot for the belt tensioner which tensions the belt when you press down on the drive lever. I popped the damaged belt back on and loaded it up to be repaired at my garage, then used my blower to help finish off his driveway.

Pics from Dad in Bay Roberts:

Bay Roberts didn't fair any better this time round. While they often receive less snow than St. John's this time they actually received a little more!