Pocono Talk

Our final snow tally this morning is 10-12 inches and its still snowing!!  Some schools are  closed or at least have late starts, and depending on where you work you might have off today as well.  Take the time to enjoy it as I’m sure it will melt soon enough.

I’m not one to normally start anything Christmas oriented until after Thanksgiving but I must admit that the snow definitely has brought out the Christmas feeling early, and we’ve even popped in a few Christmas CDs to listen to.  Do you feel the same way?  I wonder if snow before Christmas effects peoples buying habits at all.  Although I’m sure no one wants to head out shopping for presents in the middle of a storm…once the roads are cleared and theres a nice coat on the ground does that bit of snow influence our buying at all.

Well, one way or another your holiday shopping will need to get done, my advice is get it done sooner rather then later this year.  Although the recent snow is not normal for this time of year you never know what to expect so prepare early!

Here’s some information from the Pocono Record this morning:

The following is a list of snowfall totals (in inches) ending early Monday morning:

Tobyhanna, Pa.: 10
Pocono Summit, Pa.: 7.5
Dallas, Pa.: 7.0
Keelersburg, Pa.: 6.0
Binghamton, N.Y.: 4.0

If you looked around at all the snow on Sunday and thought, “This sure seems unusual,” you were right.

Sunday’s snowfall marked the first significant snowfall of the winter in the Poconos, the earliest the area has had that kind of weather since 1995, when Stroudsburg got four inches of snow on Nov. 13.

“We can expect to see the first significant snowfall, that needs to be plowed or causes travel problems, before Thanksgiving only once in a decade,” meteorologist Ben Gelber said. “This is not common at all.”

After last month, the hottest October on record, the early snowfall was quite a climate shock for the area. One month ago, on Oct. 18, the high temperature in Stroudsburg reached 76 degrees.

During the mild start to last winter, Stroudsburg did not see snowfall of more than one inch until Jan. 20. With snow still falling on Sunday night, Stroudsburg had received 2.5 inches of snow by around 9 p.m.

Gelber said the overall snowfall for the storm would likely be between four and eight inches for Monroe County, with lower elevations between East Stroudsburg and Tannersville getting about four inches, with more snow in higher areas.

Many of the travelers are too eager to stay in as the first snow of the year falls. Many of the aloha airlines winter packages have got every single thing that one might need for all the adventure. There is a whole host of the airlines offering the complete packages for all the travel needs including booking of the hotel rooms, spas, golf club memberships, car rental in america, travel insurance, and very cheap airline tickets. Many of these packages can be reached out through any of the travel agent that specializes in all the relevant aspects of dealing in american airline tickets.

We didn’t get a significant snow last year until Jan-Feb, significant to me means at least a couple of inches.  Last week we got our first dusting and that was a shocker enough, but today we have already gotten over 7 inches of snow!  We do live on a mountain so the difference in weather does vary from living closer to town.  I think a lot of times people think we might be making excuses not to go out because we’ll drive from 5-10 inches of snow on the mountain to a dusting in town.  I will have to get the pictures up that I took today, its definitely a sight to see!

We are now under a ‘heavy snow warning’, I haven’t seen the snow let up at all today so I am going to assume that we will have at least 10 inches by the morning!!  Our son has his Thanksgiving party at school tomorrow so I really hope that it is not delayed. 

Whether this weather sticks around or not please please start allowing yourself extra time to get to where you need to.  There’s shoveling the walkway, dusting the car off, possibly plowing/shoveling the driveway, if you live in a private community the roads might not get cleared as early as you’d like and people always tend to drive slower in bad weather.  All that added up means you will need to allow plenty of time to get to places safely.

If it is your first Pocono winter then this has probably been an unexpected surprise!  Enjoy it, take the kids out to play or go for a walk and enjoy the quiet peaceful time snow brings.  Be sure to stock up now on shovels, gloves, hats, salt/sand, and whatever else you will need for the winter.

Be sure to pickup a few gallons of water to have around the house – if you do lose power and use a well then you will not be able to run the water, take showers, do dishes, etc.  So at least have some drinking water on hand to get you by.  Think about investing in a generator and get your lists together as to safety objects to have in the house, a flashlight, a stand alone heater, charged cell phones, etc.  Its always better to be over prepared then underprepared.  And don’t stress yourself out, do your shopping early – whether its holiday or food shopping, spend as little time on the roads in bad weather as possible.

If one thing is for sure, Winter is coming full force!  The picture you see in todays blog is not one you see often, a tree still changing and covered in snow already!

Here’s the current weather conditions for our area:

O.CON.KPHI.HS.W.0001.000000T0000Z- 071119T1500Z/ CARBON-MONROE- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF…JIM THORPE… STROUDSBURG 947 PM EST SUN NOV 18 2007

…HEAVY SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EST MONDAY…

A HEAVY SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EST MONDAY.

PERIODS OF SNOW WILL CONTINUE TO FALL OVERNIGHT WITH A STORM TOTAL OF 2 TO 5 INCHES IN THE VALLEYS AND 5 TO 10 INCHES IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS. SNOWFALL REPORTS FROM THE HIGHER TERRAIN OF THE POCONOS HAVE REACHED 7 INCHES.

ROAD SURFACES WILL CONTINUE TO BECOME INCREASINGLY SLIPPERY… ESPECIALLY BRIDGES… OVERPASSES AND LESS TRAVELED ROADWAYS. THIS IS THE FIRST WIDESPREAD SNOWFALL OF THE SEASON. IF YOU WILL BE TRAVELING AROUND THE POCONOS TONIGHT… BE PREPARED FOR HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS. SLOW DOWN WHILE DRIVING AND LEAVE PLENTY OF ROOM BETWEEN YOUR VEHICLE AND THE ONE AHEAD OF YOU. THE FALLING SNOW WILL ALSO REDUCE THE VISIBILITY. PLEASE GIVE YOURSELF EXTRA TIME FOR YOUR MORNING COMMUTE.

A HEAVY SNOW WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE FORECAST THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL HAZARDOUS. IF YOU MUST… KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT… FOOD… AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

Whew, it seems like we just got into the fall season but winter is definitely right on its tail.  When we left this morning there was frost on the ground, the windshield and when I got into the car it said it was 31 degrees!  If you haven’t yet winterized your plants its definitely a good time to start.  Check out this plant hardiness zone map and take notice if you’ve just moved into the area the difference in temperature so you know how to winterize your plants accordingly.  Covering them with hay or even leaves might do the trick but be sure to read up on your perennials so they are sure to last through until the spring.

 A great, great investment for the winter is a remote car start system.  Simply put what it allows you to do is start your car from inside the comfort of your warm home so that by the time you are ready to leave for the day it is already warm!   Each system is different, but the one we have works by simply holding in a button on the car keychain and it will start the car.  If you do not get in and manually start the car within about 5 minutes the car will automatically shut itself off.  Also, if you fear that someone might steal your car – no worries, if you auto start the car as soon as the break petal is touched it turns itself off. 

They are great for a number of reasons:
1) It saves time – you do not need to run outside & start the car and then run back inside.
2) Security – since you do not leave your keys in the car(unlike manually doing it) there is no risk for your vehicle being stolen.
3) Money – Ask your car insurance agent if you can save any money with a better alarm system.  Most companies will reduce your insurance rates and eventually it will pay for itself.
4) Convenience – Going from a warm house to a warm car in the dead of winter is wonderful!

Tips:
- If you do get a system take notice of how long it takes to warm your car up – when its really cold you might need 2 cycles for it to fully warm up.
- When you exit your car be sure to turn the defrosters on high, so while your car engine is warming your windows are defrosting, saving you some valuable time that would be spent scraping them.
- If there you get a lot of snow make sure your exhaust is not covered before your turn it on.

 I can’t say enough about them, look around for deals – almost any store that offers car cd players and alarms will also offer remote starts.

Here is a coupon for a local car installation company in Stroudsburg for 15% off: http://blossominstallations.com/index.php

Since the past few years an increasing number of people are choosing malaysian airlines to go out in the chilly winters and have fun in the freezing temperatures. Many of them choose to stay at adventure hotels and purchase the vacation plans that come along all the related services of car rental, travel insurance and booking the domestic flights. More often than others, the services are reached via some travel agency specialized in hot hotel deals. While certain other times of the year people may choose to do all the travel arrangements such as finding the flights to boston, researching and finalizing the stay packages with orlando hotel reservations, selecting the appropriate connecting flights schedule with spirit airline all by themselves.

First, sorry for the lull in recent posting – we’ve had a family cold cycling which is typical with the fall weather.  Moving on…We visited a few different areas this year for trick-or-treating.  One was the Trunk or Treat provided by the Stroudsburg Wesleyn Church that sets up cars in the parking lot for children to trick-or-treat at.  It was a great, safe way for the younger kids to enjoy Halloween.  I also saw that the college was having a trick-or-treat event which we did not make it to but also seemed like a fun safe alternative for kids.  We stopped by a few houses outside town and only about half had their lights on, maybe with so many other alternatives and days now there isn’t that need for everyone to be at their homes on Halloween. 

We then headed into Stroudburg where they shut down a few streets and we were able to see all of the houses that are extensively decorated.  It definitely gets you into the spirit seeing the time and effort people put into dressing up their homes.  I wouldn’t recommend it for toddlers and younger as there were tons of people, you literally had to wait in line at some houses.  The youngest kids are happy enough with a few houses and a few pieces of candy, in town definitely appeals to the older crowd as it has lots of houses together(more candy) plus the scare factor(which again doesn’t appeal to the little ones).

I hope everyone had a great Halloween, if you had a great experience this year we’d love to hear about it!