Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

Yes, there are. And they show that it's a trade-off well worth investigating. Do you really want 10% better performance on snow at the cost of 10% worse performance on tarmac?

How much do you drive on snow anyway? Probably nowhere near as long as you do on tarmac, even in a tough winter.

Part of this isn't just relevant for "heavy snow" places but also for rear emergency situations you anyway should be prepared for.

This winter we had a power hick up _and then_ a multi day power outage.

> You have a lot of batteries, flashlights, shelf stable food, warm clothes, and drinking water stored, right? Good.

I hadn't. Luckily the power outage was quite local so I could take a bus for ~30min to get to some shops, including ones with flashlights.

Also no propane heater or similar, you don't expect to need it where I live. I would have loved having had it even if just for a bit.

I also had a 1kWh battery.

But some annoying surprise:

- 1kWh is a bad size, to big (but still possible) to nice by food carry somewhere where you can recharge it but too small to use it for a lot of things

- Turns out even if you blanked is theoretically insulating enough to handle very cold temperatures, if it's cooled down, you bed is cooled down, and you yourself are cooled down you need quite a time to warm it up with body head. Doesn't matter that it can handle the temperature or having very warm clothes it will be a huge pain. Having some way (e.g. heat blanked run by battery) to slightly heat up your blanked _before_ you enter it makes an enormous difference when sleeping at ~10C.

- In general learn about winter camping tips they help you if you need to bridge 1-2 days in a very cold apartment. Also having a winter camping sleeping bag can be nice.

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The 3rd point is just general good advice, at least skim the manual it might have surprisingly important things in it. And sometimes random but useful tips.

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> build up and make the fallen snow denser and tougher

fun fact: this is how glaciers are formed, from non melting snow fall pilling up over years and by wight compressing the snow to ice

The most recent thing I've learned after a lifetime in the Midwest US: There's nothing like the 'Snow Wonder Snow Scoop'[1] for moving snow manually.

Someone left theirs at my wife's previous home and she's kept it since. I don't get sore after shoveling anymore. I have a snow blower but only use it when there's more than 6" on the ground.

I've tried other "push sled" style scoops and none of them work this well (and weigh so little).

[1]: https://snowscoop.com

This isn't fully true.

Snow can be bad enough to a point where even modern cement build building can have trouble.

EDIT: I didn't realize A-frame refers to a _very_ steep angle instead of "just" a slightly steeply tilted roof.

And A-frame roof help but do _not_ magically fix it, with the right kind of snow condition it can get stuck to the roof anyway and turn into ice there. This can be dangerous in 2 ways. 1. Weight and 2. if it randomly comes all crashing down potentially hitting people. And sure it's should be a rare exception if you have stable build buildings. But rare exceptions happens anyway even in places with good infrastructure and/or cities etc.

Similar while power outages really should not happen, sometimes there are natural catastrophes (or terrorist attacks) and power is gone for days anyway.

Being prepared helps. Even if it's a situation which counts as natural disaster and external help will be provided, knowing that you aren't reliant on it and they can focus on people much more in need is nice.

PS: I'm not a preper or anything, just prepared in the sense of basic knowledge and some minimal preparations like flash lights, water, food you can eat without stove, a larger battery, somewhat weather proof clothes, etc. Nothing fancy, nothing usable long term. Just enough to bridge some days of an local emergency situation.

only to a limit

enough snow, especially if compacted, especially if it involves melting + refreezing cycles turning part of it too ice and even robust concrete building can have some surprising issues

but it's true that for what most places in the world need a slightly tilted and structural stable roof is good enough, if you know how to clean it if things to south