Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place • Hacker News Board

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#341

Post by citrin_ru » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 10:33 AM UTC

pastage wrote: post #214

UltraSane wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An A-frame is a overkill solution to snow load when you can just make a shallower roof stronger.

Tradition says that this is not true but honestly I have no real experience except I have done the calculation for our roof. According to our local building standards at 60⁰ you basically have zero snow load, I am not sure what angle a shallow angle roof is but 30⁰ is max load. 6kN/m² is a lot of extra strength.

With 60⁰ there is no snow accumulation at all but 35⁰-45⁰ pith roof will not hold all snow either. After it will accumulate some amount of snow (depending on the weather and an exact pith but rarely more than 50cm) snow will start to slide down.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#342

Post by UltraSane » Fri, Feb 13, 2026, 11:52 PM UTC

derefr wrote: post #285

UltraSane wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you get that much snow you should build heating into the roof to melt the snow just enough to slide off

A-frames are often used in snowy climates as a vacation home, park ranger patrol station, or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness_hut . Such buildings are un-lived-in for much of the year, if not "indefinitely until needed." The building needs to survive, not being crushed by snow, without any human supervision. As TFA emphasizes, grid electricity is unstable in rural places in winter; which means that even if su…

Use slippery metal roofs then. They are so good at shedding snow that people actually add devices to PREVENT snow from sliding off of them.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#343

Post by fulafel » Sat, Feb 14, 2026, 7:57 AM UTC

pants2 wrote: post #185

827a wrote: post #180

Interesting conversation I had with someone from a semi-warmer climate recently, as they visited: After seeing all the snow on the ground, they commented "wow it must snow all the time here". Me: "Well, we had that big winter storm, when was that, three weeks ago? I don't think its snowed much since then". You can see the gears turning as they come to the realization that snow doesn't, like, go anywhere. If it snows…

This is an interesting way to frame it, but then the obvious question is, for areas where it almost never gets above freezing, why doesn't the snow get infinitely thick? The other main ways you lose snow are: sublimation, wind blowing it elsewhere, compaction, and getting dirty (darker color helps it melt in the sun). All of these are relevant for other cities in the snow.

Glaciers wouldn't get inifinitely thick anyway since they're of finite age, but also they flow out to sea. It happens at a very slow, one might even say glacially slow, pace.

(and the poles are very dry, rarely snows)

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#344

Post by Reubachi » Mon, Feb 16, 2026, 3:29 PM UTC

helle253 wrote: post #300

> Do NOT get wet and cold. One thing i keep saying over and over, and few believe me, unless they know from experience - is that winters in Chicago are actually significantly more miserable than Minneapolis, where I went to college. Minneapolis winters are so cold that everything is dry as a bone, so the cold doesn't 'stick' the same way - Chicago winters sit mostly in the 20-40 range where it's both wet and cold (of…

I am in a similar area IE; usual coldest is low 20s, often sits around 32-38f. But have oft worked outside in consistent cold snaps from negatives to 10f or so, also on boats/the docks.

working in dry extreme cold is infinitely worse than balmy 35f. One because in both scenarios moving snow/moisute out is required regardless of temps for working safety, and two because dexterity is gone at the lower temps/layering becomes inhibitive to work.

Ie; I'd rather work in a rain/snowcoat and be able to use my hands to get back inside quicker, than to work 8 hours outside in the "Clear/dry" extreme cold.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#345

Post by marpstar » Thu, Feb 19, 2026, 10:51 PM UTC

j_bum wrote: post #246

marpstar wrote: post #245

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…

The pictures show what looks like very powdery snow. How does this fare with wet and icy snow?

Honestly, even better. It's the wet snow that's especially heavy (and risky for your back), so not having to lift it is invaluable. Only when the snow is considerably taller than the scoop does it begun to show its weaknesses.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#346

Post by the_real_cher » Sat, Feb 21, 2026, 4:55 PM UTC

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #235

the_real_cher wrote: post #162

Is it possible to use a flamethrower instead of a shovel to clear your driveway?

The math there gets pretty bad pretty fast. A cubic foot of snow represents ~15 lbs of ice. That corresponds to at 144 BTU to melt a lb of ice, that means you need at a minimum 2160 BTU of fuel (assuming 100% of your heat goes to melting the snow). A gallon of gasoline represents about 114,000 BTU, so each gallon of gas could clear, in a best case scenario where you can capture 100% of the heat, only 50 cubic feet of…

Thank you for the detailed response!

That explains why you dont see more flamethrower driveway clearing services.