You think YOU got snow? Top this:

[dixiegrrrrl]

Highway 52 North of Dubuque, Iowa, near Rickardsville
( pic sent to me by a friend of 30 years, who lives in Iowa)

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. was the road cleared by a snow plow?

[applegrove]

32. My first thought too. That is incredible!

[roguevalley]

34. that's cool but the port of Valdez, Alaska (val-deez) gets between

40 and 55 feet of snow every year. I think it tops that. Nice pic. Much have been a bitch to cut those lanes but that is done by plowing every time it snows and not just once.

[Hokie]

2. Why is the car driving on the wrong side of the road?

Makes one wonder.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. I noticed that, too...........

[Dennis Donovan]

6. Hmm... pretty stupid with limited sight distance...

...unless that's not Iowa, OR that's a mirror image.

[RB TexLa]

14. White instead of yellow lines would indicate the traffic in those lanes are going in the same

direction

[muntrv]

3. I wish my hometown could plow as good as that.

[Journeyman]

4. Wow. So much snow, it flipped the world backwards & people now drive on the left. . .

Awesome photo, however. I can't imagine driving on roads with such snowdrifts built up on each side.

[alphafemale]

7. Not possibly real.

There are about 78 reasons why this can't be real.

[uppityperson]

15. Like the trees growing on top of the snow piles?

interesting how you can see most of the tree when the snow is that deep. Fun pict though

[here_is_to_hope]

8. Here is the original....

http://genjutsu.es/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/untitled-2.bmp

Iowa wishes!

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. oh my.....I gotta laugh

I am willing to bet my friend has no clue she got taken by whoever sent her the pic.
( she is a bit naive, I'm afraid).
She sent it to me in all seriousness a few minutes before I posted it.

Thank you for finding the real source of that pic.
I don't think I will bother to point out the joke on her, tho.

[hlthe2b]

21. Well, is it possible she'd send it to someone who might really

cause her not only embarrassment, but consequences? (Like an employer or someone she needs to impress?) If so, you might want to point it out. ;)

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. No issues about that in her life.

But I will not embarrass her either.

[here_is_to_hope]

36. I get ya, let it ride...I used

tinyeye and it was right there with a watermark.

[liberal N proud]

9. In your nightmares

A friend of mine sent be some pics today, I was shocked.

I grew up in NW Iowa and they didn't get that much snow.

[CrispyQ]

10. Here's what I think of that much snow...

;)

A friend captured this shot in Colorado, in 2006, after we got dumped on six weeks in a row.

[sufrommich]

11. I've seen this pic many times,attributed to many different

places. Here in Michigan it's usually attributed the the U.P.

[amandabeech]

35. Check post #29. The pic is from Japan, but they use those giant UP-snow blowers

to "plow" the road.

I'm from the western LP myself. One year when I was in high school we had a horrible winter. It started snowing on Christmas and it didn't stop until the end of January. We didn't have much school in January, and being cooped up with the 'rents for long periods of time without cable or the internet was not fun.

It got so bad that one of those blowers from the UP was sent down to us because there were roads, like the one I lived on, that could not be cleared any other way. The things were awsome.

[dems_rightnow]

12. Looks fake as hell

Not buying it.

[dems_rightnow]

24. I was wrong- VIDEO

Video of the equipment creating the corridor:
http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2010/12/deep-snow-really-deep-snow.html

Somebody driving the corridor:
http://vimeo.com/10670842

[dipsydoodle]

13. I am so overawed with that

I've posted it on FB so's some friends in OH and CA will see it - I'm UK. If that's a problem then tell me and I'll delete it post haste.

:hi:

edit to add - I've just seen the other notes here now. I still think its good even if the the trees are planted on top of the snow line. :)

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. See # 8 and my reply, upthread.

Before you send it out.
Looks like the person who sent it to me had a joke played on her, and I unknowingly passed it on.:blush:

[dipsydoodle]

28. Never mind.

I know you posted in good faith and even in what seems to be the original there remains the oddity that the trees are on top of the snow line. :shrug:

I'll remove your one and link the other - I think its funny anyway.

btw that also explains why they're driving on the left - they do in Japan.

[renegade000]

17. I thought this image was from Japan

This is where I first saw it:
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/so-you-think-you-have-snow/

(which would explain the left-sided driving for those of you wondering)

[hlthe2b]

27. One of the Japanese-reading commenters explains...

The article indicated that: “There is a main road through the mountains that is literally buried in snow during the winter. It is closed during winter, but re opened during the spring after a snow plow digs through an average of 17 meters (56 ft.) of snow to uncover it.”

(translating how they clear the snow from the article at that website).
Tim Martin
Posted December 29, 2010 at 9:10 am | Permalink

Man you guys are lucky I can read Japanese. I found the answers to the various questions people have been asking on this site.

So they apparently just use 2 bulldozers to clear the snow. They start on the end of the road where the snow is less deep, and keep on shaving snow off the top until they get down to the road below (I don’t know where they put the snow exactly. Presubably far enough away so as not to spoil the view.) How do they know where the road is? They used to have to estimate using a compass, and search for the road underneath as they cleared the snow. Nowadays they use a GPS with only a 15cm margin of error to locate the road based on its latitude and longitude.

As for the walls of snow, they have not once crumbled since the route has been opened. The reason being that each cubic meter of snow weighs 500kg, and the pressure this creates makes the walls basically as hard as ice. Also, melting of the snow occurs from the surface inward (obviously), so the walls only recede from the road over time.

There is also a video embedded which looks pretty interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNBUdET_oPo&feature=player_embedded

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. Gulp..that is fascinating.

I poked around that You tube site and found a couple other vids, all impressive, of how deep the snow is.

this video shows how the walls are topped off and the snow below cleared.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8gLFJG6UpY&feature=related

[hlthe2b]

31. I WANT one of those blower plows! LOLOL

I'll show the neighbors. Be nice to me, or I'll bury you in snow! :rofl:

[malaise]

18. I pass

Damn!!

[Mojorabbit]

20. It was like this in northern Japan

when I lived there. It gave me the creeps driving inbetween such high drifts of snow.

[madamesilverspurs]

23. Wherever it was taken

I'd like to see the machine that cleared the road...


-

[dems_rightnow]

25. Posted above....

[taterguy]

26. I'd top it if I could actually see it

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. Whoa...had no idea it had disappeared....

was there a bit ago..

maybe it melted.....

here, let's see if this works:

[donheld]

33. Trail Ridge Road Colorado

another snowy road




http://xmarkstheshot.blogspot.com/2010/05/trail-ridge-road-rocky-mountain.html