Snow safety during the heart of winter

AccuWeather

Parts of the Sierra could receive 10 feet of snow this weekend. Dan DePodwin, AccuWeather's Snow Expert, shares home and health safety tips in preparation for the storm.

Transcript

00:00 Here's the big story, the mountain snow and again 2 to 4 inch per hour snowfall rates.

00:07 We're talking up at 10 feet at Donner Summit, 2 to 4 feet I-5 in northern Shaska County,

00:13 Siskiyou County in northern California, towards Siskiyou Summit in southern Oregon.

00:18 That mountain, or that pass is going to be closed as well along with Donner Pass and

00:22 this is going to be as extreme as it gets in the Sierra with any storm.

00:28 Joining me right now is AccuWeather snow expert Dan DiPadua.

00:32 You know Dan, the question, if you live in these areas, if you live anywhere up above

00:38 4,000 feet in the Sierra or any of these mountains, the question is what can I do to protect myself?

00:45 That's what you need to be thinking.

00:46 Absolutely Bernie.

00:47 It's going to be a dangerous situation as you mentioned.

00:49 Today is the day to prepare here on Thursday before it gets really, the weather goes downhill

00:53 on Friday and on Saturday.

00:56 In terms of what to do to prepare, there's a lot of different safety tips for winter

01:00 storms and it depends if you're obviously inside or outside.

01:03 Before the snow begins, and this is again the day to do that, make sure you have all

01:05 your different supplies and go grocery shopping for your non-perishable items.

01:09 Then as the snow begins and as the snow accumulates in feet upon the roofs, obviously sometimes

01:14 it's necessary to remove snow from the roof, but if you do that, make sure you do so safely,

01:18 so not using a ladder for instance to do that.

01:21 Also making sure that you charge your devices beforehand because there can be power outages

01:25 due to the amount of snow.

01:26 Most power outages can last for several days at least and it may be also a situation where

01:32 you may not be able to leave your house for at least several days.

01:34 In many cases it could be several days to even a week because of the fact you have feet

01:38 of snow.

01:39 Again, this is above about 5,000 feet in elevation.

01:42 If you're going to use a generator, make sure you use it in a well-ventilated area to not

01:46 have any of those fumes inside of your house.

01:48 You know Dan, let's talk about that.

01:50 You don't think about this, but the weight of this snow can really be dangerous as it

01:55 continues to pile up.

01:57 Absolutely.

01:58 The snow weight is something to certainly keep in mind.

02:03 It can be really thousands of pounds on your roof and that can unfortunately lead to roof

02:09 collapses in some cases, which is why it's important to remove that snow from your roof

02:14 in those situations.

02:15 Yeah, and you can see four feet adds almost 34,000 pounds and that's the concern we have

02:24 Dan.

02:25 And of course, you know, being out, you don't want to get caught out in outdoors at all

02:31 with this storm because then we have the problems with hypothermia.

02:36 Yeah, the hypothermia risk is certainly significant.

02:40 Also frostbite too.

02:41 So just covering up your hands and your head with a hat and gloves.

02:46 And obviously if you are outside for a long period of time, these are some of the different

02:50 symptoms to be cognizant for if you're out caught in the cold for a long period of time.

02:54 All right, Accuweather snow expert Dan DiPondre.

02:57 Dan, thanks for joining us.

02:59 And as Dan mentioned, be prepared, not scared, but make sure you're prepared for this storm.

03:04 A lot of snow's coming.

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