“We’ve never before had snow on this scale,” said Valgeir Þorvaldsson, director of the Icelandic Emigration Center in Hofsós…
After his office, located in two-story houses almost disappeared under a thick blanket of snow during the big storm last week.
It’s not only horses that have been buried under meters of snow in Iceland after the big storm last week. Nope, 9-meter-high (30 feet) buildings have also completely disappeared. That’s pretty insane, yes!
When building those houses, they have never believed they would once have to shovel snow off the roofs and crawl to their offices through a second-story window.
But this exactly what happened to Valgeir Þorvaldsson, director of the Icelandic Emigration Center in Hofsós, after the severe snow cyclone in Iceland.
The office houses measure 9 meters (30 ft) up to the gable. Insane snow accumulation, isn’t it?
This last picture reminds me of the wondrous Snow Wall Walk with its 17-meter-deep snow canyon on Japan’s Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route.
According to MLB, there is a huge pile of snow behind one of those houses. If the snow banks start moving, the building will probably collapse.
Maybe this is why people emigrated to America. 🙂 [MLB]
The same happens in South West Minnesota frequently.
When I traveled through the area for work, I saw many houses nearly covered over.
The snow is light and fluffy and the wind blows it around.
Any obstruction causes the snow to settle on the down wind side and accumulate.
In my younger days, I installed and removed snow fences to keep the snow from drifting close township roads.
Here in northern Idaho, the snow is wet and heavy.
It frequently rains at the tail end of a snow storm.
There is little to no drifting like in the Midwest.