For buildings in parts of the snow-covered U.S. West, it has become a winter where the weak do not survive.
The accumulated weight of snow has crushed an old lumber mill in Oregon, the main grocery store in a small Idaho town, a sports complex in Alaska and a conference center in Colorado, among others.
They have led to some injuries and at least one death, when the roof of a woman’s snow-laden porch in northern Idaho fell while she was underneath it, officials say. Authorities fear more collapses will come.
Storms this month have blanketed the West and kept dumping more snow on top of it. Experts say the rare combination of greater snowfall at lower elevations and prolonged cold temperatures that allowed the snow to accumulate without melting away is partly to blame for the collapses.
The combination builds up an amount of snow that exceeds building codes set for weather expected only twice a century, said Dell Winegar, president of the Idaho Onion Growers Association, whose industry has felt the pain at its facilities.
Nearly 20 buildings that store and package onions have crashed down in Idaho and Oregon, leading prices to spike from $3.50 to $6.50 for a 50-pound bag of yellow jumbo onions.
“It’s been a heartbreak for a lot of folks,” Winegar said. “It’s hard to prepare for something that has never happened before.”
While lower elevations are getting record snow, mountains in the West are only somewhat above average, forecasters say.
But “that snow hasn’t been melting,” said Troy Lindquist of the National Weather Service. “We’re ending up with snow loads on roofs that we typically don’t see around here.”
Another possible reason behind the collapses is that settling snow does not look as substantial because it’s not as deep, fooling building owners about the weight that’s pressing on shingles and tiles.
But experts say the water density in the snow is increasing, meaning a roof that does not appear to be holding much powder can be straining under thousands of pounds.
“It really comes down to the amount of water in the snowpack.” said Ron Abramovich, a water supply specialist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service.