Bird Netting + snow = bad idea

[Oz chic]

Sorry for your hassle. Dry snow probably would have been no problem. Wet snow always causes a problem.

Thank you, it has caused so much damage, not just here, but around town to. We are just not in an area that is used to snow and this much too, it is still laying about in some areas.

Oh well tomorrow is an new day and as long as we don’t get the snow tonight, that is actually forecast for this area, then I can start repairing my run...surely we can’t get snow a 4th time this yr...

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Thank you, it has caused so much damage, not just here, but around town to. We are just not in an area that is used to snow and this much too, it is still laying about in some areas.

Oh well tomorrow is an new day and as long as we don’t get the snow tonight, that is actually forecast for this area, then I can start repairing my run...surely we can’t get snow a 4th time this yr...

I wonder if this is what hit you:

https://electroverse.net/rare-snow-takes-aussie-forecasters-by-surprise/

FWIW something seems to be happening in AU. Perisher ski resort (wherever that is in AU) is having it's longest season on record.

 

[K0k0shka]

The weather is getting more extreme and more unpredictable, with large events that used to be rare now more frequent. Hotter heat waves, colder cold snaps, more destructive storms, tornadoes, etc. - very unstable and unpredictable. Any structures you want to last for some time into the future should be sturdy just in case. You never know what will hit you tomorrow.

 

[jeepgirl13]

You need far stronger supports to prevent collapse, though you'll still see sagging regardless as the snow builds up. We got a "worst in 50 years" snow storm last year and it built up 6-8 inches (15-20 cm) on the netting at a time, so we'd go out and hit it with a broom every 4 hrs or so to keep it as minimal as possible. The netting sagged but didn't break, and the supports all held up without issue.

We had one of those, got 6 to 8 ft here!! They called it a bomb cyclone and that snow hung around for weeks. I had to go out with a snow shovel, all swollen and pregnant to shovel a way out of the house, to the coop, then used it to clear the snow off the top of the run. Thankfully our run was only about 3 ft tall then. Not sure how it's going to go this year.

We had wire on top of our run. Maybe it will hold better than netting?

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

We had wire on top of our run. Maybe it will hold better than netting?

Yeah, but it can only take so much weight

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

The weather is getting more extreme and more unpredictable, with large events that used to be rare now more frequent. Hotter heat waves, colder cold snaps, more destructive storms, tornadoes, etc. - very unstable and unpredictable. Any structures you want to last for some time into the future should be sturdy just in case. You never know what will hit you tomorrow.

Expect it to continue. The wavy jet stream is what's causing cold air to move south and warm air to move north. I don't know the details, but weakened solar activity is what causes the jet stream to change like that.

 

[jeepgirl13]

Yeah, but it can only take so much weight

As with anything. We had quite a bit of sagging in ours too, but no collapse thankfully. It's a horrible thing to have had happen to the OP! It takes a lot of time and money to build a coop. I was just hoping to help spur some creative brainstorming to help OP for the next freak storm

 

[Quackter]

Fluke or future, for shedding snow, the steeper the better, if that's any help.

 

[jeepgirl13]

Fluke or future, for shedding snow, the steeper the better, if that's any help.

Our new coop has a slanted roof to allow snow to slide off. When we extend the run a bit it will have slanted top as well. I plan on using some old metal horse shed roofing for the run roof and possibly on the bottom of one side to prevent the snow from drifting in the run. The drifts are horrible here

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

surely we can’t get snow a 4th time this yr...

I'd be prepared. That article I linked to says the same weather pattern that just hit you may return next week. GFS stands for Global Forecast System

And turning our attention to the latest GFS runs, this rare pattern looks as though it might actually repeat itself next week: