In my lifetime's experience with snow, this was just a blip.
It's said that the Eskimos have a hundred words for snow and I can understand that concept. This snow was what I'd call salty, sandy snow. It is small grained and dry, blowing freely. This was not the wet, heavy type that fell in 1979 and caused our wedding reception to be cancelled and rescheduled! Yes, that's my snowstorm story. I had to freeze my wedding cake, thaw it and serve it at a later date.
Here's a photo in which I have removed the color and upped the constrast so that you can see the sandy nature of the snow. It was drifting and moving like a sand dune.
It's difficult to determine the depth but that becomes apparent when we follow behind the snowblower.
This is an OK method of snow removal but I much preferred when I had a snow blade on my tractor. The Farmer got tired of attaching the blade and rear weights every fall so we moved to this method.
I totally agree that without the proper equipment this snowfall would be a disaster..... say, in Seattle or San Antonio. Hey, I've been in San Antonio when an inch of snow fell. It was BAD.
Here's the front of our house after the snowfall.
It looks bad but that is drifting, not simply accumulated snowfall. That's the level of the sidewalk.
We're not going to worry about clearing that sidewalk for now.
All in all, from my perspective the snowstorm in 1999 was much worse. The Farmer was in Florida and I was left to clear a driveway of wet, heavy and deep snow. It took me TWO days to accomplish the task, much of which had to be done by hand. It was just too much, even for the tractor and blade.
The grandaddy of all storms was in January 1967. I'll talk about that tomorrow but take a peek at what transpired.
Keep warm!
16 comments:
I was merely a thought in 1967. I lived through the Blizzard of '78-79. We didn't get the Blizzard of 1999 down here. And really, I can't even remember my family talking about it! My kids have greatly enjoyed their blizzard experience. Its a first for them!
Thank goodness we had 3 different neighbors stop by with their tractors yesterday. Each one cleared a bit more than the last and we can now easily get out our driveway. That's the great thing about this sort of weather it really brings out the best in people.
Looks like the scenes I saw yesterday of Lakeshore Drive. Glad that the storm was "just a blip." That's how I felt about ours. In fact, when the station showing Dr. Phil decided instead to feature an extra hour of oohing and ahhing over the weather, I sent the programmer an email asking the simple question: why? I got an answer that the storm had caused so many closings and cancellations that they felt it was worthy of an additional hour of broadcast time. It made me laugh, except that there is no new air date for my missed show and how will I find out whatever has been going on with that Alex!
One good thing about being married to John and the fact that he was vertical yesterday unlike your beloved is that I have never concerned myself with snow removal. Sometimes I help, but really he'd just as soon have me out of the way so he can pitch snow with wild abandon.
It all went south of us. We bought a snow blower this winter, we are down to 2 teen age sons for snow removal and sometimes their schedules interfere.
Love your pictures. I have to agree that heavy wet snow is much tougher to deal with than the dry stuff.
Thanks for sharing and I LOVE your blog!
-Janet from maryland
On January 12, 1985, it snowed 13.5 inches in San Antonio and we had a blast! Today, we are expecting 1 to 2 inches and I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas!
Yours at the Menger,
Not sure if we had 14 (town to E. report) or 20 (town W. of us) but out here in the country it drifted
4-5'. My calves & youngstock walked right out of the pens over snowbanks to meet me! Chaos! Our road just got plowed.
The snow of '79 was worse tho, lasting 2 or 3 days.
I had just turned 14 in that blizzard. We lived in a suburb of Gary, Indiana.. Calumet and after the drifting was done, we only had a basement door that we could open to get out of the house. I posted about it back in early 2005 right after I started the blog and in the last two days, that post became the most popular one... and the number of people from northern Illinois and Indiana who visited was really amazing. I think I got some of my facts garbled.. but after 44 years who wouldn't garble things. I remember the balmy heat the day or two before and that we had tornado warnings... (I don't think they distinguished between warnings and watches in '67) I thought the snow started early Wednesday but the paper said it was a Thursday. I just know that we never got out of school for snow and this time we were sent home at noon and didn't go back for almost a week.
Your pictures of the snow are beautiful. Your description of the wind... you know, I really don't remember any of the sounds of the wind from '67 and that is probably a GOOD thing. ;)
I love that first photo! I am worried about that second snow coming on Monday, have you heard about it? I am going to try to do the same photo technique you described.
I wish I knew those forty words.
It's funny that the first thing that pops into my head when I see people using a snowblower or clearing sidewalks is, why are they doing that? where do they think they're going? I guess the difference is down here, everything would be closed for at least a week anyways and there is no need for shovels/blowers cause there's nowhere to go! Not that the roads would be cleared enough to go anywhere anyways. I think the state of Alabama probably owns about 5 snow plows, lol.
I can't believe all of the snow that you have gotten. We have had two snows already this year, which is a lot for Atlanta. I love snow, but might not if I had to deal with it all of the time. Keep warm.
I hate to admit this but I remember the snowstorm of 1947. I was very young but I remember my father shoveling a path from our driveway to the driveway across the street and that path was almost higher than I was and I was 9 years old.
By the way, I live in Milwaukee, WI - not too far from you. Your area might have gotten the same storm in 1947.
I'm so glad it doesn't snow here. Although it looks beautiful in pictures :)
I saw pictures in the newspaper of the Chicago streets. Wow! Glad we don't get storms quite like that. I am very glad for my father-in-law's big tractor to come clear our driveway, though. There is just no other way to do it, especially when it's heavy wet snow. After our last big snowfall I saw one of our neighbours clearing his long driveway with a snowblower. I'm sure it would have taken him all afternoon. He works away for weeks at a time, so his truck was at the road and he'd had to walk through the snow, get the snowblower and clear the driveway before he could get his vehicle in the yard. Not a nice homecoming! At least it wasn't one of the -30C days.
Hi Suzanne, don't faint, I know I have not been over lately. My whole life is playing catch up. I used to think it was a temporary thing, now I know it IS my life. HA!
Your snow is a huge amount to me. The snow blower looks efficient. I know the snow drifted but you can hardly see your front door. Be safe and stay warm. I enjoyed seeing all that snow but I am sorry you must be in that stuff.
Hugs, Jeanne
Oh, wow. I'm in Texas, and we've been "snowed in" for four days, with just a few inches plus ice. This is incredible!
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