Blizzard of the Decade?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Sitting here in Hastings, MN where it has snowed nonstop all day in near whiteout conditions. My brother's been outside to shovel our driveway probably about five or six times, and numbers like 16 inches are being thrown around. The local news is saying this is the biggest blizzard of the 2000's. Are they right? Anyone else in the Upper Midwest area experiencing conditions like those here in Minnesota?

[RandomNPC]

That storm was origonally said to be hitting Ohio sunday night going into monday.

Now it could be happening tonight.

The cleavland weather guy tends to drink a bit.

[CynicalAvocado]

i wish i was up there

[Temotei]

Unfortunately, our part of Minnesota just barely avoided that massive blizzard. We've got a considerable amount of snow, but it's less than I had hoped for.

[Brainstomper]

Oakdale has 20 inches, Woodbury 15+. It is not the worst ever here (1985, 1991) but it is theworst since the 1990s. Now we should have -5 air temps with windchill around -35. Minneapolis and St. Paul have pulled their plows for crew rest, repair and the fact that they cant keep up with the snow. My inlaws out in Afton have a 9 foot snow drift in their driveway.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

Yes, this is the most in a 24 hour period since the Halloween Blizzard of '91. And appears to be one of the top 10 snowfalls of all time for the Twin Cities (Bloomington here). I think we got/getting 16-18 inches. There was even someone cross country skiing down the street a few hours ago. you know it's bad when they pull all the city buses metro-wide off the roads.

[Jack Squat]

Not the MidWest, but it looks like part of it's about to land on us. Some clouds right over us, and snow predicted through Monday. I'm not expecting much, if anything at all, but we'll see.

[Brainstomper]

My MIL lives out in Afton. Snowmobiles are getting stuck in drifts. Its really nuts. I HAD to go out this afternoon for a lunch that couldn't be reschduled. The parking lot was a mess. Drifted in etc.. I paid a guy with a plowservice that was eating lunch $20 to make a path to the main road.

[KerfuffleMach2]

That storm was origonally said to be hitting Ohio sunday night going into monday.

Now it could be happening tonight.

The cleavland weather guy tends to drink a bit.

Try getting an accurate weather report in Detroit. It's like a game of roulette.

But, yeah, nothing anywhere near that level around here yet.

[AshDesert]

According to teh Googles, this is the worst blizzard in the contiguous 48 since the 90's. There is a massive storm across the northern Midwest, with blizzard conditions in six states earlier today.

I used to live in Hastings. There were some terrible winters there, I remember it getting down to -32 with 5-foot snowdrifts on several occasions. I never liked the weather there. Of course, here it gets up to 110 in the summer, so it's kind of a trade off.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Jealous. Why have you southerners been getting all the good snow? We're skint in Toronto. Had to go an hour an'a half north just to get a coupla inches of snow! All the snow we got during the week's melted by now. :smallfurious:

[RandomNPC]

go ahead and be jealous, I've got one of the lightest cars I've ever seen and I've got to drive an hour to work before the plows really get going if it hits us when they said it should the first time.

[Creed]

Dispatch from Cincinnati, Ohio.
(Loveland, to be more exact)
11:24, P.M.

No snow yet, little rain earlier. 10 inches expected soon. Holding down fort. Rations established to last 3 days. If the snow continues to fall...
God help us all.

End Dispatch
/Creed

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Yes, this is the most in a 24 hour period since the Halloween Blizzard of '91. And appears to be one of the top 10 snowfalls of all time for the Twin Cities (Bloomington here). I think we got/getting 16-18 inches. There was even someone cross country skiing down the street a few hours ago. you know it's bad when they pull all the city buses metro-wide off the roads.

Huh. I got a couple of uncles who live in Bloomington. One managed to brave the blizzard to come have breakfast with us.

[Da Beast]

It stopped snowing in St Anthony a few hours ago but we got quite a bit of it. Maybe if I go out and shovel I'll actually be able to sleep before 6 in the morning...

[unosarta]

I heard on the news the City of Minneapolis actually stopped all of the snow plows because they were getting stuck in the snow.

:smallconfused:

:smalleek:

And the schools will STILL not close come Monday. :smallfrown:

[thorgrim29]

Any word on whether it'll travel north?

[valadil]

You must have all our snow. Boston is warm and dry this year.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I saw a flake this morning... which is about the most I ever see. Maybe once a year get snow of an inch or two. Wouldn't mind a mini-blizzard. Love snow, and north Georgia mountains are about the only place you really see it in the state, but even then, very uncommon.
Heavy icings are much more common. Go out onto your porch and listen to the pines snapping. Good times :smallamused:

(Our yellow pines are the ugliest, polliniest trees I've ever seen)

[Trog]

Western WI got a foot or so. Bad I suppose in the very short term, but I've seen far worse.

Drive cleared. Woo!:smallbiggrin:

Edit: Also this was nothing compared to a few years back when we got this much on day one and this much again on day two. So blizzard of the decade for here? No. Elsewhere, possibly. :smallwink:

[Tirian]

Edit: Also this was nothing compared to a few years back when we got this much on day one and this much again on day two. So blizzard of the decade for here? No. Elsewhere, possibly. :smallwink:

I have to assume that they are using the specific definition of "blizzard" that includes very high and sustained winds (35 mph). 21 inches isn't a legendary amount of snow assuming you can plow it while it's falling. If you have to wait until the storm has passed to start dealing with it, it'll put a crimp in your plans.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I heard on the news the City of Minneapolis actually stopped all of the snow plows because they were getting stuck in the snow.

:smallconfused:

:smalleek:

And the schools will STILL not close come Monday. :smallfrown:

And the Metrodome's roof collapsed because of all the snow!

[Mando Knight]

Central Missouri got tapped by the southern tip of the system... we got maybe a couple inches of snow.

[Dr.Epic]

There was a pretty nasty blizzard that hit me last February. I missed over a week of school.

[unosarta]

And the Metrodome's roof collapsed because of all the snow!

I heard about that!

[fimzo]

The Metrodome roof collapsed, snowplows aren't going out, all after a huge snowstorm... And still school isn't being canceled. I hate Minnesota winters.

[KuReshtin]

Metrodome roof collapse footage. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxuxNLf87_Y)

[Mando Knight]

The Metrodome roof collapsed, snowplows aren't going out, all after a huge snowstorm... And still school isn't being canceled. I hate Minnesota winters.

Time to walk three miles through the snow to get to school, uphill both ways?

[Admiral Squish]

Only a couple inches in Michigan when I last went out, but it's been REALLY coming down for the last six hours or so.

[Obrysii]

Madison WI got freezing rain then snow; only about 7" of snow.

A lot of car crashes and a lot of plowing being done.

[Zevox]

South-eastern Michigan got hit today, and while the snow isn't all that high, the snowfall, wind, and temperatures were still pretty nasty. My car doors were literally frozen shut when I went to leave work today (worked from 12:30-9). Never had that happen before - didn't even know it could. Had to call my mom and have her come pick me up, though she wound up helping me manage to get the door open (she had a snow brush/ice scraper to use to pick at the ice, mine was stuck in my car).

Zevox

[Tirian]

My car doors were literally frozen shut when I went to leave work today (worked from 12:30-9). Never had that happen before - didn't even know it could.

Oh yes. Freezing rain can get inside your door locks and then I don't even know how you get it out. Flush it out with warm alcohol, maybe.

[Zevox]

Oh yes. Freezing rain can get inside your door locks and then I don't even know how you get it out. Flush it out with warm alcohol, maybe.
Oh, it wasn't the locks - I could put my key in and turn it just fine. It was the actual door that wouldn't open. Even on the side that didn't get the brunt of the snowfall.

Zevox

[unosarta]

Well, in order to update those who don't know, the Minneapolis public school system had a miracle.

No school! This is the first time such a thing has happened in my lifetime. :smalleek:

[Brainstomper]

In 1995 Gov. Carlson cancelled everything in Minnesota except police/fire/hospital/plows. This was due to the fact that the airtemp was between
-40 and-65 dependant on where you were. With windchill it was -100 in places. I had liter of Stoili Vodka freeze in my car trunk one night. It was cold.

[Sipex]

Yikes.

It's not as cold here but we did have a lot of snow trouble last week.

We got about 50 or 70 centimetres of snow total over 3 days and the city was shut down for two. We were supposed to get another 50 but it staved off eventually.

Nice time off work though.

[Meg]

At least 18 inches here in St. Paul. Even though the snow was mostly on Saturday and Sunday, the plows STILL can't get through in some places, so school was cancelled today. Super excited even though I'm spending the day shoveling out my neighbors' cars.

[Linkavitch]

Huh. I thought this was a thread to vote on the people's favorite Blizzard treat from Dairy Queen. Oh Well.

Back on topic, Northern Michigan has about 12-24 inches where I'm at.

[Mando Knight]

Huh. I thought this was a thread to vote on the people's favorite Blizzard treat from Dairy Queen. Oh Well.

That's because the answer is Oreo, unless you include seasonally-available flavors like pumpkin pie. Then the answer might be Mint Oreo.

[boj0]

I had to get a ride to campus today because my car is under four feet of snow :smallfurious:
But yeah, Saturday was the first time in ten years my work closed early; I was excited to go home before 5 pm, not so excited to white-knuckle the entire ride home with cars randomly swerving/crashing in front of me.
Wake up the next day to see my car buried, had to call my manager for a ride to work :smallfrown:
I've lived in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota for all 22 years of my life, and aside from the Halloween blizzard (which I barely remember due to being three years old), this was the craziest snow I've ever seen.

[RandomNPC]

I was six in that blizzard, and I was furious that I had to wear a coat over my clown costume. All you could see was my goofy face paint, I still want a do-over.

[BRC]

Snow Snow Snow, all I hear about is snow.
Here in Saratoga, we have Rain.
The weather hates us.

[The Succubus]

To all those whining about the lack of snow, I live in England and we're supposed to be getting a ton of it right when I'm due to fly to Denmark to see my SO. Believe me, you're welcome to it.

[Asthix]

I was so excited that Halloween back in '91. I had my devil costume, I was warm without a coat (A must for costumes up here) and I was going to rock the candy getting. Then before too long my parents were hustling me home before it was too snowy to walk / see anything.

The thing that made that storm kind of awesome was that we had no snow before that. This storm we already had a foot of snow on the ground, so with the 17" we got in the cities effectively we have 30 inches on the ground now. And that's skiing down the street weather for sure.

Even with all that and an air temp below zero now, (before wind chill) I still saw several bicyclers this morning. Now that's dedication. Although I'm sure any Playgrounders in Siberia can put us all in our place. -40 deg. air temp before wind chill today, apparently.

[Mando Knight]

I was so excited that Halloween back in '91. I had my devil costume, I was warm without a coat (A must for costumes up here) and I was going to rock the candy getting. Then before too long my parents were hustling me home before it was too snowy to walk / see anything.

That's when it was? Then my parents moved south just in time. We moved from MN down to southern IL in like September of that year.

[onthetown]

I'm not from the midwest, and I hate to spur Canadian stereotypes, but we got close to 4 feet of snowfall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Juan) (and over 5 feet in places, once the drifts started) here in PEI one year. The snow piled up so high on my neighbourhood's street that, when you climbed on top of it, you were almost taller than some of the bungalos and you could walk quite a ways like this before the drift went back to street level. It was fun.

Edit: I couldn't find any pics to show of the White Juan (my mom has a few of me standing on the snow way high up) but I found this pic of our house last year (http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v645/66/117/722260001/n722260001_5211906_109.jpg), which is typical for January - April for our part of Canada.