Blizzard?

"The National Weather Service is calling for a big blizzard today!" -- Groundhog Day

Given that news, the entire state of Colorado is in a panic. Schools are closed in preparation. I don't get it, personally, but hey - Jordan gets a snow day out of it.

I have decided to blog the day. I'll take a picture every 30-60 minutes and watch the blizzard roll in. We'll see if my lack of faith in the meteorologists is worthwhile or if I need to rethink my belief in news reporters.

So, to start us off, this is what we woke up to at 6:30am

Less than an inch on the grass & roofs and nothing but a bit of moisture on the roads

Fast forward to 8:30am when I decided to take another picture, this time from the office window

A little more snow on the grass, but the roads are still fine. You can see a couple of flakes in the shot, as it has begun snowing.

9:35am

More flakes in the air. Nothing on the road, and not much change to the grass. You can no longer see the road and houses in the distance, though.

10:50am

Bah. This isn't getting to be the big blizzard I was thinking of. Not that I want it or even expect it. The snow on the grass hasn't changed, the roads are still fine, and you can now see more of the road & houses in the distance.

11:45am

It's not any different on the ground, although there is a lot more snow in the air and the flakes are bigger. The wind has kicked up a bit, too. The road & houses in the distance have disappeared again.

12:15pm

Okay. So now it's starting to come down. The flakes are really big still. The snow is now beginning to stick to the roads.

12:30pm

More snow. Definitely sticking and not melting away. The flakes are smaller, but there are more of them in the air.

12:50pm

Wow. I'm impressed. I'd say there are now 2 inches of snow in the grass, heavy blowing snow, and near whiteout conditions. You can see the bare spot in the street where a neighbor drove up, parked for about 10 minutes while his wife ran inside for something, and then they drove off again. That's quite a bit of snow in 10 minutes!

1:00pm

I won't put another picture up yet, but the spot in the street where the car was sitting is now completely gone, as are the tire tracks. It's still coming down quick, seeing as it's only been another 10 minutes. Lots of horizontal snow in the air. But it seems like plenty is still falling from the clouds!

2:15pm

Well, it's slowed down a bit. I think the snow is blowing more than falling. Lots of horizontal white stuff. But visibility is better and some of the roads & driveways are melting a bit. I'm sure it'll be icy tonight! Lots of businesses are closing early, and Jeff is on his way home from work. If the snow keeps up, he'll probably be home tomorrow, too!

3:45pm

The snow has tapered off, but not quit. It's still coming down and blowing around. But the visibility is better, as you can see the road & houses in the distance. Jeff is still working on getting home. Traffic is completely backed up. He just turned off his side street and onto Arapahoe. It's 1.4 miles from his building to Arapahoe. Yargh.

5:00pm

Well, Jeff finally made it home. It is continuing to snow here, and it's getting deeper. While it doesn't appear that much has changed, the lack of getting better isn't a good thing.

6:15pm

So, aside from the picture looking like it was taken at noon rather than 6pm, nothing has changed. Our backyard has more snow, but the amount on the streets still seems about the same. News reports are now saying that the storm is finishing up sooner than anticipated. Yay.

7:15pm

Ahh, it's getting dark out! The snow hasn't changed much. People are now shoveling their driveways. They either think the storm is almost over, or they think we're going to get a ton more and want to make their next shoveling job easier. As it stands, I can't see us getting much more. The storm seems about spent and the blizzard watch is over for us. But, the snow is still coming down, although it's difficult to see. I guess I'll check again in an hour or so.

8:20pm

A look at our neighbor's house, since they have their porch light on making the snow is easy to see. The photo looks grainy, but it's all snow. The wind is still gusting quite a bit, the snow is nicely falling, and the temperature is 13 degrees but feels like -6. Fun. I sure hope that there's no school tomorrow and that Jeff works from home (although that means I don't get to do my woodworking project unless we move the car from the garage). 

Still 8:20pm

A look in the original direction. You can see the lights on in the houses in the distance, so obviously the snow isn't coming down too hard. I'd still hate to be out in it. I'm sure it's slick.

10:45pm

A shot of our old barbecue that we need to throw out. Quite a bit of snow for us this winter. Hopefully Colorado will not have as many fire danger days in early Spring now! The pictures had to be taken from inside the house, as the screen door is frozen shut... both Jeff and I pulled and pried to get the thing open and it just wouldn't. And I couldn't bring myself to go out the front door and traipse across all the snow just to get the picture I wanted. :)

10:45 again - last post for tonight

So, to end on the same scene as we started with, here's a shot of the backyard showing how much snow accumulated throughout the day. It's still snowing out there, and is supposed to continue through the night. School is canceled for tomorrow so Jordan gets to start his Spring Break a few days early.

I may take some more pictures tomorrow, if the snow continues to provide any interest for me. Since it was too cold for me to work in the garage this evening, I spent a lovely time playing WoW with Jeff. Who can complain about that? :)