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It snowed around here recently.
The snow got going for real Tuesday night. I went out on snow shoes down by the Little Menomonee River right outside my home. It was a lovely night, snow blowing in sustained 40+ km/hr winds with gusts up around 65 km/hr, but the temperature was up around -6°C, so not very cold, quite comfortable even with the wind. Big gusts would blow and pick up whirlwinds of snow, lots of fun to be out in. Everything at any distance was obscured in the blowing snow, like a fog only with a lot more tactile sensation when it hits you! Besides the overall roar of the wind there was the constant clatter of the tree branches hitting each other, and in places the squeaky sounds of rubbing trees. I suppose the actual chance of being hit by a falling tree was very small (I'm not sure any actually did fall out there during this storm at all), but it seemed rather more likely than usual. If there was any thunder I couldn't hear it for all the noise. I got all the way up to near the intersection of Good Hope Road and 91st Street, climbed up the hill to the road level to see the (minimal) traffic on the mostly-plowed roads and get blasted by the unobstructed wind. Needed some care to stay standing in the gusts. It was a fun time to be out on the snow shoes.
There was enough snow overnight that even my employer, which usually won't officially close for weather even when every other school and college and university closes and officials are asking everyone to stay home, actually officially decide to close at 5AM rather than waiting until noon to suggest that anyone who managed to come in should go home if they can. The roads in my immediate neighborhood were actually plowed mostly clear in the morning, but the interstates south of the city were closed and declared "impassable." The wind had diminished somewhat but was still strong, so depending on a road's orientation and what was upwind it's easy to imagine deep drifts continuously forming.
I spent some more time out in the woods on the snow shoes. The snow back in the woods was mostly in the half-meter total depth range, with some areas a bit thinner and some deeper. It was soft snow, and made for quite slow going even with the snow shoes. Very pretty, sunny and just below freezing. Very little traffic on the roads, so hardly even any road noise audible even though I was never more than a few hundred meters from a road.
It's not exactly wilderness, but I live within city limits, can walk to my local coffee shop, cycle to downtown and to work whenever we don't have snow and ice, and yet just across the street from home can wander out in the woods out of sight of anyone else. Plus I can go out alone at night in ridiculous weather and what's the worst that can go wrong? I'm 2km from home, 200m from a paved and plowed road, have strong 3G cell phone signal, and am maybe 4km from a fire station. It's safer than driving on the interstate with all the morons.
Out in the woods it's hard to say how much snow is a lot. Life was pretty well back to normal on Thursday, and driving in the city it sure looked like a lot of snow, piled up high beside the roads, blocking the view for turning in lots of places. The snow firmed up a bit and it was easier walking on the snow shoes today. The ski trails have been groomed and should be good this weekend.
( a few photos )
The snow got going for real Tuesday night. I went out on snow shoes down by the Little Menomonee River right outside my home. It was a lovely night, snow blowing in sustained 40+ km/hr winds with gusts up around 65 km/hr, but the temperature was up around -6°C, so not very cold, quite comfortable even with the wind. Big gusts would blow and pick up whirlwinds of snow, lots of fun to be out in. Everything at any distance was obscured in the blowing snow, like a fog only with a lot more tactile sensation when it hits you! Besides the overall roar of the wind there was the constant clatter of the tree branches hitting each other, and in places the squeaky sounds of rubbing trees. I suppose the actual chance of being hit by a falling tree was very small (I'm not sure any actually did fall out there during this storm at all), but it seemed rather more likely than usual. If there was any thunder I couldn't hear it for all the noise. I got all the way up to near the intersection of Good Hope Road and 91st Street, climbed up the hill to the road level to see the (minimal) traffic on the mostly-plowed roads and get blasted by the unobstructed wind. Needed some care to stay standing in the gusts. It was a fun time to be out on the snow shoes.
There was enough snow overnight that even my employer, which usually won't officially close for weather even when every other school and college and university closes and officials are asking everyone to stay home, actually officially decide to close at 5AM rather than waiting until noon to suggest that anyone who managed to come in should go home if they can. The roads in my immediate neighborhood were actually plowed mostly clear in the morning, but the interstates south of the city were closed and declared "impassable." The wind had diminished somewhat but was still strong, so depending on a road's orientation and what was upwind it's easy to imagine deep drifts continuously forming.
I spent some more time out in the woods on the snow shoes. The snow back in the woods was mostly in the half-meter total depth range, with some areas a bit thinner and some deeper. It was soft snow, and made for quite slow going even with the snow shoes. Very pretty, sunny and just below freezing. Very little traffic on the roads, so hardly even any road noise audible even though I was never more than a few hundred meters from a road.
It's not exactly wilderness, but I live within city limits, can walk to my local coffee shop, cycle to downtown and to work whenever we don't have snow and ice, and yet just across the street from home can wander out in the woods out of sight of anyone else. Plus I can go out alone at night in ridiculous weather and what's the worst that can go wrong? I'm 2km from home, 200m from a paved and plowed road, have strong 3G cell phone signal, and am maybe 4km from a fire station. It's safer than driving on the interstate with all the morons.
Out in the woods it's hard to say how much snow is a lot. Life was pretty well back to normal on Thursday, and driving in the city it sure looked like a lot of snow, piled up high beside the roads, blocking the view for turning in lots of places. The snow firmed up a bit and it was easier walking on the snow shoes today. The ski trails have been groomed and should be good this weekend.
( a few photos )
