Blizzard of 2011

The weather folks predicted up to two feet of snow in some places. They forecasted it would start at 3pm on Tuesday, Feb 1 and end around 3pm on Wednesday, Feb 2. They told people to take precautions. They were saying a storm this huge hadn't happened since 1967. While I wasn't born then, I do remember the one in 1979. Plus we had a pretty big snow storm a few years ago. Bring it, I said. Bring it! :)

Because of this massive impending storm, on Jan 31, a concert I had planned on attending in Chicago on Feb 2 was cancelled. While I was super bummed (Hey! I was willing to risk the elements!) I couldn't disagree with the decision. Although, I joked with a friend, "With all this hype, we'd better get what they are predicting!"

At 1pm, my work released a company wide email telling people to go home prior to the storm hitting. We were also to call the weather hotline after 7pm to see if the office would be closed. By 1:30pm I was on the road. I had no trouble with traffic either. whew. At close to 3pm there were flakes, but I want to say it was between 3:30-4pm when the snow started really coming down. Every hour until it got dark, I opened my front screen door to take pics.

Front yard 3:18pm

Back yard 3:18pm

Front yard 4:18pm

Font yard 5:27pm

Back yard 5:27pm (with flash)

Oh yeah, for dinner I made my version of the Kuma Burger from Kuma's Corner
Pretzel roll, burger, cheese, bacon, fried egg. SUPER TASTY!

Around 9pm I opened and looked out my back screen door. WOW! The wind was REALLY swirling. I snapped a couple pics and took a little video. The snow was really whipping around!

Back yard 9:03pm
(Used the light on the back of the house so I didn't have to use flash)

LOVE how the snow is captured in motion in all of these!

Look at the drift forming on the other side of the door!

Looking at the side door of my garage

One of my faves from this timeframe

Sometime after 9pm, I called the work weather hotline. I couldn't believe it, the office would be closed on Wednesday. (I don't remember the last time the office closed!) We also had rec'd word that school would be closed tomorrow. I didn't check again to see how much snow we had until 11pm. I tried to open my back screen door and could barely get it open a few inches. Why? BECAUSE OF ALL THE SNOW that had accumulated on the other side of the door. It was RIDICULOUS how much snow had fallen by this point! I went to look out the front screen door and again, I couldn't get it open more than a few inches!

OMG! WE WERE LITERALLY SNOWED IN!!!! I could not stop laughing. Even though it was no laughing matter, it was still funny to me. The weather people WERE right! My friend Kim and I had been texting off and on that night and pretty much agreed we were really glad the show had been cancelled. Otherwise, we'd be out in all of it!!

Back yard 11pm
Umm, where is my fire pit?

I can't get my screen door open any more than this!

Front yard 11pm

At close to midnight I heard the front door open and Al exclaimed, "HOLY CRAP!" He couldn't believe how much snow was out there! He was eventually able to push the front screen door open. He shoveled the front step and a little bit of the sidewalk in front of that. I went to bed, eagerly wanting morning to come. I couldn't wait to see all of this in the daylight! Call me crazy!

When I woke up, I was shocked! HOLY CRAP! I could NOT believe all the snow we had gotten! It made me giddy with laughter!!! I walked around the house looking out all the windows and doors to see the pretty white stuff and took pics. Boy did we did get a ton of snow. I'm guessing approx 19" minimum, but probably closer to 20" where I live**, but the drifts from the wind were MUCH higher in a lot of places. The wind appeared to be the worst part of it all. I mean, the snow was high, but the drifts were crazy high! Plus, I could not stop looking at my neighbor's house. The snow in their long driveway must have been at least 4 feet high. I didn't know how they were even going to get out of their house!!!

**We officially had 18" where I live. I still say it was more though!

My neighbor's house thru my bedroom window...YIKES!

Looking thru window at front yard. Umm, the wind really splatted the snow!

I opened the front screen door for these two pics. Where is my sidewalk!?

Opened back screen door for these pics. We didn't get much snow at all! ;)

These two drifts made me think of Dr. Seuss

You know it's cold out if that snow isnt falling!

My back door opened even less than the night before!

I had to stick my arm out thru the small door opening to take this shot. Nice drift!

View of driveway from our kitchen window.
The side mirror is the only thing you can see of my son's Supra!

Funky snow drift outside kitchen window!

Front yard bushes to the left are buried

Front yard bushes to the right are buried

Thank you snow plow man for making the snow so high behind our vehicle!

My view sitting on the couch

Both my neighbor's trying to snow blow their way to the end of their driveway.
Unreal the snow hanging down from their roof!

Around Noon the temp was 18 degrees. Well, 3 with the wind chill. I was dreading going out to help shovel. Luckily, the sun was out. I think it helped a little. Plus the wind didn't seem to really pick up until closer to 2pm.

Al went out around Noon and shoveled a path to the end of the driveway. He then started on the HUGE pile that the plow man so graciously piled up for us at the end of the driveway. I went out closer to 12:30pm (dressed for the occasion of course) and took over moving the snow at the end of the driveway. (He has a bad back and it was killing him by this point.) Since we had parked the cars with his brother's 4-wheel van at the end of the driveway, we only had to move so much of the snow before he was able to drive it out. After that we got the snow plow out from inside the van and started it up. Actually, that was our one saving grace. Because all of the cars were lined up at the end of the driveway, we didnt have as much snow to move vs our neighbor's who had wide open driveways.

And we're off!!

Damn that looks deep!

Wooo, rounding the corner!

I'm out of the house...what a nice path!

There is that funky drift and Jake's car is under all that mess!

Umm honey, where is my nice path?

Snow between my car and the mini van

I made it to the street!

Al working hard!

One down, two to go!

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