10 inches of snow in 4 hours. It was still above freezing when I went to the store at 7 a.m. Then it all went to hell by 11 o'clock. 14 total inches and still falling plus 60 mph wind gusts all day. It doesn't snow like this in OKC. Ever. All interstates closed. Airport closed. People are stranded at my job. Thank God I didn't have to go in today. That 50 car pile up on I-40 was pretty spectacular. When someone crashes into an ambulance, it's an event. Highest single day snow fall in a century with white out conditions. Bizarro world. :santa_shocked:
Funny you mention that. Here in Tulsa it is snowing for the first time since I moved out here. I guess people around here are a little freaked out about it... but I'm from up north so I'm kind of used to this sort of thing.
You northern folk are more hearty when it comes to winter; this is officially the largest amount of snow in OKC history. They haven't gotten over 10 inches in 85 years. I've never been in a real blizzard in my entire life (I'm 44) until today. It's new for me.
I've got four foot drifts next to the house and the wind still hasn't stopped howling. The snow's so light it won't stick to the ground long. That layer of frozen sleet under the snow will make driving hell in the morning when they finally get the roads cleared off. If the damn wind will ever stop they could start.
It's Oklahoma, the wind blows. Four foot drifts? I've seen worse. When cattle are walking over five foot fences, then you got yourself some snow.
We've never had a genuine blizzard, flow. Stillwater gets more snow than the city. It's the wind that's making it all so dangerous. Usually we just get one shitty ice storm per winter. Those drifts are getting higher because the damn wind won't quit galing. My dog's too afraid to go outside because the wind is so bad (she's never seen snow) so she shit on my floor. Ick. Lysol time. The wind is all directly north to south so the snow is piling up against my front door. It was chest high on me, so the drifts are getting up over 5 feet. :santa_grin:
Damn, my friend's niece made a drive from Forth Worth to Norman this afternoon. It's a four hour trip. It took her twelve hours to get all the way to just south of Norman. The national guard stopped her 7 seven miles from her mother's house and won't let her through because the interstate's closed south of Norman. She'll be spending the rest of Christmas Eve in a shelter. Fun times. Why would someone even attempt to make that trip when they know a blizzard's going on?
Ironically, one place I lived that never had a blizzard while I was there.... Fairbanks, Alaska. :santa_undecided: Oh yes, it gets plenty cold, but it's very dry and rarely windy. Plus, there are plenty of trees to block what little wind there is. I had to deal with much deeper snow in Wisconsin as a teen.
you mean *Blizzarro world* hah. I crack myself up. Ya...no snow here...it was barely cold enough to wear a coat today. I could have gone to work in short sleeves and only gotten a little cold..which is weird...usually it's a lot colder here.
Same here. We've had snow so high that the cows would literally just walk out of the pens. I spent almost a week during high school helping one of the bigger feedlots sort all their cows sorted and back into the feedlot pens.
The snow drifts were up past my chest this morning. My newly adopted dog didn't know what to think until she realized they weren't dangerous. Then she went diving into them. The drifts would shape up like pyramids in the yards. Blizarro.
When its a real blizzard you get thunder and lightening in that snow storm. I saw and heard that here in the blizzard of 93. This time around we only got about a foot and that was last Friday and its probably 2/3 gone now. Still melting, but I hear the whole cycle could start again next week. I am getting cage fever from not being able to ride my motorcycle. I don't care how cold it is, I just don't want ice. At least from what I recall of it, OK city is relatively flat.
I actually didn't hear it called a blizzard, but a white out. With the 60 mph winds going on you couldn't see the edge of the porch, highly dangerous. We've actually had worse here in our area. An hour west of OKC and somewhat North. Probably 7-8 years ago. One christmas we were on our way home in huge snow flakes and drifted up roads. We had to have Flow's dad come down and pull us to our house in a tractor. The drifts we mighty that year. We couldn't get through in his 4X4 1 ton. The ice storm in 02 was worse, since we didn't have power for 5.5 weeks.
Three years in Mpls saw quite a bit of snowfall, but the bitter eventual sub zero cold that went with it was a real thrillkill. Sure seen more than one fence buried to the tops of the posts in that time. I do love the quiet and serenity of a few feet of snow on the ground though.
It is nice. Although the same could be said for an ice storm until you realize the reason the horizon is so pretty is because there are no (and I mean none, zip, zero) power lines in the way and you are going to have a lot of time to wait to get the power back on.
My folks got four feet one year in upstate NY. Dad had to snowblow the 900-foot driveway daily to keep it clear of drifts. He had to build a 4-foot tall sheet aluminum blade on the side of the tractor to cut snow that was taller than the blower and dump it into the chute. They went thru their 1,000 gallon reserve fuel tank and Mom decided they'd winter in Florida from then on.
I wish we had proper snow. Mind you, we get a 4in flurry and all hell breaks loose so maybe not such a good idea.
"In the United States, the National Weather Service defines a blizzard as sustained 35 mph (56 km/h) winds which lead to blowing snow and cause visibilities of ¼ mile (or 400 m) or less, lasting for at least 3 hours. Temperature is not taken into consideration when issuing a blizzard warning, but the nature of these storms is such that cold air is often present when the other criteria are met.[1] Temperatures are generally below 0 °C (32 °F)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard Sounds like a blizzard to me.
No kidding? Since anything above 32 degrees would be RAIN.... I stand humbled before such wisdom. :santa_shocked: