MyE28.com

Last week the East Cost got hammered with snow; now it seems it's our turn. Forecast is for 12-18" of snow in the area surrounding Sioux Falls between now and the time it quits sometime on Christmas Day, but that's the good news. Bad news... It's being preceded by sleet and freezing rain tonight, and will be accompanied by some nasty northerly winds, 15 to 25 mph, that will last well into the weekend. The heaviest snow is expected to be right around Sioux Falls, but I'm sure the guys in the Twin Cities area will be feeling it too.

At our house, the groceries are all bought, the presents are all wrapped, there's firewood handy, just in case, and it's gonna be a Christmas at home, just the six of us (and maybe a few neighbors!) Once I get home from work tomorrow, we ain't goin' nowhere!

Yup, Marina took off today and tomorrow. The Princess will be home by 3pm on Xmas eve. We will be making the rounds intown, Dinner at Marina's sister, dessert at my sister's. Life is good.

Oh how I love south Texas... fishin's great.

Yup, they're talking a foot in Minneapolis, with up to 20 inches in the central part of Minnesota. Good thing I'm taking tomorrow off - I won't have to deal with traffic.

swatterssr wrote:Oh how I love south Texas... fishin's great.

I hear you there. I got tune drive around and tune my car yesterday wearing shorts!

Nothing too bad to report here yet. Just a tad bit of drizzle freezing up some of the roads.

Nothing too bad here just yet either, but they say it's really gonna hit the fan about 3 this afternoon. The weather guy on the radio this morning said that this storm could be unlike anything we've seen since 1968; I was seven that year, and I still remember the snow we had then. I kinda hope it happens again, but I don't think I'll enjoy it as much as I did back then!

But then again, the weather guys have been known to be wrong at least as many times as they've been right, so who knows? Whatever happens, I think I'll set up a time-lapse camera in our back window, just for kicks.

One thing I thought was strange is that the governor has already declared a state of emergency; isn't that usually done after whatever bad has already happened?

davintosh wrote:Nothing too bad here just yet either, but they say it's really gonna hit the fan about 3 this afternoon. The weather guy on the radio this morning said that this storm could be unlike anything we've seen since 1968; I was seven that year, and I still remember the snow we had then. I kinda hope it happens again, but I don't think I'll enjoy it as much as I did back then!

But then again, the weather guys have been known to be wrong at least as many times as they've been right, so who knows? Whatever happens, I think I'll set up a time-lapse camera in our back window, just for kicks.

One thing I thought was strange is that the governor has already declared a state of emergency; isn't that usually done after whatever bad has already happened?

And to think my family was going to try to fly to Arizona. Seems unlikely now....may be here over break after all!

One of the other engineers in my office is pretty steamed, she was supposed to fly to Chicago this afternoon and then make a connection to New York, but they've already cancelled her flight...the weather is still fine here but apparently the airport in Chicago is icing up.

I feel your pain guys, the wind was blowing about 20MPH and the chimes did their thing on the way home last night at 1 in the morning. Gimme a nice dry snow anytime rather than the damp cold we get here. I swear, it's warmer, let alone nicer to look at.

Mike W. wrote:I feel your pain guys, the wind was blowing about 20MPH and the chimes did their thing on the way home last night at 1 in the morning. Gimme a nice dry snow anytime rather than the damp cold we get here. I swear, it's warmer, let alone nicer to look at.

I'll snap some photos over the next few days and then we'll see if you think our flavor of snow is nice to look at!

I spent a winter on the Gulf coast just after finishing basic training, and I'd have to agree with you on the damp cold though; that can be bad, especially wearing gov't issue clothing and a buzz cut!

Mike W. wrote:I feel your pain guys, the wind was blowing about 20MPH and the chimes did their thing on the way home last night at 1 in the morning. Gimme a nice dry snow anytime rather than the damp cold we get here. I swear, it's warmer, let alone nicer to look at.

Oh yeah. 42'f blowing 20mph off the water is raw. On shore, thats the prevailing winds out there. Lotta potential for crappy dark weather. I spent the afternoon sitting on an old rug in the snow messing with a snow blower. 25'f. Sun was shining and I was in the lee of the shop. I was starting to sweat. Best of all. I got the beast running better than ever.

Well, the forecasters were right; we're getting nailed by this snowstorm right now. On the NOAA infrared map below, look for the center of the swirl, where SD, MN & IA meet; that's about where I live.



And it doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon; We've got at least a foot of new snow now, and the forecast is for more snow and widespread blowing snow for the rest of the day, tonight, and tomorrow. Expecting the storm to peter out sometime early Sunday morning. The wind is blowing pretty good too; it isn't too bad for us, in the middle of the city, but out in the rural areas it's whiteout conditions.

The nice thing is that the temps are pretty mild; it's about 30° right now, and we just got back from the sledding hill. Sledding kinda sucked because the snow hadn't been packed down yet, but it made for a great snowball fight!

... and since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

We had about 6 or 7 inches of snow Wednesday night and Thursday morning, but since then it's warmed up and we've had several inches of slush. Shoveling my driveway this afternoon was like shoveling lead.

As you well know we in Va got dumped on last weekend. Now we've got the freezing rain dropping onto the still 20" deep snow.....

My driveway is pretty much an ice rink. Glad I'm off tomorrow and have nowhere to go!

It is 34f, foggy.and drizzle. It is coming down East from the Maritimes. The ocean keeps it from freezing. If the wind shifts we will get buried. But it is not s'posed to.

davintosh wrote:Well, the forecasters were right; we're getting nailed by this snowstorm right now. On the NOAA infrared map below, look for the center of the swirl, where SD, MN & IA meet; that's about where I live.



... and since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

OMG

That looks like Ice Katrina, picking up tons and tons of gulf moisture!

Go! GO! Gadget Global Warming!

I think I see ManBearPig near the center of the swirl

Loved that episode!

Loved that episode!

That is one of the all time best episodes

Hey, Dave,

ya come up for air, yet?

Vern wrote:Hey, Dave,

ya come up for air, yet?

Yup. People are moving around without much problem now. We made a day-trip to the in-laws' today (Sunday) which is about an hour away into NW Iowa, and the highways were snow-packed & icy in some places, but not too bad. On the way home the wind was blowing again, so there were some drifts forming across the roads wherever there was some obstacle, so it was pretty slow going. Ditches were pretty much full of snow, so any snow that's moving around would end up on the road if given half a chance. Even though the area I drove through got between 18-24" of snow, it didn't look all that impressive unless you got in close to a farmplace or tree grove and looked for the places the snow drifted in with the wind.

Around town (Sioux Falls) the streets have been cleared, but there's still a lot of snow on the side streets. We spent the afternoon on Saturday digging out after the snowplows went by our house, leaving a 3-foot pile blocking our driveway. Now everybody on our block has five-foot piles flanking their driveways. Almost need a spotter to back out of the drive!

I drove out to where I work tonight (server maintenance! ) and there are drifts high enough to block several windows and emergency exit doors on the leeward side of the building, and the snow removal guys left some impressive looking piles around the lots. The building is in a newly-developed part of the city, on the outskirts near the airport, so there's a lot of open area. Nice, in that we don't have to deal with a lot of traffic, but not so nice in that we deal with a lot of 'rural' type issues, including some nasty snowdrifts whenever we get snow & wind.

Dave , keep the snow clear of exits and gas vents. Do you have a snow blower?

a wrote:Dave , keep the snow clear of exits and gas vents. Do you have a snow blower?

Thanks; heat exhaust intake/vent is clear, as is the sewer vent on the roof. It's been warm enough that the heat pump has been running pretty regularly, so that's kept the snow off all by itself. We don't have a snowblower at home -- barely any room in the garage for my wife's van in the winter, much less a snowblower -- but we've arranged with the lady next door to use her's in exchange for keeping her drive & sidewalk clear. It's just a little 5HP unit, so tackling the pile left behind by the snowplow was only a little easier than doing it by hand!

The guy at work who usually clears the snow from the sidewalks & emergency exits has the day off today, so a couple of us are going to tackle those areas here shortly. Good thing I put a scoop shovel in the trunk this morning!

One thing I'm really thankful for is the limited slip on the 735i; that thing gets around better than most front-drive cars! I don't think I'll try blasting through any snowdrifts (like I would with the Suzuki Sidekick I was driving this time last year...) but it's definitely better at getting around on slick, snow-covered streets than any of the front-drivers I've owned.

My car does not like this frigid weather, suddenly leaking red fluid/oil driver side, funny noise during cold start, inspection light just came on.