I guess for us, it has basically just arrived. We did pick up an inch or so of snow overnight, but when I woke up, it was not snowing at all. I was not worried, as we were suppose to see the bulk of our snow fall the second half of the day today through tomorrow night. The snow did start back up around 9 am and has been falling since. We are probably up to around 4-5″ for the storm so far, but like I say, it is suppose to keep up at a pretty decent clip for the next 30 hours or so. So even if it only snows at the rate of around 1/2″ per hour for the next 30 hours, that is 15″ of additional snow.
We’ll see what happens for us, but this storm has already been a monster for other areas of the Midwest. So far the king of the hill is Iola, WI, which sits around 15 miles east of Stevens Point and has seen 26″ of snow fall so far. Lots of 12″+ totals across central MN into central and NE WI and snows have fallen in 12 states so far, stretching from Nebraska to Maine and north to the Canadian border. Here is a map of some of the snow totals so far. It was taken at 3 pm central time. I personally know of 2 separate groups of folks that traveled south for the weekend and are now snowbound. One group in WI and the other in lower MI. Something tells me that there are a lot of folks snowbound where they are and will be for at least the rest of the day today. I have also read stories about folks that were traveling up this way to play in the snow and they were stalled in WI because of the storm.
If things keep up like they are suppose to in our neck of the woods, I would suspect that some that ventured north and made it, will not be able to leave tomorrow. I suspect that schools will likely be canceled tomorrow, as not only do we have the heavy snow to contend with, but winds are blowing at 20-30 mph with gusts to 40. So lots of blowing and drifting is going on.
Today was not the only day we received snow this week. It also fell on Tuesday and again Thursday. Tuesday’s snow was only around 1/2″, but we ended up with 3″ new on Thursday. Some spots have already shot past the 300″ mark for the season and I am closing in on it and depending on how much falls with this storm, I have a chance to reach that milestone.
Most of Thursday snow fell in a short amount of time in the morning. I awoke to around 1/2″, but then it picked up and came down pretty good from around 8 am to 10 am. Just as things were ramping up, I snapped a shot of the truck covered in snow and also the pups having a Keweenaw Slushy. They love to eat the snow!
The snow ended around 11 am and then the sun even came out in the late afternoon and our temps shot up to 40 degrees. Between the sunshine and 40 degree temps, it ended up melting off most of the snow that had fallen earlier in the day. Here is a shot of Millie on the driveway in the evening on Thursday.
I did not get out to take any pictures of the snow today, as I was in the woodshop all morning and then by the time there was enough snow to make things interesting, the winds were whipping it around enough that I really did not feel like doing any traveling. I was brave enough to step out onto the deck and take another shot of the truck covered in the new snow. If or when the big dumping for us is over, I will be sure to get some shots.
I really do not have much more to say, other than I have forgotten to start the Laurium Glacier melt down contest so far this season. I guess with the lack of any melting this spring, it never even entered my mind. But there was some talk on the discussion board about it, so I will be opening the contest up for guesses at 8 am eastern time tomorrow. Here is a shot of it taken on Wednesday of last week.
So until next time…
Brody Strong
Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
