Here are some pics from the great Midwest Blizzard of January 5-6, 2014.

And some more.

We have that white stuff here... it comes in little cups with flavored syrup on them. haha!

I have never seen that much snow in person in my entire life!

I've seen more! Often, it's hard to tell how much there is, due to drifting (it's almost always windy here), but I remember that one time when I was in college.... We got a big une xp ected snow one night, well, une xp ected to me because I never heard the forecast. I went to bed on Saturday night, when the ground was bare, and got up on Sunday morning when there was 22" of snow gracing the ground. Unfortunately I had to walk a mile to campus to turn in a project that was due that day. A number of days later, it all melted off and there was water standing everywhere. Then we got a big freeze and it all turned to ice. I fell once on the ice, went right down hard on my knees. That hurt!

Best place to be on such an arctic afternoon: Sunny window, comfortable recliner, warm blanket, mug of hot tea, book of ghost stories.

[quote=""Olorin""]Best place to be on such an arctic afternoon: Sunny window, comfortable recliner, warm blanket, mug of hot tea, book of ghost stories.[/quote]

An excellent choice, Olorin!

My parents live in northwest Ohio, where the high today was about -9. Even here in southeast Virginia we're e xp ecting overnight temps near 10 degrees. Not the usual state of affairs.

This "arctic vortex" is truly dangerous. For those directly impacted by the worst of it, please stay indoors and be safe.

[quote=""Olorin""]Best place to be on such an arctic afternoon: Sunny window, comfortable recliner, warm blanket, mug of hot tea, book of ghost stories.[/quote]

Well that picture, it doesnt look too bad People around here buy cans of some sort of fake white window spray stuff and try to make their windows look like that during the winter.

Yeah I remember that stuff from when I was a kid. I don't know if they still sell it or if anybody does it. But what you see in my window is the real deal: not even frost, it is snow accumulated between the screen and the window.

[quote=""Olorin""]Best place to be on such an arctic afternoon: Sunny window, comfortable recliner, warm blanket, mug of hot tea, book of ghost stories.[/quote]

I was just thinking the same thing....it is probably a very lovely scene from inside, as long as you don't have to get out there and fight it.

I remember snow drifiting to the eaves of our [single-story] house, where I grew up in St Louis. We got some humungous snowstorms in February and even early March. Moved away in 1982 and don't miss midwest winters at all.

Now, if I want to see snow in the winter, I go north to Flagstaff or east to the White Mountains. And when I get tired of it, I come back to Phoenix and its cacti and desert palms. btw, 28F is a "cold snap" for us.

[quote=""Deimos""]II remember snow drifiting to the eaves of our [single-story] house, where I grew up in St Louis. We got some humungous snowstorms in February and even early March. Moved away in 1982 and don't miss midwest winters at all. [/quote]

You must be talking about the infamous winters we had there in the late 70s (I grew up about 50 miles east of St. Louis). That one winter, I think between Thanksgiving and Presidents Day, we were probably in school only about half as many days as we normally would have been.

[quote=""Olorin""]You must be talking about the infamous winters we had there in the late 70s (I grew up about 50 miles east of St. Louis). That one winter, I think between Thanksgiving and Presidents Day, we were probably in school only about half as many days as we normally would have been.[/quote]

I grew up in northern Ohio and remember well the blizzards of 1977 and 1978. LOTS of days out of school...

Wow Buckeye, I get up in northwest Ohio, and am now in norther Virginia. Seems we have more in common than a love of swords!

[quote=""RosereIII""]Wow Buckeye, I get up in northwest Ohio, and am now in norther Virginia. Seems we have more in common than a love of swords![/quote]

A very small world, indeed!

Lol how about that! I'm from SE Michigan, right on the Ohio border!

I heard plenty of stories about those late 70's blizzards from my parents. It's nearly as bad right now...here in East Lansing we've got three feet of snow on the ground, some drifts as high as 3.5/4, and snow piles plowed up at 7 or 8 feet. I've never seen this much snow in my life, and I've heard estimates of -30 degrees Fahrenheit.

They were saying the other day that this would be something that people younger than 40 had never e xp erienced before.

Send a few inches down to me... just enough to go YAY! snow!!! We had some snow accumulate on the ground and stay for a while back in 2008, pretty substantial for us and again in around 2009 or so, but nothing like the year before.

The 2008 snow was memorable for me at least, one, it was the first snow that we woke up to and it was all over the cars and lawns and houses, that you couldnt see green grass, and it was right before my mom passed away and she always wanted to see snow, so she got to see that a couple weeks before she died, unfortunately she was in the hospital and could only watch from her window.

At least she got to see it, God bless her.

I wonder if that's the same snow my friends in New Orleans got to e xp erience a few years back. They live on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, and they said there was about an inch, just enough to make everything white. I think it may have even been on Christmas eve.

There is snow in the outlying areas but they are at a slightly higher elevation and so it is not unusual for them to get it, if only an inch or two.

But in the more central metro Phoenix area, where I am , no.
It has snowed in Phoenix about a half dozen times in the 30 years I've been here. One time there was actually an accumulation, about an inch, something like a frost, not a real snow. But it was very early morning and it melted within the hour. And it was not near me.

The only snow (or some kind of white precipitation) I saw at that time was some flurries that was still "snow" about 5 feet above the ground, and at 3 feet above the ground had already turned to rain (right before my eyes! )

[quote=""Fingolfin""]Lol how about that! I'm from SE Michigan, right on the Ohio border! [/quote]

It seems there is a small cadre of us who all hail from the western end of Lake Erie.

[quote=""Deimos""]
The only snow (or some kind of white precipitation) I saw at that time was some flurries that was still "snow" about 5 feet above the ground, and at 3 feet above the ground had already turned to rain (right before my eyes! )[/quote]

They did this thing yesterday on the local news where they tossed a cup of water into the air and it flashed into snow because it is so cold right now. I tried it last night and it didn't work. Supposedly it works better if the water is hot, and mine was cold. That doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, but it's been a long time since I took thermodynamics.

[quote=""Olorin""]They did this thing yesterday on the local news where they tossed a cup of water into the air and it flashed into snow because it is so cold right now. I tried it last night and it didn't work. Supposedly it works better if the water is hot, and mine was cold. That doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, but it's been a long time since I took thermodynamics.[/quote]


I googled it, and there is a theory called the Mpemba effect... have no idea if it is true or not, but it tries to e xp lain the hot vs cold water and freezing.

Yeah, lots of people did that yesterday on campus here. Toss a cup of boiling water up in the air and it turns straight to snow. Very interesting how it works. I saw a lot of videos of that last night.

I thought about multi-quoting this and then...

Loved that last photo indoors with your cat below the window Olorin.

The hot water thing probably has to do with heat e xp ansion (closer to steam) than cold water, but it is a bizarre irony. From now on when it snows we can all say it's raining hot water

Memories of snow and cold:
This morning it was -13, went to brush my teeth, no water. Next thought- a completely selfish, "I can't have coffee". Put on lot of cloths, go outside, shovel over to water supply to my tralier, drop hair drier into ceramic pipe that surrounds water main. 15 minutes later I can have coffee

Coldest temp I ever e xp erienced -40F actual (not wind chill) in northern Wisconsin where Minnesota meet with Canada at the west end of Lake Superior. Accumulated snow at that time was 5 1/2 feet deep.

Deepest snow, my dad dropping me out the second story window so I could shovel out the storm door so it could be opened and we could get out of the house. I remember hearing my mom ask my dad if I was okay, and he replied, "I don't know he disappeared in the drift". We got 37" all at once none stop. The drift was 9 feet at the house. This was in New Hampshire.

It's all cool with me, must be my Nordic blood. Favorite place to be-Arizona.

[quote=""Thranduil""]Loved that last photo indoors with your cat below the window Olorin.[/quote]

LOL, that's not a real cat. It's like a pillow or a doorstop or something. It is pretty real looking even in person, and occasionally it makes me jump a little when I see it une xp ectedly. It bears a fair resemblance to my big orange kitty that died about 2 years ago.

The worst winter I had e xp erienced was actually around this time (a bit later... later January) in 1997.

That week, everyone was talking about a massive cold front coming down to our area and that Friday at school, people were thinking that "school will probably get cancelled on Monday" so people were joking "see ya Tuesday." I can vaguely remember people talking that the particular storm was going to drop temperatures to having windchills at -80 degrees... I don't think it got THAT cold here, but maybe some of our members in the forums, from up north will remember a winter storm from 97

Well come Sunday we got outside and low and behold, there was no snow (I think it takes an act of congress and divine intervention for us to get snow ) but EVERYTHING was covered in ICE... Icicles everywhere, trees covered in ice, the patio furniture covered in ice, etc etc. I think I can remember my dad watching the Cowboys playing football, no one thought anything of it, until, oh yea, ice is on the power lines... and there goes the power... for DAYS, no electricity, no heat, our stove is electric... luckily we have a really nice wood burning fireplace.

Me,being 14 was having the time of my life... camping like you are in an Alaskan wilderness, but in your own house. A lot of my family members came over (well that part wasn't so much fun, he hehe). The power was off for the better part of the week, but we had gone to the store and got camping stoves and stuff and we were all set, had propane, etc... anywho, I can remember the time of year, because that following monday was MLK day, so we did end up going back to school on a Tuesday. I was a huge professional wrestling fan at that time, and luckily for me, we had tickets to Monday Night Raw that Monday and were still able to go.

If you would like, someone put this video on youtube and I found it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S5RmQ0nhxY you may or may not care for wrestling from that time period, but if you go to about 34 seconds in, you will see a kid in the stands wearing a white hat, and a blue jersey (Houston Rockets) and from the perspective, "right next to/eye level" with the guy in the ring... thats a 14 year old, chubby, puberty being horrible to...ME!

Sorry for the long rambling... but its weird how my coldest weather memory was tied to another memory of one of my biggest hobbies and past times as a kid. Oh yea, my dad bought me my first real pellet gun during that time too, I had had a BB gun, but nothing on that scale.

[quote=""Thranduil""]I thought about multi-quoting this and then...


Coldest temp I ever e xp erienced -40F actual (not wind chill) in northern Wisconsin where Minnesota meet with Canada at the west end of Lake Superior. Accumulated snow at that time was 5 1/2 feet deep.

Deepest snow, my dad dropping me out the second story window so I could shovel out the storm door so it could be opened and we could get out of the house. I remember hearing my mom ask my dad if I was okay, and he replied, "I don't know he disappeared in the drift". We got 37" all at once none stop. The drift was 9 feet at the house. This was in New Hampshire.

It's all cool with me, must be my Nordic blood. Favorite place to be-Arizona.[/quote]

OK Thrandy, you lost me with the last line: "FAvorite place to be -Arizona"

If you are OK with cold, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO BE IN AZ?
We have mountains where it's cold, but you obviously don't have to come here for cold and snow.
Didn't you read where I said 117 in summer?
And summer starts about April and lasts through October (Both months can easily see 100 deg days...and days ..and days.)

So....'splain it to me, please.

It's not much compared to the temps that some of you have e xp erienced, but I believe today might have been the coldest I've felt. My phone showed 4 degrees as I left this morning to bike to work.

We never get snow like that, at least not where I live and not while I've been alive. I've always wanted it to snow like that, just mainly for the e xp erience but I know it's a dangerous situation to be in. Surprisingly, we've had almost no snow. It snowed for like... 5 seconds just before Christmas and that was it. We keep getting forecasts saying "OHHHH ITS GOING TO BE THE WORST WINTER EVER!!!!" But nothing has happened. Its actually a pretty decent temperature today

Parts of the UK are in heavy storm conditions, but there's nothing up here.

[quote=""Deimos""]OK Thrandy, you lost me with the last line: "FAvorite place to be -Arizona"

If you are OK with cold, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO BE IN AZ?
We have mountains where it's cold, but you obviously don't have to come here for cold and snow.
Didn't you read where I said 117 in summer?
And summer starts about April and lasts through October (Both months can easily see 100 deg days...and days ..and days.)

So....'splain it to me, please.[/quote]
It's simple, I love the desert, the dry heat, the terrain. It may the opposite of what I'm used to living in, but I haven't been any where else I enjoy more.
I can deal with deep cold an snow, all the things of winter that many dread, it's like it's part of me, but there is a calm that pours over me when I'm in Arizona. Like I could sit down any where and stay forever, preferably on top of a huge pile of rocks like the Boulders at Cave Creek.

[quote=""Thranduil""] . . . there is a calm that pours over me when I'm in Arizona. Like I could sit down any where and stay forever, preferably on top of a huge pile of rocks like the Boulders at Cave Creek. [/quote]

I can completely understand where you are coming from. That's the way I feel when I'm in Maine, especially in Acadia NP.

I feel the same, Thrandy. The colors and landscape of Arizona are so beautiful and historical and peaceful to me. I'd love to visit the NE coast of Maine, too, for the record! A little bit more wet, but I hear it's pretty nonetheless.

[quote=""Fingolfin""]I feel the same, Thrandy. The colors and landscape of Arizona are so beautiful and historical and peaceful to me. I'd love to visit the NE coast of Maine, too, for the record! A little bit more wet, but I hear it's pretty nonetheless. [/quote]
Maine is awesome along the coast. Inland is a different story though, you need hyper-professional-prehistoric insect repellent, or you end up feeling a lot like the guys who fell into the chasm in PJ's King Kong.

[quote=""Fingolfin""]Lol how about that! I'm from SE Michigan, right on the Ohio border!

I heard plenty of stories about those late 70's blizzards from my parents. It's nearly as bad right now...here in East Lansing we've got three feet of snow on the ground, some drifts as high as 3.5/4, and snow piles plowed up at 7 or 8 feet. I've never seen this much snow in my life, and I've heard estimates of -30 degrees Fahrenheit.[/quote]

Hey Fin and Thrandy (and any other Michigan-ites), seen this?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/passantino/this ... e-michigan

That's incredible, Deimos! Doesn't really surprise me in Grand Haven though, they get the full brunt assault of the Lake Effect from the great Lake Michigan. That's a beautiful sight to see though. The ice is crazy!

A lot of the snow at home melted yesterday. It rained last night over a lot of SE MI and the temps went up to above freezing. And in a few days, they're going to drop again and all the rain is going to freeze over.

Currently it's about 40° and sunny, after a day of mild temperatures and heavy rain yesterday. Thus, most of the snow is gone, except for the enormous piles pushed up by the plows. There's one in the corner of my yard that is still taller than me, even with some melting.

In any event, this is a perfect afternoon for sitting in a comfy chair in a sunny window reading, which is what I'm going to be doing in just a couple of minutes.

Today we've had about every sort of winter weather known to humankind, I think. We had snow, thundersnow, sleet, rain, freezing rain, and sleet. There's about 4 inches of new snow and ice on the ground. Now the wind is blowing hard and rolling up snow rollers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_roller

I haven't seen them yet this time; I didn't hear about them until it was already dark. There may be some in my front yard; I can't really tell without going out there.

We previously had snow rollers here 5-10 years ago.

Wow, Olorin, that's rough! We're finally starting warm up here in East Lansing, the sun is shining and we're above freezing for the next three hours or so!

Phew, any time I see cold temperatures or tons of snow in PA, all I have to do is think of how dreadful the weather's been in the Midwest!

Yeah, consider yourself lucky. Heat wave? Still under freezing, here's six more inches of snow. Pretty much our lot to suffer this winter. I can't imagine living where this is normal!

We have our first snow of the season today. They were saying no accumulation, but the grass is pretty much covered so now they're saying we're getting an inch.

Here one has to head to the mountains for any snow, which I saw that they have indeed gotten...not enough for any serious skiing, tho'....
So it is 77F at the moment...may hit 80 or so midafternoon...then at night (or really very early morning) drop to maybe the high 40s...then back to the high 70s again....30 degree swings

Here all day long Cold,Rain and sunshine all at the same time.

We got absolutely dumped in snow last weekend in East Lansing. Our bus convoy had to drive through it to and from Columbus, Ohio on our trip to THE Ohio State University. Downstate at home, there's not a flake on the ground.

Yeah while Fin was tripping to Ohio, we got about 16 inches total, but the temp went back up and it was all gone within about 4 days.

I like a snowy Christmas season, but now that I have to get around campus by bike or on my own two feet, I'd prefer it wait until my semester is over.

Currently in SE Texas it is in the 70s and muggy and humid. Apparently the area the Tex Ren Fest is located, which I am going to be heading out to shortly is going to be in the 50s with rain, so maybe there is a "cold" front moving in

We are in the midst of a blizzard in east central Illinois. We are supposed to get 9" of snow, with wind gusts up to 50 mph. I took off work at noon and came home. I was afraid if I waited till 5:00 I wouldn't able to get home. As it turns out, the road into my subdivision is already getting bad.

Olorin wrote:We are in the midst of a blizzard in east central Illinois. We are supposed to get 9" of snow, with wind gusts up to 50 mph. I took off work at noon and came home. I was afraid if I waited till 5:00 I wouldn't able to get home. As it turns out, the road into my subdivision is already getting bad.

Oh, that doesnt sound much fun...be safe!

Stormy weithers all day long and spooky at night help !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah we're getting dumped on as I write. I'm sure this spring will have fair share of heavy snowfall here and there.