Posted on 01/31/2011 8:40:09 PM PST by metmom
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A monster winter storm took aim at a third of the nation Monday, threatening to lay a potentially deadly path of heavy snow and ice from the Rockies to New England, followed by a wave of bitter, bone-rattling cold that could affect tens of millions of people.
Cities including St. Louis, Kansas City and Milwaukee could be hardest hit, with expected midweek snowfalls of up to 2 feet and drifts piled 5 to 10 feet. Even hardy Chicago could be in for its third-worst blizzard since record-keeping began.
"I wouldn't want to be on the road in open areas tomorrow night," said forecaster Tom Skilling of Chicago television station WGN. "I don't think I'd want to be driving in the city either. The fact is people die in these things. They skid off the road and go wandering around in whiteout conditions."
Warmer areas were not safe, either. The system could spawn tornadoes in parts of the South.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Maybe another weather event courtesy of the Jet stream...coming soon,.
I live in Central Texas...but grew up driving in snow in NC.
Bubbas in pickups scare me to death when it snows. They think a pickup is the perfect vehicle to drive regardless. Most of em don’t put any weight in the bed of the truck and they slide everywhere.
Wow. We've had so many storms, there is going to be a superlative shortage.
We had an ice and snow event about 15 years ago, bridges and overpasses were a killer. Lots of pickups in ditches or worse, people down here have no idea how to drive in it.
Well, snowmageddon is upon us. I looked at the radar map and saw that we appeared to be on the edge of it.
I looked outside and it is (deceptively) snowing lightly.
But I know what’s coming.
I don’t know what we’re going to get. I’ve checked the forecasts and in our location, it’s pretty much going to be a crap shoot whether we get 18 inches of snow, or a foot of mixed.
That’d be “Snowmageddon”, dontcha know.... (or was that the Snowpocalypse?)
Well, for one thing, you don’t drive on ice.
For all the crappy winter weather we get up here and how people will drive in almost anything, when it gets icy EVERYTHING shuts down.
We know our limits.
It’s hitting pretty hard here in west Michigan a full blown blizzard. They just said we may get some thundersnow. That would be different.
Thunder snow is creepy.
We had that a few times in lake effect.
We were out shoveling and saw the lightning.
That was it for the shoveling for us. Lightning doesn’t scare me much, but that stuff in the snow storms is eerie looking.
They’re saying no more snow for us but 1/2 an inch of ice.
Was going to Swanton Ohio once to see my Dad and it was snowing when the sky lit up. Creepy is right!
How is it different? In Florida we can have violent storms - with lots of lightning - but it’s never eerie. Share some more...
We know our limits.
Trouble here is that it happens so infrequently, people forget lessons learned (and the younger ones, forget about it).
We have plenty of thunderstorms in our area as well, but it’s when it thunder’s and lightning’s in the middle of a heavy snow storm that it’s weird.
It just doesn’t look or sound the same, and you get no warning until it’s on you. It’s not like it builds up where you can watch it in the distance.
And you can’t tell direction either so don’t know if it’s coming or going.
I prefer to be indoors in thundersnow.
South Suburban Chicago Update:
Looking at 4 foot drifts on my deck (faces south). Can’t find a spot that isn’t windblown to get an accurate measurement so I’ll guess we have about a foot at 22:40.
Thundersnow started around 21:00; about 20 flashes of lightning down here. Haven’t seen any since about 22:00. Had an electrical surge at about 21:40 so some group of homeowners is/was without power. Send up some prayers for the ComEd guys out in this carp. They may be union but, tonight, they are Americans too!
About to head out for the EMA gig, there from 0:00 - 04:00. I’ve been napping since 19:00. I’ll post an “official” snow amount for Romeoville at 04:00 before I get out.
I’ll take some “sun-up” photos of the neighborhood and post them after my “nap” in the morning. Have to be up for a conference call at 07:00...gotta earn that paycheck.
Y’all are in my prayers tonight. Pax.
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