Sunday, December 12, 2010

The Blizzard...

The winds are howling and blowing outside with so much force that I hear my back door rattling. A huge storm has bared down on the Great Lakes, leaving much of the Midwest crippled. We escaped disaster much due to the lake effect from the warm waters of Lake Michigan. However, the rest of Wisconsin wasn't so lucky. Although Racine only got about four inches of snow, much of the state got as much as 16 inches! Roads were shut down and businesses were closed.

Elsewhere in the Midwest, the roof of the Metrodome in Minneapolis, MN collapsed under the weight of the snow. This unfortunate incident forced the postponement and the relocation of the Minnesota Viking vs. the New Giants game to tomorrow night at the Ford Stadium in Detroit, MI. That'll give the players another day of rest.



As the winds blow, the temperatures are expected to drop to the single digits with a wind chill to a minus zero readings. It's f@#&ing cold out there! Once the temperatures rises, it'll be snowing again. The cycle begins....As I'm heading off to bed, I'll be warmed up by layers of blankets and some warm bodies. I'll be dreaming of summer tonight....

5 comments:

OrbsCorbs said...

It's too dang early for such cold temperatures! This is January and February weather. Are we in for a cold winter? Should I get a new battery for the truck?

Why Not? said...

Here in Sweden they have been warning us for the coldest winter in 100 years.. sounds awfully bleak. Makes the trains run late and I run late for classes then.. not fun.

OKIE said...

We are in the 20's here with highs in the 40's. Not too bad as the winds have finally died down. Yesterday was brutal. We could sure use some rain though. Snow would also be welcome.

hale-bopp said...

Strangely enough, I was reading a paper on climate change recently that discussed how the warming arctic could push cold air farther south for periods during the winter. That was the gist of it...hard core climate papers are pretty dense and usually the gritty details only make sense to other climate scientists (however, it is pretty easy to look up temps in Candada and frequently when the eastern U.S. is bitterly cold, Canada is enjoying above average winter temperatures. Neither by itself says much about long term climate change (since even combined Canada and the U.S comprise well under 10% of the world's surface area) but it should give a good indication that you look kind of stupid if you think a snow storm in the winter has anything to do with global warming one way or the other.

I remember other times the Metrodome has come down. The first time was shortly after it was completed. I think this is the fourth time a snowstorm has taken it down. This is the first time I have seen video of it!

The Dakotadome at the University of South Dakota came down when I lived in northwest Iowa in high school. We had a track meet there. I remember seeing one panel of it had what looked like a long (maybe 40 foot) rip in it with a giant patch over it. Yep, the whole dome was up because they patched the panel!

Holly Swaney said...

Up in Central WI we got 19 inches of snow according to the NWS official reports. I was stuck at m parents home for an extra day because I came home to visit.