Winter Storm!

[MasonJar]

The storm that blew from California right across the continent is now in Ottawa, and the snow is starting to pile up!

Hope you are all doing ok!

Andrew

[ezdays]

We got the storm right after it left California. There was a record snowfall up in Flagstaff and some pretty heavy and long overdo rains here in the Phoenix area. Some places got close to 2", we got a bit over one inch, the first measurable rain since the beginning of Sept. Yesterday I could see snow on the peaks of the hills to the north of us, I'm not sure, but they could have been the Bradshaws, maybe TrainNut could ID them. There's another storm coming from California tomorrow or Friday, but not as bad.

[FiatFan]

Here in the remote reaches of northern Iowa we have about a foot on the ground and the wind is still blowing at about 30+ mph making for some nasty driving conditions. Later this morning I will fire up the back saver and clean off the sidewalks. On a side not, the snow removal around here is not the best. I saw my neighbor out last night snow blowing the street beside his house.

Tom

[Jesso]

Utah got hammered pretty good. The rest of the state got quite a bit of snow. St. George area is just low enough that it only rained all day, but all around us the mountains are white, the weathermen said the snow line was 600 ft higher than St. George.

I can tell you that my daughters where both very disappointed that it didn't snow. The younger one wanted to play in it, the older one knew if St. George gets a half-inch of snow they usually cancel school.

[ray_m]

We got hit pretty hard by it up here in the Bradshaws.
Places like Crown King got most of the snow. (Higher altitude)
We got sleet, freezing rain and lots of wind damage.

[MountainMan]

P-p-p-p-Peachy...

[TrainNut]

Let me set a scene here and put some images in your head and tell a little story...
It was a dark and stormy night (sorry Snoopy, had to do it!)...
A couple of nights ago, during that storm here in Phoenix, about 11p.m., I was inside my nice warm house, sipping some hot tea, watching the storm rage outside. I've got several security cameras mounted around the perimeter of our place and I was flipping through them on my monitor checking out the different views of our property. In the back yard, I've got one of them portable vehicle shade structures. I used to have it attached to the side of the garage, BUT, because we are putting in a pool, I've moved it to the other side of the yard where it sits temporarily tied down. At 11:09p.m., I'm watching the wind blow and I see one of my tie down straps SNAP! Expletive, expletive, expletive! Darned if that thing didn't start to float 2-3' off the ground. 'Bout choked on my tea! Luckily I was already wearing jeans, a T-shirt and some socks so I hurriedly slipped on my flip flops and ran out the door with no plan in mind. Since it'd been raining all day, and because of all the construction, our backyard is a monster truck mud pit! Forgetting this, I ran across the driveway and right out in the middle of it and about slipped and fell on my butt. Guess what?... socks and flip flops don't go well with mud. Finally, I make it across the mud pit to the shade structure and not wanting to pick it up out of my neighbors yard in the morning, I just grabbed it and held on for all I was worth. With each gust, the darn thing nearly picked me up off of the ground. Good thing was, it was only wind at this point and it wasn't that cold being somewhere in the vicinity of 50F. Then it started to rain... and not straight down rain either but in your face rain... and it was cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hung on to that thing for a good 15-20 minutes... muddy socks, T-shirt, soaked, and rain in the face. Finally getting fed up with that, I decided I had to figure something else out and when the wind seemed to die down just a bit, I made a run for the house (through a different patch of muck this time), through the kitchen (muddy socks and all), and out into the garage where I kept my stash of extra tie downs. I grabbed a bunch, and headed back out (getting good about slogging through the mud by now), and started strapping that thing down to anything I could find.
Success. Upon going back inside the house, a quick check of the weather revealed we were getting 35mph sustained with gusts up to 70!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thawed out with a hot shower and some more tea and since my adrenaline was still going pretty good, I think I managed to fall asleep around 1a.m. If only that were the end of it...

1:30a.m., the house alarm went off! Jumped out of bed, grabbed the protection, and started systematically clearing each room. The 7 year old immediately woke up quite frightened and shadowed me whereas the 4 year old slept right through it. After clearing the house of any intrusions it occurred to me to check the porch attic access panel. Sure enough, the wind had blown it up into the attic just enough to break contact with the alarm sensor. Guess what I'll be doing today?... screwing that panel shut or attaching some latches... I haven't decided which yet. Adrenaline still pumping, needless to say, I didn't get much sleep the rest of the night.

That morning, as I was taking my kids to school, it looked like a small tornado had gone through... trees uprooted and blown over everywhere, roads closed off because of flooding, Christmas decorations littered the streets and all kinds of other storm stuff as well.
All kinds of fun!

[Russ Bellinis]

Wow, we had a bit of rain and wind out here in So Cal, but I didn't realize this storm was going to get so serious as it headed east from us!

[jim currie]

we got a two inch arizona rain here with lot of wind , it blew part of my roof off and my chicken's out into the next county, but they came home none the worse for ware .
jim

[MadModeler]

It was not pleasant. I drove in it today to go to work and was an hour and a half late. Blegh!!!

[Tom]

The storm that blew from California right across the continent is now in Ottawa, and the snow is starting to pile up!

Hope you are all doing ok!

Andrew

um....sorry....

(We did get snow in Stockton, California though! 0' above sea level)

[Tom]

Ugh, sounds like a BAD night in Phoenix. It snowed here Monday morning which is wierd since the last time snow stuck here was in 1976. My oldest cat Rusty (the not retarded one), who is strictly an indoor cat, got all excited, and when I opened the front door of my upstairs apartment to see the snow, he darted out and ran off to play in the snow. Here I am at 6am in my underwear, chasing the little creep through the snow while my neighbors laughed their butts off. I could have strangled the little maggot. So, I decided FINE. Stay outside.

I went inside and closed the door and layed back down. Alicia asked me what I was doing and why I was so cold and I told her. She flipped out and went outside in a short silk nightgown to get Rusty.

My neighbors just laugh, point to our apartment and say stuff like "yep, that's where THOSE people live".

[eightyeightfan1]

Here in Connecticut, eight and a half inches of snow, changed to rain about 9:30 this morning(Which made for real fun snowblowing tonight), then...A thunderstorm blew through about 6pm(Right after I put the snowblower away), complete with downpours and hail.
I guess Mark Twain was right about New England weather:"Don't like the weather..Wait five minutes...It'll change."

[Ralph]

We managed to escape with only about four to five inches in the St. Paul area. It turned cold though...2 below as I type this morning!

Ralph

[Herc Driver]

3.8 inches of rain at my house outside of Charlotte, NC over the last few days. I wish we got snow instead...just for the kids to play in...but the south needs the rain. There's water everywhere...every pond, stream, creek is overflowing with water. A far cry from our drought these past few years.

Hopefully, those of you hit hard by the wind and rain, snow and cold, will stay warm and safe.