Snow Reason to Stay in the House

/ Ken / rivrvlogr

Snow Reason to Stay in the House
(clicking any photo will open a larger image in a new tab)

I’ve been told that winters here in mid-Missouri are nothing like in the past. Twenty years ago snowfall was more common, often leaving snow on the ground between snowfalls. My experience in seven winters here in mid-Missouri is to see a couple of inches once or twice a month, with at least a week with temps in the mid-40s for a week, each month. Four inches of snow will be gone within a couple of days, and six to ten inches will be gone in a week. I was expecting something similar to happen with the snowfall we just had, but another system is developing, and the mid-West has the potential for another storm this weekend.

We had about a foot of snowfall from Friday afternoon into Saturday evening, with a light powder/mist on and off for the next twenty-four hours. Temperatures have been in the low 30s (F), so it was a wet, heavy snow, weighing down tree branches and providing a good workout for shoveling. That took a couple of hours over Saturday and Sunday, including clearing the street and digging out the mailbox. Our house is on a cul de sac, and by the time the plow gets to my driveway, ¾ of the way around the circle, it has to back up before hitting my neighbor’s mailbox. As it straightens out, it leaves a ten foot gap of snow across my driveway. If I want to get out of the driveway – or receive my mail – I need to clear that.

We still have gray skies today, but I decided to head to the local conservation area for photos this afternoon. A dozen or so people had been in ahead of me, which made the hike easier than it could have been, but there still was a bit of leg lifting in each step. Sunny and 46º is forecast for tomorrow. If that materializes, I may head back for photos in better lighting. Here’s what I have, for now.

The heavy snow has the cedars looking more like pine trees, and some of them didn’t survive that added weight.

There’s not much use for it in this weather, but there’s a fire tower in the park.

Meanwhile back home, our large lilac bush has lost two of its limbs.

And maybe we’ll get our TV reception back, if tomorrow’s warmer weather allows the snow to slide off our dish antenna.

Ken G

21 thoughts on “Snow Reason to Stay in the House”

  1. Snow, snow and more snow. It’s Winter Ken. It used to be the same here many years ago, big snowbanks everywhere. Nowadays winter is still extremely cold but we don’t have as much snow. We used to get up on the snowbanks and walk on them all the way to school in my days. The snowbanks were all lined up on the side of the streets. I am definitely older than you are…sad about your lilac tree though, no TV, can be fun for a few days.

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    • Yes, the winters in Western New York 15 years ago, just before I retired, were still respectable (as winters go), and I had to drive a truck in some pretty lousy conditions. By the time I moved here, the massive snowstorms we’re gone (with the exception of lake effect storms that might occur before Lake Erie had a chance to freeze). There was a record snowfall a couple of years ago, but it was one of those massive dumps of snow due to the lake.

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  7. Beautiful photos, Ken. You’ve had your exercise the last few days! I was happy we did not get so much snow Saturday night-Sunday morning. The streets were clear by the afternoon, and we were able to go out as planned. In our area, near Philadelphia, some years we get big snow falls, and other times, we get lots of rain/sleet/snow mixes, which I think is much scarier.

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  10. In 28 years here, where I am we’ve only had three big blizzards (or so). Some other inconvenient snows but mostly just cold. With some exceptions being very gold (without snow) where schools were closed because children couldn’t wait outside.

    I remember watching a show with one of my grands about how this little child from Alaska dressed in several layers naming each layer, before heading out the door to go to school. I don’t think I could live in Alaska. 😉

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    • I had my share back in Buffalo, and got to experience one driving past Erie on my home from there.
      Back when I was driving for a living (“local” deliveries that could be as far away as Rochester), there were times when some of our drivers spent the night in their trucks. On one occasion, the trucking terminal was shut down, since the freight was not going to move. Some workers spent the night there. A co-worker and I decided to try driving home, taking turns following each other. The half-hour trip (26 miles) took more than five hours. Yeah, fond memories.

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