December Blizzard 2009

What a week it's been here in the Midwest city of Omaha, NE. We have gone from 58* a couple of weeks ago to having wind chills of -15*! Not to mention the snow we received along with the cold air!

It started on Sunday. We got some snow that day but the heavy stuff wouldn't move into our area until mid-day or evening on Monday.

The results of our Sunday snowfall. Not bad and it made things look nice. These are in my front yard.

Still, the temps plummeted on Monday and the wind made it colder yet. Monday evening more snow began coming down and continued over night and into the next day. It got so bad and was coming down so fast by noon that events around town were soon getting cancelled. The prediction was for between 7 and 10 inches all total. We definitely got all of 10 inches if not a little more. I set my alarm for earlier than normal anticipating having to shovel a bit and maybe pick up a co-worker. Shovel I did! I opened the garage door and saw a drift that had blown in front of it that went over my knees. (I know....I'm not very tall! But it was a lot!) I moved enough snow that it wouldn't hold me up and then had to leave. The front door sidewalk was very full as well. Pretty but not fun when I need to leave for work!

Part of my driveway in front of the garage door.

I proceeded to back out my garage. It wasn't a challenge at all. But when I looked back at the driveway and saw how deep my tracks were, well. Let's just say that it's a good thing I have 4 wheel drive! The tracks were quite deep! I had to pick up a co-worker and she had to walk a few blocks from her house to a main road that had been plowed. The freeways were very well cleared and we had the road to our selves! No problem!

We knew that once we got to work we wouldn't have any flights to work as several had already been cancelled the night before. So we wouldn't have any flights until roughly 8 AM. But I had taken my camera to work anticipating seeing lots of snow which would make awesome pictures. Here are a few:

The snow drifted out from the terminal under one of our jet ways and encircled our baggage carts and tugs that were parked nearby.

More drifts (at work) that had built up over night.

Once we got through our day of wind driven blowing snow and frigid temperatures, we made our way home. But not until we stopped for Chinese food to eat that night. I was too worn out from all the shoveling and cold air to take time to cook. All I wanted to do was sit!
However I knew that I would need to shovel at home too. So I started out on one side of the driveway and my neighbor whom had been out using his snow blower came over and got rid of the large drift on the other side of the driveway. I came close to singing praises to him for helping me out! After using my ice chipper on some stubborn spots, I decided it would do and the sun would have to melt the rest. But I had to take some pictures. Check them out....

My driveway

The snow even covered my porch.....unbelievable. Notice that some of my lights are covered as well on the bottom of the rail.


The snow drifted over my light bulb stakes too. Some of them barely showed through all the snow!


The snow enveloped my house from both sides.




My sidewalk...almost a tunnel!



Notice the decorations from the 1st photo above, the lighted packages, are not showing! They are buried! You should see them in front of the porch.

It's been cold ever since the blizzard. School had been cancelled for 3 days and many people had problems getting to work. But I made it every day. Yea.

I also have a few videos that show just how hard the wind was blowing the snow around. This is the most snow we've had in December for quite some time.
Christmas will seem like Christmas for sure this year! And no shortage of the white stuff either!