Blatantly stolen post on the weather plus a few comments

Here is part of Tom's post:

I was catching up on the Chicago blizzard tonight and ran across this picture of Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive. Amazing. The Chicago Tribune’s blizzard blog says that LSD remains closed tonight, the freeways in and out of downtown Chicago have, in most cases, a single lane open at this point, and Amtrak service is in the early stages of being restored. Chicago is going to be down for days, from the looks of things.

Southeastern Wisconsin is apparently in similar shape tonight. The Wisconsin State Patrol was reporting 10-15 foot snow drifts on I-43 and I-94. I can’t even imagine what anyone would do with a 15-foot snow drift, although I have pictures of a bad storm the year I was born, with drifts up to the second floor of the farmhouse, so I guess its possible.

I spent the day dealing with the snow we got last night. I think we got about 7 inches last night, although it was hard to tell because of all the drifting. We got about 8 inches on Monday, so the total for the storm was around 15 inches, I guess. The drifts out by my mailbox are about four feet, which made for fun with the snow blower. The railroad was bad. I had trouble getting the Bobcat through a number of drifts while I was plowing, and I had to do a lot of work to find places to put some of the snow. But I got our driveway cleared by 10 am, and got the railroad done in time to get back for dinner, which Michael, who unexpectedly got the day off, cooked.

I went to a meeting tonight in town. The roads are drivable, if not in great shape.

Oddly, and as usually happens, the township roads are in better shape than the roads in town. In the townships, the plows can get up a head of steam and toss the snow off to the side at 40 mph. In town, the plows have to go a lot slower, and the snow has nowhere to go...

The news reports that three people died in Milwaukee County while trying to clear snow from the blizzard that immobilized the region. Nearly two feet of snow fell in Racine and Kenosha. Forecasters say peak wind gusts reached 64 mph in Kenosha and 54 mph in Milwaukee. (We are about 125 miles northwest of Milwaukee. Racine and Kenosha are south of Milwaukee on the way to Chicago.)

The blizzard also closed Mitchell International Airport and hundreds of businesses. About 100 Wisconsin National Guard members were called out to help rescue stranded motorists. Despite a declaration of an emergency and pleas for people to stay off the roads, there are always those who won't stay at home. Even the emergency crews were relying on snowmobiles. So regular travel was hopeless.

We tried to get some photos of our situation, but for some reason a computer glitch is preventing us from being able to upload pictures. Maybe later ...