waiting for the snow to hit sometime this afternoon!

Nothing here but a little light rain,thank God! We had enough snow back in January,thank you! Phil

Got at least a foot of snow here in Joplin, with thundersnow. Coming down at the rate of about 3" per hour.

I-44 west into Oklahoma is closed, nobody is leaving
Missouri that way today!

Glad to see the snow, with the minus temps forecast this week it will help protect those zone 6-7 plants that are going to be suddenly in zone 5!

Hundreds of birds at the feeders here also. Glad I stocked up on sunflower seed!

Thanks for the weather report. Here at the Jersey Shore just misty today @38 with freezing rain due tonight and rain all day Wednesday. Gives me time to upload my auctions!!
John

WOW! Look who came out of the cold! Good to see ya John! (for some reason, I feel the need for a chocolate chip cookie)

Almost 3:00 and we now have over 6 inches on the ground and more coming. Mosswich, I was thinking the same thing, thank goodness for a heavy snow cover with temps forecast below 0 Thursday morn.

About five new inches of snow last night, and now waiting for the big storm to hit. Expecting an inch or so of ice and sleet, then snow on top of that. I love winter (she says with much sarcasm).

Karen

We got a couple inches last night and it blew around a bit. I left 20 minutes early for work this morning and was still 10 minutes late! About 1:00 hubby called and told me to get the heck outta there, so I left about 1:45. Drove home in a total white out. We have 45 MPH winds here and the snow forecasted for this evening and all night is between 10-18", with the wind still blowing at the rate it is now. They said on the news last night that this storm is forecasted to be worse than the one we had in 1979. I hope not! We lived in the country then, and Mom went out and took pictures of the drifts when the road grater finally came a couple days later to dig us all out. The drifts were taller that the machine!! I'm glad to be home safe and sound right now!
Rox

We here in NY will get the western snow storm tomorrow. We had 8 inches today, will get 1-3 in tonight, and 8-12 in tomorrow, total about 20 inches at about 20 F daytime temp. But spring will be here in 2 months!

Us up here in central MN are missing out on this snow storm, but the temps are unbelievably cold. Today the high was about -15 below with a wind chill of -30 to -40 below. Tomorrow is supposed to be even worse. I guess it's a good thing we have had above average snowfall this year to protect against this cold weather. But I am getting sick and tired of driving on crappy roads! Spring will not come quick enough for me this year!

I'm glad I don't live in Minnesota. :)

Karen

So....I guess maybe I shouldn't say anything about our 64 degrees without a cloud in the sky....but the high tomorrow will be 32...
Hope everyone is safe and warm inside.....

We got our 8 inches of new snow yesterday but have the wind and the cold. Sharlened we made it all the way to 0 for a little while this afternoon. Mother Nature has quite a sense of humor. Not only can I NOT walk anywhere in my yard without snowshoes, now she wants to block the view out the windows as well (ok out the window by my computer)

Here is a link that might be useful: Picasa winter album

hostaholic2 - what part of MN are you in? I am in Perham - west central MN.

Freezing rain here now. It's raining pretty good out there and freezing up on contact. Oh boy, this is gonna be fun in the morning! I think we are supposed to just get all the slush and ice storm tonight. Up to a half inch of ice over everything. This has been a heck of a winter. I had to shovel out some today and promptly threw all the snow I could over the beds lol!

It was supposed to stop snowing this afternoon but I see it's still coming down. We have somewhere around 2' at this point. And very cold tonight, cold tomorrow and even colder tomorrow night. Not going anywhere for at least a couple of days! Supposed to be in the 30's later this week.

Well, at least it's moisture, we had so little rain this sumer and fall that any we can get, even in the form of snow, is not a bad thing! Just glad it wasn't ice!

Sandy

How nice to be in the south,even if the sun hasn't shone for 2 days!. Last weekend was nice though! 63 degrees,and sunny. Phil

Heck, we had 79 degrees here two days ago!

Here in the Twin Cities, we only got 4-5 inches,
AND what's so bad about being in MN?
We're not getting as much snow as most of the states east of the Mississippi!

Snow seems done here. We got over 9 inches. Now we have winds of 30-40 mph blowing it all over the place. Thankfully, here in SWMO we only get one of these storms about every 5 years or so. Only 47 days till spring!

Wednesday morning at 4:30am in Grand Rapids, Michigan...got 12-14 inches on the ground and snow is still falling...
Don

The cold. Minnesota is very cold in the winter. That's what I'm talking about.

Karen

In the cold North we put the hostas to bed under a few ft of snow, then wake them up gently in spring, summers stay cooler than in the south. We always do the best for our gardens! We will have freezing rain in 2 hrs, will put an extra coating on everything. Decisions... blow the snow without the coating or after the coating...?

Ya know, Karen, I grew up in Ohio. I personally think MN is very similar to how it was in Dayton, growing up. Snow stays on the ground longer, but once it gets to about 10 degrees, it's ALL cold.

I spent a year and a half in Chicago, (whose weather is similar to northern OH) and I think MN is pretty similar. We're considered zone 4a since we have a day or two each year with -20 degrees, but those are just a few days.

I actually think Ohio weather is worse for gardening. You often have your snow melt completely, leaving your plants exposed. A cold snap can cause you to lose a lot. We, on the other hand, have 2 feet or more of snow insulating our plants all winter!

This is by far the most snow I've ever seen in Chicago. Storm totals of over 20 inches are being reported. My downtown Chicago office is closed for the day for only the second time in my 38 years there. I have drifts of over 4 feet in height crossing my driveway. Tonight it is supposed to go below zero so the snow will insulate my perennials nicely.

The worst thing, however is that my heat went out this morning. The air intake on the furnace became clogged with drifted snow and after I cleared the intake the furnace would still not run. I called my heating contractor and he said he cannot make any service calls today; the roads are impassable. Fortunately, we have electricity and we can run a space heater. I hope that it is adequate until the service can get here.

The birds are huddled in the shrubs near the feeders. I counted 10 cardinals at one point today. It is getting brighter and the wind which had been over 50 mph seems to be dying down. It's a good day to stay in and look at catalogs and old pics. Think Spring!

Mark

They warned us on the news to check our gas meter to make sure the vent on the bottom of it was not covered.

Sunny and 60 degrees here in San Jose, but I really can say I feel your pain.

During that Great Snowstorm in 1967 I was living in Chicago, in a 3rd floor walk-up apt. just off Lake Shore Drive. Chicago came to a stop...even after the snow stopped falling. With about 10,000 abandoned vehicles on main roads they couldn't plow. There were not enough front end loaders and dump trucks to remove the snow, and no place to put it once they did. The little corner markets sold out of fresh food almost immediately, charging $5 for a 69 cent item.

At least now there are contingency plans, but back then it was total chaos for several days.

-Babka

Thanks to Chicago and the Midwest, there was not much today in snow and ice here in Upstate NY, only 18 inch in 2 days. Thanks for taking most of the mess!

Sharlened, I'm near Hutchinson. Finally finished breaking trails around the yard with my snowshoes. Of course some of them were blowing back in almost as fast as I finished packing them.