Mysteries, Vickie Fee

Snowpocalypse comes to town

I usually glance at the next day’s weather forecast on my phone, so I have a general idea of what’s supposed to be coming our way. For about a week recently, I was constantly checking the weather. As most of you know, I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We get more snow than most people, and I’m accustomed to that since we moved here in 2009.

Three feet of snow makes getting in and out of parked cars difficult.

A day or two of heavy snow, or an occasional blizzard, is something I’m used to. When I lived in Tennessee, people worried MUCH more about the weather forecast. If the weatherman was predicting a snowflake or two was enough to send local residents in a panic to the grocery store, where they (including me) would clear the shelves of things like milk and bread and toilet paper, as if a single snow day would wipe out our supplies.

People in the U.P. don’t talk about weather nearly as much or worry about supplies, as a general rule. My husband went to the store the day before the big blizzard was predicted to start and was shocked that the parking lot was completely filled and the store was crowded. There was still toilet paper and milk on the shelves, so we weren’t sure what the rush to the store was for. We bought both, as well as coffee.

Melting snow on sidewalks made accessing storefronts difficult.

This time around, the experts predicted three or four days of heavy snow, white-out conditions and even thunder snow, which is a snowstorm with thunder and lightning. I had heard a prediction for thunder snow here before, but it never happened. It didn’t happen this time either, at least not where we live. But we DID get three or four feet of snow, extremely poor driving visibility and sidewalks that were at times unwalkable.

It was the first time I remember the snow plough drivers being told to get off the roads. If it was too bad for the plough drivers to maneuver, then it was definitely too bad for us regular folks to drive. I stayed holed up at home. Fortunately, my husband was able to work from home on his computer and phone.

I only experienced the blizzard through my windows. The snow was so heavy, I couldn’t see the street in most places. The snow completely covered the windows at times, so I actually couldn’t even see the parking lot.

Entrances into back of shops from the parking lot was hampered by piles of snow.

Much of our winters are just pretty: snow-flocked trees, pretty layers of snow on the ground. Light to medium snow gently blowing past the windows. This was a different level of snow for us. Impassable roads, cars getting stuck, some people actually trapped in their houses for days. We kept our power, but many people lost power for a time. Schools and even the local college had to close. The hospital handled emergencies, but rescheduled most surgeries and tests.

I’m not complaining, because we were truly blessed – safe, warm with plenty of heat and food. I think the rest of winter, which lasts until May for us, will be much gentler.

Please feel free to add your favorite snow story in the comments.

24 thoughts on “Snowpocalypse comes to town”

  1. Coming from the Western New York area, snow doesn’t faze me. You would think people in SW Pennsylvania would be more used to it, but no.

    We went to Florida in early December. Landed just as the snow started. By the time we got home, there were a couple of inches. I had to go get Koda from the kennel. I decided to take my car (a sedan) because it had not been driven in a week and there were only a couple of inches. It was all fine until I turned off the main road to the one where the kennel was. A pure, unbroken field of white. Yes, only a couple of inches, but lots of rolling hills.

    There was much swearing and praying until my dog and I were back safely on the main road.

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  2. When I was stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska a million years ago, I lived on a hill in the woods outside of town. I had a long driveway off the road with a hairpin turn in it and a guy who used to plow me out when the snow came (the first winter I was there, we got 152 inches over the season). The moose in the neighborhood appreciated the plowed path up the hill, and frequently when I was ready to go to work, I would look out to see a moose in the driveway, blocking me in. Moose are notoriously cranky and more likely to square off rather than back down if confronted with something so nonconsequential as a 4×4 vehicle, so I’d have to call into work and tell them I’d be in as soon as Bullwinkle moved along!

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  3. My husband and I are both from the East but we lived in California for about seven years before moving to Ohio. Unfortunately, we returned at the start of winter. The first day of work, I walked out to my car in the parking lot that morning and found it encased in ice. I just stood there wondering, “What am I supposed to do with this?”

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  4. Thunder snow?! I’ll stay here in SoCal, thank you very much. My fave snow story was when I went to college in NY. One day my freshman year, I was wondering: Why are there flower petals falling down on me? I looked up at the sky–and it was snow! 🙂

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  5. And there you have the reason I live in California in the summer and Hawai’i in the winter! Not a snow (or cold) gal, here.

    We’ve been having a lot of rain here in Hawai’i, but at least it’s warm! (And Hilo has not suffered from flooding and landslides like many of the places in the state, thank goodness.)

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  6. Having lived in SoCal since 1990, I don’t have snow stories to share. Much as I hate the cold, I’m always jealous when I see people in my NYC hometown having a blast in Central Park post-snowstore.

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  7. Being a CA native, I’ve never driven in bad snow. And I’m not sure I have the skills for it. I wouldn’t want to be dealing with that at all.

    Glad you are surviving this winter. It sounds like it’s been extra snowy for lots of people.

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  8. When I was a kid, going sledding at the golf course nearby was an absolute blast. We used big tire inner tubes and would try to get the biggest bounce at the end of a run. I always came home wet and sore, but it was totally worth it!

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