Don’t See That Every Day
By Mitch Berg
Background for those of you outside the Twin Cities; we’re expecting a winter storm. It’s actually the tail end of a blizzard that’s currently working over the Plains states).
So I was standing at the bus stop this morning. I recalled “we’re expecting snow”, remembering the radar from the morning weather that showed a big front bearing down on the Twin Cities.
I looked around; no snow at all in my immediate proximity.
“Hmm”.
I looked down the street. It seemed clear down as far as Snelling, maybe even Fairview (3/4 of a mile away) – but beyond that, down toward Prior, the snow was coming down heavily enough to make it hard to see past that street, about a mile away. I could see the front of my bus, just ahead of the snow.
And I watched as the snow caught the bus, changing the headlights from sharp glints to diffused washes of light as I watched.
Literally – the front came in that sharply and identifiably.
That was cool.
Figuratively and literally.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I’ve seen this with lake effect snow in Northern Indiana. You can be driving in bright sunshine one moment, in a driving blizzard the next, then turn around and drive right back out of it.
January 12th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
That bus stop is going to ba around -15 tomorrow morning. Global Warming is going to kill us all.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
I’ve seen this with rain on the lakes up in the Boundary Waters.
We saw dark clouds on the horizon so we decided to find a camping site and hold up for the night one day. Just finished setting up camp and since we were prepared for it set out admiring the oncoming storm.
Watched as the rain marched across the lake swallowing up previously visible islands (and canoers) to obscurity as it went.
Watched that just long enough to give myself the time to get to better cover as it swept over our island.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I love watching big storms approach. The odd-colored skies, blustery winds, inky wall clouds, angry lightning. One summer day, around twenty years ago, I was walking around outside as a real doozy was stirring. The wind went cold suddenly and rain felt imminent. Even so, I ventured across the street to get the mail. As I was closing the mailbox, I could hear something in the distance. I looked down the street and saw a wall of rain, about five blocks away, heading my way at 40 miles-per-hour. I turned around and ran like hell for our garage, maybe 25 yards away. As soon as I cleared the door, the world behind me turned six shades darker as torrents of rain obscured everything in sight. I’ve never seen rain come down so hard and so fast.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I once saw a busload of people jump over a gap in a bridge that wasn’t finished being built.
Oh, wait.
Nevermind.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
I was walking to my truck from the LRT tonight, bundled up and thinking it wasn’t too cold compared to the forecast for the rest of the week. I was halfway across the parking lot when all of a sudden the wind hit. Hard. Like a sudden gust but it didn’t quit, and it was catching me right between the eyes and it made me feel as if I had a Mr. Misty headache. I guess it’s like that on the Great Lakes and at sea sometimes, but I’ve never felt the sudden sensation of the wind just starting like that before, and so hard.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
We have -27 right now. I can just feel the “Mr Misty” (fore)headache I’ll have walking in to the office tomorrow morning. Oh, how I wish I could stay home. We have a wild turkey roosting in our bare old birch tree. I feel so sorry for him. He showed up in August and adopted us I guess. We feed him corn and sunflower seeds (thought about having him for Thanksgiving, but grew attached!). So now he sits, all puffed out, in what will surely be -30 or more by morning. Poor turkey.
January 13th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Sometimes when driving in North Dakota, one can see a wall of snow like that and usually you can drive through it, because it is justblowing snow. Once, on Christmas eve, I was driving to Jamestown and drove into such a wall fo snow. There was no other side. But that is a long story all by itself. Yeah, one does not see that sort of thing every day.
January 13th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Car on the fritz? :/
January 13th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
“I love watching big storms approach.”
Nothing better than a giant storm coming in, and making it to the garage in time to watch it pass . . . a cigar in one hand . . . liter mug in the other!