02 December 2016

White-Outs and Surprises

So the drive home was a bit tense. The first three miles, mostly getting from my building in mid-town out to the highway, was okay. But I noticed the sky growing steadily darker, and tiny snowflakes beginning to swirl.

After a couple of miles on the highway, I ran into that solid wall of greyish-white shown in the previous post, and traffic slowed from 65-plus mph to 50.

The farther north I drove, the heavier the snow got, and visibility grew progressively worse. At ten miles, traffic had slowed to 40 mph, and the falling/swirling/drifting snow was making drivers slam on the brakes as we went through moments when the road just ... disappeared.

By the time I reached home, I discovered that we'd received nine inches of snow, our street hadn't been plowed, and I was ready to call it a day.

This makes it look lighter than it actually was.

Ditto, but showing the full 9 inches.
I'm glad to be home.

9 comments:

LindaG said...

Very glad you got home safely.

Rev. Paul said...

Thanks, Linda. It's good to be home.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Alaska isn't for wimps.

Guffaw in AZ said...

Be careful out there, Brother!

gfa

Ed Bonderenka said...

I'm wondering if it will be worth putting my snow plow on the tractor this year, unlike last year where I regretted it in the spring.

Rev. Paul said...

WSF - no, it's not. But as long as we can keep fighting back, and keep the winter apocalypse at bay, we'll stay here.

Guffaw - aye, aye, sir!

Ed - the best advice I can give you is to check the winter forecast from both the Farmer's Almanac, and the Old Farmer's Almanac, and go from there. That's what we do, and it's usually accurate. This year, for south-central AK, they've called for snow approaching 'normal' amounts, and a really severe January/February.

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

I am shivering just looking at that Reverend. Glad you got home safely.

Rev. Paul said...

Thank you, TB. It was an interesting drive, but all is well.

Sandy Livesay said...

Rev. Paul,

That's a nice amount of snow. It's good to hear you arrived home safely. Visibility is terrible when it's snowing like that.

We had some severe fog Monday morning, making it scary to drive up into the city with the trailer.