No phone call for me this morning, so I'm going in to work. This has been an interesting storm. It rained until about 9pm, then turned over to snow. It looks like we only got a few inches, but the wind is rippin'. No power loss or having to clean off the dish here.. It looks like the south end of town got it worse than the north end.

Liz, be careful! I'll be thinking of you curled up and watching movies today with your daughter. That's the good stuff!

Thanks Barb! That's the plan. Husband made it back from his mid watch, took him just over an hour to make it home. It's normally a 45 minute drive so that's not too bad. He said there were massive snow drifts on the roads and lots of 4-wheel drives in the ditches, Elbert County hadn't plowed anything so it was even hard to tell where the roads were as he got closer to our house and there were no ruts from previous vehicles to follow.

So started out the day with pumpkin French toast, bacon and coffee. A few hours playing on the computer and then I'll binge watch the 14 episodes of "The Good Wife" that's recorded from the spring/summer! I also have "Warhorse" that a co-worker forced on me several months ago that I've never even opened. Time to watch it and get it back to her!

We certainly got more snow than the towns a bit to the north of us--walked the dogs this morning in snowdrifts in our open field over my knees. Can't tell where my path is from the front porch through my garden area, have no clue what I was stepping on! Hope they don't want to spend much time out there....

Pumpkin

French

Toast!??

Steve

ROFL, Liz! When I got to the part about your daughter being scared I wondered how old she is! EIGHTEEN!!! I cracked up! When I was little--think late 40s!--the lights went out fairly often and I remember sitting at the table coloring--with a kerosene lamp! I don't remember being scared! I mostly remember thinking it was fun--at least until I got tired of coloring, but there wasn't much else you could do 'cause the only "light" was at the table! Fast forward to the 70s, when I lived just north of Parker and had a well. Was on IREA (Intermountain Rural Electric) and it wasn't unusual for the power to go out then too! But the problem wasn't really the lights, I had a bunch of kerosene lamps, but when the lights went out---there was no WATER! Quick! Fill up everything you can while there's still pressure!!! Still laughing about an 18 year old being scared of "flickering lights!" I suspect she was more scared of the possible withdrawal from Electronic Devices than she was about no lights!

When she got in bed with you did you sing a rendition of These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things! ;-D

I was kind of hoping for a really good blizzard up here--but no such thing! (I'm retired now! All I have to do is sit inside and watch it!) Like Barb said, it rained most of the evening, and then when it switched over to snow it never got really hard. It did get pretty windy and my TV signal was "blowing away," but I have rabbit ears TV, so I can't sweep off the dish! All I can do is mutter unpleasant things and wait for the wind to calm down!

As near as I can tell I probably got 2-3" of snow--heavy, wet snow! Not really any drifting 'cause it was too wet. The street and sidewalk were melted off by about 0900, and it's melting down on the grass pretty quickly. The sun's out! No wind at all!

When I turned TV on at about 0600 I-25 was closed south of Castle Rock and I-70 was closed east of something! They said there were more than 100 cars stuck and in ditches, but the TV crews couldn't get there (that doesn't happen very often!), so there were no pics! Some other roads were closed down that way too, but I don't remember which--I think it was pretty much anything that went south and east!

I just ran out and swept the snow off of my deck and got my rain gauge in--which I decided to put out when it started to rain yesterday, taking a chance that it might freeze and break, but it wasn't supposed to get that cold--and it didn't! I got about .5" of precip--at least that's how much found it's way into the rain gauge! I'm sure some blew right past the top of it! Over the last couple months I've had some really great moisture--slow, soaking in stuff, not the running off kind--and everything here is really nicely soaked for the winter! Sure wish I had gotten some of it in summer when it was so hot, but getting it now will give everything a great boost for over winter and for getting started in spring.

What say you spend your "vacation" building a snowman, Liz?????

Stay warm--and safe,

Skybird

P.S. Just came back to say that the picture of you doing splits in your robe and snow boots in a Colorado blizzard is pretty funny too!!! If that ever does actually happen, be sure you get a selfie! THEN call the paramedics!

Skybird, I ended up sweeping the snow off the 2 dishes another twice more. I was very, VERY careful to NOT miss that step a second or third time! Subsequent times were easier in some ways and harder in others--it was light the 2nd time since it was after 7 but it was still snowing and the winds were crazy, 3rd time the only snow was that blowing around, no new stuff but the accumulation was up to my thighs. I found my ski pants before making those trips out, though!

My daughter swears I'm more of a chicken than she is because I don't watch scary movies. HA, I say!

National Weather Service Spokane: "Tree down at NWS Spokane. Current wind gust 62 mph. Rambo Rd nearly blocked by gathering of tumbleweeds. Weather Service now on backup generator. We are good for several days. #Inlandwind"

Steve

I can't always tell when you're joking, Digit, so I checked your weather!!! YIKES! Hang onto your hat--and everything else!

Hope nothing blows away on you up there,

Skybird

The little airport not far from my home quit sending hourly updates at 3pm.

Wind information from Spokane International Airport stopped at 4pm.

Here's what Fairchild Air Force Base recorded:

17 Nov 5:49 pm PST 50 43 76 SSW 46G68

That's temperature, dew point, humidity (it rained quite a bit there, not here.) Wind direction: SouthSouthWest sustained winds: 46Gusts68 mph.

There was more wind there than at my home. I have small branches to pick up, a broken pot. The roof isn't old and looks fine but I'll need to climb on the ladder. Those of us with intact roofs must be disappointed that there is still no rain and dirt everywhere. But, there must be huge numbers of homes with roof damage.

Here's what DW will have on as soon as she gets up: http://www.khq.com/ I notice that all news after 4pm has to do with the windstorm.

Steve

Eight hours ago, Washington State Department of Transportation, East signed off like this:

@wsdot_east Spokane crew signing off until morning. Best hwy info at https://t.co/jIbMykRiiz (All my roof shingles are on my lawn.)

Steve

shaking head, too real for a silly Ha!

I'm officially over whining about our snow, digit. Hopefully we don't have members reporting even worse weather than you're having. Keep warm and safe!

Oh, I'm okay.

I was just out mowing the lawn ...

Yeah! After I picked up the big branches I mowed under the trees! It's what I'd do during the summer. Mulch.

Then, I worked my way around the south and west sides of the house with the hose; outdoor water turned back on. Out in the driveway, I rinsed the pickup of dried, caked mud and sprayed it with soap in the hose-end sprayer. It froze!!

Guess, I was just a little early ;o). Still, the soap mix might have worked better as ice. The rinse left the ol'Dodge looking okay.

I hope I didn't wake the petunias with the lawn mower. School has been canceled today. Large areas and over 100,000 people without power. Trees down everywhere. I'm lucky and lucky I don't have to work at putting all of this infrastructure back together. Just pay my utility bills & taxes.

Steve

Here are a couple of poignant photos. This is not my neighborhood elementary but on Spokane's South Hill, I believe. The school district there reports that there are over 30 schools without (or with limited) electricity. I believe the photo's show 2 different schools.

Are things calming down for you up there, Digit? I was just checking weather, clicked on what I thought was Coeur d'Alene and got a little off to the left, so I wound up getting Huetter! Seems to me I remember that name from a conversation a buncha years ago! They're saying wind is WSW at 15 right now, and don't seem to be predicting anything extreme at this point. Hope that means it's over with and all that's left is cleanup of the destruction!

We seem to have our own Wind Event going on down here right now! It's been blowing like crazy ever since I got up! Birds can't even hang onto the feeders! Checked my immediate area and the "prediction" for this afternoon is "...northwest wind 18 to 25 mph." ACTUAL wind conditions at the closest little airport north of me: Wind Speed W 33 G 55 mph!!!

Guess they got THAT prediction a little bit wrong! The news this morning was saying the WIND was supposed to be staying WEST of I-25! I live EAST of I-25! It would seem the wind hasn't been paying attention to the map!!!

It must be REALLY bad right along the foothills!

My TV is blowing away again! And I'm muttering again!

ALL of the snow is gone! Here!

Skybird

I'd like to send some snow from my yard your way, Skybird!

Well, if I was dry--as usual--I'd welcome a shipment of snow from you, Liz! But I'm really well Stocked Up in the Precip Department right now, so I guess I'll decline your offer!!!

How about you make a WHOLE BUNCHA snowmen with your overstock of snow!

Betcha you could make the news if you made a whole hillside of 'em! Hey, if you posted it on Youtube you might even find yourself TRENDING!

;-))

Skybird

P.S. How's the WIND down your direction? Hasn't let up yet up here!

The wind isn't nearly as bad as yesterday morning but it certainly isn't a still day...

The wind here is just a breeze and it's been a nice sunny day.

The stars were out brightly this morning. There was very little in the way of "light pollution." So many neighborhoods are without electricity especially to the south of my home.

Some Weather Stations are not transmitting. That's true with both Felts Field and Liberty Lake - still frozen with yesterday's readings.

Steve

Wind has been howling here in Jefferson county since yesterday.

Just north of us, at Rocky Flats they had wind gusts of 102mph, equal to a category 2 hurricane.

No reports of damage that I have seen, at least not like those pictures Steve, just power outages in the foothills, Golden and Morrison.

Nearly all of the school districts within about 25 miles remained closed today.

I was out and about the last few days. I had extra time since my dental appointment was cancelled because of no electricity in their building. I think most of the traffic signals that were out are back on today.

About 300 yards from my house, a very large spruce fell between 2 houses. About 300 yards in another direction from my home, a house caught the full impact of a large pine; it still sits on the crushed roof. About 300 yards in a third direction (I know this is getting tedious), two tall spruce broke about 50 feet up. I think that they mostly missed the houses.

Lots of people were at the library this morning. Many were charging their laptops and cell phones. Another blue sky day but the north side of my neighbors' roofs were frost covered right through the day but we all have electricity. I feel very lucky.

Steve