Colorado Blizzard

As you may have heard, Colorado had some nasty weather the last couple days. We were under winter storm and blizzard warnings until noon today. We were expecting anywhere from 8 to 13 inches of snow in our area. I don't really know how much snow we ended up with because of the winds and the drifting. They closed highways, schools and Air Force bases last night and today and we heard stories of pretty rough driving and a few bad accidents. I didn't have to be anywhere, so I just stayed off the roads and hubby worked an overnight shift at the fire department last night, so we weren't travelling.

This was my driveway this morning. I forgot to take a picture before I started to clear it, so this is the best pic I have. It doesn't look like much in the photo, but the snowdrift was about 3' deep and ran across the drive (even though I did get it mostly cleared last night). The rest was pretty clear. The chunky snow on the left is what I had moved already. One neighbor came to help me shovel and another came with his 4-wheeler & plow. He had taken out the highest portion of the drift and was clearing the mailbox area when a cable broke on his plow. We got enough done that hubby could get the car in when he came home. Once he got home from work, he fired up the riding mower & plow and finished the drive.

While we were working, one car couldn't make it up the hill (we tried pushing it but couldn't get any traction) and a UPS driver decided not to try it as he had already been stuck once today. Turns out, if I sit on the front end of the mower with my feet on the plow while he drives, it can do a really good job clearing the street, so we actually plowed the road too. With the county budget problems, we had no idea if/when they would make it out here to plow, and people would be coming home from work soon. We were happy that when the plow did come by around 6:30 or 7:00 he didn't just re-spread the less-than-professional-plower piles we left between houses causing us to have to clear the end of the drive again...he zigged around them instead.

I was watching the temps in the garden throughout the day yesterday. Before the storm rolled in (around 11), it was sunny, about 32 outside and about 50 in the garden. The clouds came and within an hour or so I think, the temp outside dropped to about 20. About midnight, it was 7 degrees outside and it had finally fallen to 30 in the garden. I plugged in the just-in-case Christmas lights I had strung in the bed, and the temp went up to 35. We had a bit of a snow drift up the side of the bed last night, but by morning, it was HUGE!

This is about the same viewpoint I took a photo from the other day (just from a little further back). The metal trash can you can see is at the end of the garden bed that has the plastic cover (and the veggies started). That drift is about 5' tall. (Notice the bare ground in the back yards)

Just to the left of center, you can see the top of the plastic covering the bed. The end over the garlic didn't hold up well and appears caved in, but I really didn't go poking around there too much today. We are expecting cold temps tonight and I figured the insulation was good. Right now (at 11:20 pm) it's 18 deg outside and 31 under all that snow. I didn't plug the lights back in, mostly because I have no idea what they're touching now.

Finally, this is my neighbor's trampoline, and not the neighbor who's yard it's in. It travelled quite a ways and over 2 fences to get there. It has held up surprisingly well to some strong winds this year, but I guess this one was just too much for it. We saw them move it back to the owner's yard. It didn't look good.

All in all, it was some nasty weather but warmer temperatures are coming back tomorrow. It brought some much needed moisture to our area, and for that, we are happy.