Sneaupocalypse

Yesterday's weather turned out to be even more eventful than predicted, which is saying something since the prediction was right on par with a Category 4 hurricane. 

Layers...

Considering the forecasts of imminent disaster, I was happy to see Monday's mid-day temperature creep up close enough to 40° to make a MLK Day levee ride feasible, despite the 12 mph wind. Knowing that I'd be riding both alone and slowly (it was Mellow Monday, after all), I dressed extra-warmly, and even broke out the trusty old NOBC winter jacket from back in the green Desire Title days. It was a nice spin ahead of the approaching collision between warm moist air that would be streaming out of the Gulf, and an arctic cold front that would be slamming into it some time early Tuesday morning. I brought the potted plants in from the front porch, covered some of the more vulnerable ones with a plastic tarp, and generally prepared for the worst.

Some photos from throughout the day are in my google photos album.

Having lived here all my life, I was a little skeptical about just how much actual snow we would see. Often enough, the lake protects us from the worst of the winter weather, keeping the temperature just that little bit higher than everywhere else that is outside of the lake "shadow." Turned out my skepticism was badly misplaced this time. I got up early Tuesday morning to let the dog out, noting that there was already some sleet falling. By 7 am it was snowing lightly, and I was still thinking that a light snow was probably all we'd see around here. The last time there was real legit snow was probably 1963, the night before the Sugar Bowl. We lived just five or six blocks from Tulane Stadium, and I remember playing in the snow and building a snowman as football fans walked by on their way to the game. So I guess we were due. There had been a few snow events over the intervening years, and the snow and ice storm we got around 1989 just before Christmas was significant enough to shut the city down for a few days.

Well, by noon it was clear that this was going to be way more snow than I'd expected. The snow continued non-stop from 7 am until around 5:50 pm. They had gotten a few snow plow trucks from other states where this sort of thing happens on a time scale of months rather than generations, and around 4:30 pm I saw a few of them going down S. Claiborne, which is technically a state highway. Obviously only the major roads were prioritized. Still, the streets were virtually deserted. By 4 pm there was about ten inches of snow accumulation everywhere, and of course officials were strongly urging people to stay home. As of Wednesday they are still saying that. 

Around 1:00 pm I reluctantly went down to the basement, where the temperature was hovering just under 50° and broke out the ancient wind-trainer. I spent an hour spinning on that while watching a cyclocross race on YouTube. I guess something was better than nothing. 

By 5:00 pm the stairs were unrecognizable under a blanket of snow and the neighbors were sitting out in the front yard around a fire pit. It had been 30° all day, but was now starting to drop. The low last night was in the mid-20s. Anyway, although our water pipes are all in the basement, I went out to run water from the front and rear outside faucets, by which time the one in the back of the house was already frozen despite the pipe insulation and fact that it was less than six inches from the basement plumbing. I searched around for one of the increasingly rare incandescent light bulbs in the house and set it up in a clip-on work light where the old galvanized pipe goes throught the basement wall to the faucet. By morning it was running again. 

This morning I figured I'd better at least get the foot of snow off of the front steps and car before the sun turned everything into ice. I think it may get slightly above freezing here for a couple of hours today, but then tonight will again be in the mid-20s. At the moment, S. Claiborne is a slush-fest with increasing traffic. The shoulders of essentially all roads in the city are not rideable, and the middle of the roads aren't much better, although I guess some may take a shot at it on mountain bikes. At least the sun is shining. I guess I'll be on the trainer once again today, and perhaps tomorrow too since I doubt much of this stuff is going to melt before then.