The Howling Night...

...the storm ended up early in the afternoon, my Wednesday. This shot was taken mid-morning, during a torrent of  what we, near the Great Lakes, call Lake Effect Snow. For us, on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it's usually not too bad, since the prevailing winds are from the west. We leave it to Michigan, Northern Indiana, Northern Ohio and Buffalo NY to enjoy the heavy stuff, picking up the lakes' moisture.
But this gigantic storm system, as it left us, produced juicy East winds off the Lake. I could hardly see my neighbor's garage.  It was the 2nd largest amount of snow, since they started counting about 1870; 1967 still has the trophy! But winds gusted to the 60 MPH range, there was Thunder Snow, Lightning and lots of noise all night. Amethyst's Mom's livingroom picture window was broken--unsettling thing to have happen in the middle of the night.

Wow... at 7:56 PM CST

...snowing for about 4 hours solid, with winds of 40-50 MPH. The high-rez radar image shows we just finished with a long strip of "dark blue" but there's an even bigger and deeper blue blob of precip headed our way. No use posting photos but will tomorrow.     The birds and squirrels were so cold and blown around this afternoon, I tossed extra food out under the feeder.   We have a "vole community" living under our deck--no worries: tomorrow they will tunnel around under the snow to find food--safe from the marauding predator birds.   

Full Blast at 3:23PM...

I'm headed to the basement to exercise.

2:37 PM: Snowing Hard Now and Blowing...

...the weather guys are predicting Thunder Snow. (Which sounds like the name of a heavy-metal band from Fargo, ND) I'm looking forward to it.    I also missed the next most popular Chicago blizzard, which happened in 1979.   Hubs' tells me the snow blower is brimming with fresh gasoline!

2:08 PM: Big Snow Flakes...

intermingled with light snow that just started again. The Big Flakes are heavier and are falling faster than the others. The wind catches the vent of the drier in the room next door, making a slapping sound once in a while.

The Blob Approaches...

...on the high-rez radar map, the storm seems to be as far North as downtown. The wind is blowing so hard, my Goldfinches are not always able to balance on their feeder perches! But it's not snowing here just now.
It's about 2PM.

Live-Blogging the Greatest Snow on Earth...

...the projected storm is compared with a one in 1967 which strangled the city for a few days. I wasn't in town, being on semester break and visiting someone in Milwaukee (it wasn't so bad there). The thing I do remember from this era: the big national news was the accidental fire that killed the three pioneer astronauts on Jan 27, 1967. Anyway, at 12:45 PM today, I noticed the flakes are starting to fly.