Snow and Blowing Snow

Nebraska got hit with a snow storm yesterday that will definitely qualify as a blizzard. It snowed all day with some wind but not strong winds until after dark last night when the wind just roared. The snow was drifted in places pretty high and other places were blown free of all snow.

First off I want you to know all of these photos were taken from the comfort of my house so some may have smudges or views through the screens so please take that in consideration when looking at them. It was 0 degrees F. this morning and the wind chill temp. was supposed to be -24 degrees F. and this girl is not crazy enough to go outside just to get photos of the snow in conditions like this. Now at noon the wind has gone down a little but up until now it was still blowing the snow and re-drifting the places that John had cleared with the tractor. The sun is shining so it looks nice even though it is frigid out there.

This first photo shows the front of the garage - notice no snow on part of the parking pad but there is a 3 foot drift right in front of the entire two car garage. John had to open one of the big garage doors and climb over/through the drift to get out as the other two back doors were blocked with large drifts.

This next photo shows our deck - the entire thing is covered with a 3-4 foot drift that will have to be hand shoveled off. Too bad the snow blower can't get up there.

Ok, now for the back (west side) of our house. The pointy drift in front of my sewing room window is really tall and is probably about 7 feet at the tip. It started at the north side of the house, wrapped around the house and continues through my garden and flower bed.

Another photo of the same drift - this time I was standing at the window of my sewing room. That is the 3 foot air conditioning unit on the left side of the photo.

We have an L shaped house with the garage and back hall on the short part of the L so took this photo looking straight north from the north hall door. The drift doesn't look so big from this angle does it?

Looking north west from my sewing room window. The windbreak trees we planted about 5 years ago are starting to catch snow. Will be nice in a few years to have them be taller and more dense to keep more of the snow away from the house.

Ok, now I am looking out my living room towards the south. See how the wind blew the snow off the front sidewalk. Sunday we had snow too and John had used the snow blower so you can tell where it left a ridge. Yesterday there was probably a foot of snow on the sidewalk but during the night it blew it away.

Last photo - this is looking east-south east at the driveway to our yard/farm. There were several small drifts John had to clear out then this big one that was 3-4 feet high. It almost covered the split rail fence around the lawn.

John was out all morning in the tractor clearing snow drifts and taking care of the cattle. Yesterday they were across the road from home in a corn stalk field. (Cattle are fenced in the harvested fields and they clean up the dropped corn. We haul water to them in the various fields and they get moved to a new field every few weeks.)

We had pickups with the flashers on to warn traffic as we moved them across the highway to the lots here yesterday morning as the visibility was low due to the snow falling. John had the tractor and a bale of hay to get them to follow him. Only one car came while the 100 cows and 100 calves ran across. The older cows remember and lead the younger ones and they knew it would be better over here than where they were. Cattle have a tendency to drift with blizzards and once they break out or walk over the fences covered by drifts they can go miles with a storm so we wanted to get them in more secure pens plus John can feed them here and we don't have to haul water as they can drink out of the tank.

Lynn