Uh oh, cyclone's a-comin', Em

[altivo]

Well, if you believe the media and the NWS, we'll all be dead by Wednesday. Their computer models insist we are in for 18-20 inches (about 40-45 cm. for you metric folks) of snow between Monday and Wednesday, with snow falling at rates as high as three inches per hour at times. I think I've seen snow fall that fast once, and only once. That was during the infamous blizzards of 1979, the ones that inspired Chicago voters to kick Michael Bilandic out of office and put Jane Byrne in the mayor's chair. Amusingly, it's a big election year in Chicago again, only this time they can't turn Daley out of office because he has already declined to run for re-election. In any case, I view this forecast with skepticism. In recent years, the NWS has been wrong at least three quarters of the time when they have predicted a huge snowstorm. Of course, there's plenty of snow and wind flying in Chicago politics as a result of the election. Maybe that's what has skewed the NWS instruments.

Our sole remaining duck survived the day, and no sign of the fox. I think she was sleeping it off. The duck refused to come out of his house at all, and stayed twitching in a nest box for the entire day. Gary finally put dishes with food and water inside the house before closing it up for the night. He plans to move the duck to our lambing pen tomorrow. That's a 4 x 8 foot space in the barn completely caged in over the top as well as on the sides. With this storm, if it actually delivers, the vixen will be hungry again and looking for anything she can catch. I may try putting some cat food out for her if that happens, at least until the snow level drops. We have plenty of small rodents, voles, mice, etc. but they will stay tunneled deep in the snow under these conditions.

If worse comes to worst we have plenty of food and fuel, and can weather a week or more without much hardship. The electric power going out would be the worst that could happen I think, unless there's so much snow that roofs start collapsing. I expect work to close on Tuesday if the snow actually hits, or at least, to close early. Gary has a class at midday on Tuesday, but unless the forecast is revised I intend to do my best to keep him from going. He'd never get back in that storm they are describing.

Comments

[hrrunka]

Good luck with the snow. I hope the NWS are wrong again.

[altivo]

I don't mind the snow, I just hate all the media panic and hype. "Life-threatening storm" and "Recalls deadly blizzard of 1967" complete with photos of cars buried up to their roofs does nothing to encourage people to act intelligently.

[hrrunka]

Aye, media over-hype really doesn't help at all...

[moonhare]

Good luck with this, and to Gary with his commute. We've had quite a bit of snow this season, and are due for a few more 'weather days' this week as well. The boss actually closed work early last Tuesday, stayed closed Wednesday, and then delayed opening last Thursday due to storms.

Cat food for the fox? I've given 'our' fox some leftover dog food before and he wouldn't touch it. Makes me wonder if he knows something our dogs don't about its content ;o)

[altivo]

Cat food is richer and stinkier than most dog food. But I'd expect a hungry fox to eat just about anything edible, and dog food certainly qualifies. Very much like other canids, the fox is an opportunistic omnivore, a sort of furry version of a shark when it comes to food choices.

[hrrunka]

The foxes round here (on the other side of the ocean) seem happy to try just about anything, but they're not the healthiest for it...

[altivo]

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend a steady diet of cat food. But as a substitute for starvation, small amounts of it should be OK. I could offer dog food, but in cold weather conditions I trust the "aroma" of cat food to make it more likely to be found easily.

[shadow_stallion]

I've seen it snow that fast before. We were up in Milwaukee for Thanksgiving '93 or '94. When we left the hotel at 4am for the drive back to Nashville there were snow flurries. We didn't even make it to Chicago before having to get a hotel room for a few hours because the lake effect snow was coming down so fast and thick you could not see the nose of the car.

[altivo]

Yeah, lake effect can be particularly intense. It's usually just in little bands or pockets though, rather than covering several counties as they are predicting for this storm. The southwestern part of the state has flipped over to "blizzard warning" now but we are still on the "watch."

[deffox]

They're predicting the same storm here. It'll be a 'historic' blizzard with 20-30cm. The worst storm since 2008.

So even if it materializes, it's a once every two to three year storm. Oh the horror.

[altivo]

Heh. Well, anything over about 14 inches will be the worst in 12 years here. If it breaks about 21 inches in Chicago as predicted by the computer models, it could become the worst on record. The 1967 blizzard was officially 21.6 inches and the worst since records began in 1886.

The forecast here still stands at 16-18 inches total and they've converted the "watch" to a "blizzard warning" now, so they feel pretty confident. The estimate for Chicago around Midway Airport is 20-22 inches. Indiana could get over 30 inches, but that's less unusual for them I think.