Blizzard? What blizzard?

[dreamshark]

 The news feeds on my phone keep talking about the ongoing blizzard in the midwest "including Wisconsin and Minnesota." Maybe out west somewhere? In Minneapolis today (Monday) it is a beautiful winter day of the sort we have had way too few of this year. The sky is blue, the air is still, and sunlight is glinting off pure white snow.

But at least half of the snow that fell on Saturday and Sunday is gone already, which is odd considering that the temps are in the teens. The snowplows had already cleared our side of the street by the time I got up. I re-shoveled the carriage way to the street that the snowplow had filled up and moved the car back to the even side. Then I went out back and finished shoveling the back stairs and a path to the parking pad where we'd put the van. There was only about 5" of snow on top, and most of the snow had already melted off the windows on the south side. The alley is already plowed, so we could actually take the van out if we wanted to. But the streets still have a treacherous bed of ice under the snow, so I'd rather not.
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Comments

[minnehaha]

Lamest.Blizzard.Ever.

K.

[bibliofile]

Wisconsin along Lake Michigan got feet (multiple feet) of snow. So it really was a big blizzard in Wisconsin.

Here in Madison: a good bit of rain, then a few inches of snow. Milwaukee: too warm, mostly rain.

[dreamshark]

"A lot of snow" does not constitute a blizzard. A blizzard is the snow equivalent of a hurricane - it involves howling winds and whiteout conditions. Which may well have been the situation in parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota but was emphatically NOT the case in Minneapolis. The main impediment to driving was the layer of ice under the gently falling snow.

I object on principle to the hyperbolization of weather.