So going into this last weekend, "Snowpocolypse" was supposed to happen. We were supposed to get somewhere in the 6"-10" range between Friday night and Sunday morning. A decent amount, but not one that will phase us come Jan-Feb. However, the first major snowfall of the year always freaks everyone out. Once we get that first snow out of our system (pun somewhat intended) everyone calms down and the subsequent snows rarely slow down life as we know it. So I was bracing myself for the annual freak-out.
Sure enough, by Friday afternoon the local news outlets were in full force telling everyone that Armageddon was about to arrive. The amount of "freak out" seemed to be above our typical first-major-snow-of-the-season normal. By Friday evening, before a single snowflake fell, announcements started being made about events getting cancelled due to the pending weather. The schools shut down all weekend activity, including a Winter Formal dance. I couldn't believe it. A friend of mine even called me to get my opinion about whether or not he should cancel his event on Saturday night. I told him he may want to wait until it at least starts snowing. He reluctantly agreed that maybe it was a little early. I told him that by 2 PM on Saturday we should know whether or not the snowfall will be significant enough to cancel his 7 PM event. Even then, I encouraged him to keep it scheduled as our weather here is to unpredictable for any forecaster to consistently get right, plus we're in South Dakota and people would still drive through 10" of snow to attend.
The snow was supposed to start by 10 PM on Friday night. I went to bed at 11:30, and not a flake had dropped. When I woke up on Saturday, still no snow. By then the weatherman was telling us we would see a "significant snow event" starting at 11 AM. Closings were still getting announced. Even our local cycling group cancelled their fat bike ride due to inclement weather. What? Isn't inclement weather the reason you buy a fat bike?
Around 1 PM flakes started to fall. My friend immediately cancelled his event. By 4 PM the snow had pretty much wrapped up with only about an inch on the ground. Ugh. I think weathermen and politicians are the only two kinds of people that can constantly be wrong yet people still believe them.
So on to this morning's commute. 23F with a 10 mph headwind. Because we only got an inch, the plows didn't run. By this morning the main roads were in pretty good shape, but the back roads were a bit sloppy and snow packed. The temp hadn't gotten above freezing since our ice storm last Wed, so there are still plenty of icy spots. The MUP was either snow covered where the wind had drifted it, or covered in sheet ice.
It was a slow commute, but I made it.