My 3 snow shovels are hanging in the garage...all spider webby, right where I left them last March.

We've had flurries every day lately but nothing seems to stick. Weather people are calling for temps near zero F (-18C) for next week but only more light flurries.

Some parts of NE Ohio up near the lake, east of Cleveland, are getting much more than us.

I had to break out the snow shovel for the first time this winter down here in southern Ohio. There was enough to cancel the regular Sunday morning breakfast ride It isn't looking good for the Monday night ride either.

Can you get where you need to go? Does everyone have power?

Oh sure. 10 inches of new snow doesn't bother us a bit. The main school closures are on the Eastern Plains where there have been high winds creating 4 foot drifts. But, otherwise, besides a bit of solid ice on the side streets, everything in the metro are is "go."

In the City of Denver, they still have thousands of blocks of streets loaded with ice that need to be cleared from our huge December storms. They have 120 pieces of snow removal equipment which clean between 100-200 blocks per day. However, the city has 14,000 blocks total, of which about 1/3rd have been ice cleared. Of course, this equipment had to be diverted to snow removal from this current storm. However, Denver only got about 5 inches of snow, while the SOuthern (and higher) portions of the metro area, such as Parker (elevation about 5,900 feet) got more.

Most of the closures and delays listed below are on the Eastern Plains or eastern side of the metro area:

Akron schools - closed monday
• Akron head start -- closed Monday
• Arickaree School District R-2 -- Closed
• Arriba-Flagler School -- closed
• Aspen Academy - 90 minute delay
• Aurora Public Schools - 1 Hour Delay
• Ave Maria Catholic School - 1 Hour Delay
• Bennett School District 29-J -- closed
• Bethune School District R-5 -- closed
• Brush Public Schools -- closed
• Brookstone Christian Academy -- closed
• Buffalo School District - closed Monday
• Burlington School District RE-6J -- closed
• Byers School District 32-J -- closed
• Cherry Creek Schools - Delayed Start Schedule
• Cherry Valley Elementary School - Closed
• Colorado School for the Deaf & Blind - 2 Hour Delay
• Crescent View Academy - 1 Hour Delay
• Deer Trail School District - closed monday
• Denver Indian Center -- two hour delay
• Denver Lutheran High School - 1 Hour Delay
• Douglas County Libraries - 1 Hour Delay
• Douglas County Schools - Delayed Start (1 Hour Delay)
• Elizabeth School District C-1 -- closed
• Franktown Elementary School - Closed
• Genoa Hugo School District - no school on Monday
• Haxtun School District RE-2J -- closed
• Holy Cross Lutheran ELC: Highlands Ranch - 1 Hour Delay
• Holyoke School District RE-1J -- closed
• Idalia rj-3 schools - closed monday
• It Takes a Village Preschool - 1 Hour Delay
• Iliff Head Start -- closed
• Julesburg school district RE-1 - closed
• Kiowa School District C-2 -- closed
• Larkspur Elementary School - Closed
• Legacy Academy - Elizabeth -- closed
• Lewis-Palmer #38: PPBOCES - 2 Hour Delay/NO AM Kindergarten or Preschool
• Limon Public Schools -- closed
• Morgan Community College -- closed
• Morgan County School District RE-3 -- closed
• Otis school district - closed monday
• Peetz Plateau District RE-5 -- closed
• Platte Canyon Sch. Dist. in Bailey - 90 minute delay
• Platte Valley Schools -- closed
• Regis Jesuit High School - Closed
• Renaissance Montessori Academy - 1 Hour Delay
• Rocky Mountain School Exped. Learning - 1 Hour Delay
• St. Thomas More Parish School - 1 Hour Delay
• Sterling - RE-1 valley schools - Closed
• Strasburg 31-J All classes closed monday
• Trinity Lutheran School - Franktown - 90 minute delay
• Weld County School Dist. RE-3J -- closed
• Weldon Valley Schools - Closed
• Wiggins School District RE 50J - no school on Monday
• Wray, Colo District RD-2- no school on Monday
• Yuma School District 1 - Closed

We finally had our first snow! It really looks beautiful. The county schools are all closed, so my daughter gets a surprise day off. Although morning commute traffic was quite light, I can't say I got to make "first tracks", as the roads were covered with abouut a quarter inch of brittle ice. More like "first cracks" or "first stud pits", neither of which sounds nearly as romantic. For the first time in a month, there was no sound of carbide studs on dry pavement as I rode.

Paul

Call me a Retrogrouch Globalist but being 50 years old I went through school being taught about Global Cooling. Then in 1980 there was a sudden 180-degree turn around in globalogy and suddenly we had Global Warming. I have come to the conclusion that if it were not for greenhouse gasses we would be 30 years into another Ice Age! The Global Cooling advocates in the 1970's were claming if we did not do something about Global Cooling we would have snow falling in places it should not be falling in and this year confirms that thinking. Look at what just happened to the crops in California! It's obvious that attempts to lower the production of Green House gasses has succeeded to the point that a natural Ice Age cycle that had started years ago is back on track to cover North America in Glaser's! It's time to fight Global Cooling by producing more Green House gasses!

I'm working on that by eating a lot of beans, but my wife says my gases smell!