Storms Interrupted

On Tuesday night and Wednesday of this week, the National Weather Service issued a Blizzard Warning for southeast Michigan. They predicted at least 18 inches of snow and Jacob & I were beyond excited! The snow began falling around 6:00 Tuesday evening, schools canceled classes for the next day, and everyone hunkered down for the big storm. By midnight, we had several inches on the ground and it looked as if we were on target for another foot or more. Then, abruptly the snow stopped and sleet started to clatter against the windows. I knew that sleet would cut down on our snow totals, but the local weathermen promised that it would only last a very short time. Three hours later, sleet was still pounding the outside of the condo. The snow did begin again a short time later, only to pause for an hour or two early Wednesday morning. When all was said and done, we had 9 new inches of snow - far short of the prediction of a foot and a half. One local meteorologist reported that EVERY single computer model had been wrong about the storm. Apparently, the extended period of sleet was unexpected, as well as the dry pocket that turned off the precipitation for a couple of hours in the morning.

Jim was due to fly from Houston to Detroit on Thursday night, and, luckily, DTW was plowed and up & running normally by Thursday morning. Southeast Texas, on the other hand, was due to receive some unusually cold weather with freezing rain and light snow. Airlines began canceling all flights out of Houston from Thursday afternoon through midday Friday. Jim was able to switch his 5:30 p.m. flight to an earlier one, which was fortunate since his original flight ended up not operating. In anticipation of their one inch of snow, they canceled school in all of southeast Texas for Friday and many businesses were closed as well. The snow never materialized, but the area did end up getting icing on bridges, overpasses, and elevated roadways. Strange weather for Houston, and not at all beneficial for my outdoor tropical plants down there.

The view out our window before our "blizzard."

After the storm.