When Did We Move to Minnesota?
It’s already been an extraordinary Winter for snowfall and now there’s more on the way. The snow season started with an 8-inch snowfall that’s typically a lot for our area. Soon thereafter, we got a big sign of things to come with 29 inches of snow a week before Christmas. That snowfall shattered previous records for snow in December and stayed on the ground well into the new year. But, before the new year was able to come, another round of snow and ice hit the area on Christmas Day.
We’re well into 2010 and the snow has not stopped. We usually get a couple of small snowfalls of 1-2 inches and maybe one “large” snowfall of about 6 inches. That’s it. But after the 37+ inches in December, we had a couple of small 1-2 inch snowfalls before an 8+ inch snowfall just last weekend. Then, on Tuesday night, we got another 3-4 inches of snow. All told, we’ve probably only had one or two days since mid-December where we could actually see the ground.
As if the snow we’ve already had wasn’t enough, there is now a major storm system heading our way. The snow is supposed to start by daybreak tomorrow and won’t stop until sometime Saturday. The official Winter Storm Warning is predicting “storm total accumulations of 20 to 28 inches [of snow].” Locally, the predictions are 7 to 11 inches of snow tomorrow and 10 to 14 inches of snow tomorrow night. That’s 17 to 25 inches, with no prediction yet made for Saturday. We could quickly and easily get into the 2-1/2 foot (or higher!) range.
In anticipation of the impending snow storm, U.Va. has already closed for tomorrow. Usually, U.Va. doesn’t close for snow and their closing for the December storm was the first time I can recall that they’ve closed in the 10+ years I’ve lived in Virginia. Closing preemptively is something I’ve never seen them do.
With temperatures staying below freezing for quite some time, this snow will stay on the ground for a long time, just like the December storm’s snow. In addition, there are already forecasts of snow on Monday and/or Tuesday.
So, I ask the question again. When did we move to Minnesota?