Digging Out

updated 10:50 AM Central Time

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A winter storm packing heavy snow walloped the central United States, causing at least 5 deaths and dozens of injuries as multi-car pileups forced authorities to close parts of several major highways.

The storm Saturday blew heavy snow from Texas to Minnesota. Much of the region was still recovering from a severe ice storm early last week that knocked out electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.

The news folks have quite the way of describing things for sensationalism. But yes it snowed here yesterday. In Kansasn City we live on I 70 as a North, South dividing line. North you get one kind of weather and South you get another. We are 20 miles South of the I 70 interstate. But the weather from the North is routinely crossing the I 70 divider and nailing us with nasty.

I just doesn't happen as quickly as it did in Des Moines. First it starts as a nice day but then the clouds roll in from the West. When the warm moist air comes from the Sea of Cortez, and the North cold freight train comes in from Canada, you hold your breath to see which one will win.

By mid morning it was raining quite hard and the temp was 32 deg. Nice! Ice pellets are a lot like styrofoam in texture. And it covers everything. About 2 inches of it. Then the snow. But we are South of I 70 and got most of the nasty in rain. So we only have about 2 inches of snow on top of the frozen pellet stuff.

Our neighbor to the East has a JD garden tractor with a blade. At 11:00 PM last night he was out cleaning up the driveways. His and mine. That is a big help, as our JD tractor is not as big as his, and does not have a blade. We just store it away for the winter, because it still thinks it is a lawn mower.

So we are cleaning up here this AM. We will never see a city truck, as they will wait for the sun to do it for them. Saves money. But we will be sloppy for the next two days.

Lets hope it melts some by Christmas!