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Posted By Katie On February 29, 2012 7 Comments

A peek at a blizzard and total white out conditions

Filed Under: Uncategorized 7 Comments

Even though we know storms, we’re still cold!
The wind is howling. We are hunkering down for the big “Upper Midwest” winter storm. I’m a little under the weather myself, hoping rest during a storm cures this bug. Tonight our now teenager and I found these photos from a few years when we had 30″ of snow in 24 hours in March. This pending and now arriving storm, however, is our first blizzard of the entire winter. It’s unheard of on the prairie to have our first blizzard in late February. Some winters we have so many blizzards local weather forecasters name them like hurricanes. If that is the case, this is Blizzard Ann and I hope Bob is not on his way until next winter. 
As I have traveled to other parts of the country I learned we don’t shut down with snow as other non-prairie blizzard areas of the USA. 

Our view from our house will look like this or much worse by morning.

I once was in Nashville waiting for my cab to the airport after 2 inches of wet slush. No one was on the streets. The city was shut down and I am sure the grocery store shelves were bare. The cab driver picked me up late as I stood outside my hotel, dashing out of his car to me like I was freezing to death. It was the mid 30’s Fahrenheit and I was content. I am always cold but I have grown up and lived out winters. He said to me in his finest Southern drawl, “Ma’am we’re going to get you to the airport in these total whiteout conditions.” I smirked and told I certainly appreciated him coming out to pick me up in these treacherous, total white out conditions. The airport was open with no lines and it was an easy travel day home. But Nathan and I have been joking to one another ever since about “total white out conditions”.

I don’t imagine if the Nashville taxi cab driver came to visit the prairie that he would jump in the fresh snow like our kids do once a storm has passed. Or start up a snowmobile like my husband loves to do and go for a ride. This year our snowmobiles aren’t even out of storage.

Embracing and loving prairie snow fall

Prairie dwellers tend to embrace the circumstances and celebrate them. We are proud of our hearty, blizzard surviving tendencies. We learn it as children. My mom told me as a child that “God accidentally put (me) in the wrong family.” God should have put me on a California beach.

But no such luck, I was stuck in North Dakota. Then there are adults like my husband who loves snow and has since birth. He embraces snow. He loves snowmobiling.

I don’t embrace it. I just dream of the day it will be melted, not too quickly to cause flooding but soon enough to have grass to mow, flowers to pick, vegetables to weed, outdoors pools to open and baseball games to attend.

 
But I find joy in those who celebrate “total whiteout conditions” and fresh prairie snowfall. 
Do you love snow? Tolerate it? Or avoid it by living in warmer climates?

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Comments

  1. NicoleStarr says

    February 29, 2012 at 3:17 am

    What an unusual winter for the upper Midwest. As much as I hate the cold and would much have summer year-round, this lack off white stuff has been odd. I hope we don’t get blasted w/multiple march blizzards! Stay warm!

    Reply
  2. Janelle says

    February 29, 2012 at 4:01 am

    Last winter I read a series of books about a Norwegian immigrant family that homesteaded in the Red River valley in ND. It was fictional but based on true stories, and now whenever I’m griping about driving in snow or working outside (I’m a veterinarian) I just thank my stars that I have a warm house to come home to and not a one room sod building and that I have a truck that’s heated and not an open wagon to ride in and some nice warm clothes – those women wore dresses ALL the time. Really gave me some perspective 🙂

    Reply
  3. TexWisGirl says

    February 29, 2012 at 4:21 am

    well, some good snowfall would be good, but do hope everyone stays safe if it comes to the prairie…

    Reply
  4. MTWaggin says

    February 29, 2012 at 2:55 pm

    This winter has been one of the mildest I remember. Growing up in SD I too, remember well those blizzards (and still do out here in MT). I love the snow too though and last winter I was in heaven (okay NOT when I was shoveling the stuff every day)! I’ve not enjoyed the ‘teasing’ of snow we’ve had this year (one big snowstorm) but then again, God gives us the weather we get and honestly, you are right where you should be! 🙂

    Reply
  5. LindaG says

    February 29, 2012 at 5:05 pm

    I think it’s funny.
    I grew up in Michigan, and we didn’t close for snow either. It had to be really bad for anything to close.

    I spent a few months in Colorado, a place you’d think got lots of snow; and everything closed down after an inch of powder – a bare dusting! It was crazy.

    Spent 3 years in Alaska and loved it. You get some real whiteouts there, too. 😉

    Anymore though, I’m not sure. I think I could like snow if I had to, but the East coast of North Carolina has spoiled me.

    Stay warm!

    Reply
  6. Emily @ Zweber Family Farm says

    February 29, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    How did your survive? We had about 1 inch of rain and two inches of snow. Would have taken 12 inches of snow instead. We had cattle every where this morning. They were all spooked from ice covered branches breaking.
    Remember the “white out conditions” in Atlanta last year? HA! Hope you are feeling better!

    Reply
  7. Danielle says

    February 29, 2012 at 8:46 pm

    The storm (and snow) missed us to the west! I won’t complain, because I always feel if it’s going to snow, it better dump on us so we can have a snow day! But our 3 inches over here are slowly melting with the snow today. I don’t mind the snow, it’s the ice and cold that usually come with it. The only way I survive a blizzard is to curl up on the couch with the TV remote. But, I do enjoy a good jump in the snow when we have it (and my coverall’s fit due to non-pregnancy!). Enjoy the fluffy stuff!

    Reply

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I am a mom of three kids and a wife to Nathan. Together we live on the North Dakota prairie, 97 miles from a Starbuck's. I share about family, food, farming and the prairie that I love. I used to commute 98 miles one-way to work but it required too much coffee. So now I am home, consulting, speaking, writing and primarily, juggling family life.
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