"Snowed In; Digging Out"

The snow has finally stopped falling. It was supposed to let up by 6pm (CST), but instead, kept coming until around 9pm. And, as expected, we've surpassed the 60 inches mark. Since December 1, 2007, we've had 43 days of snow totaling 64.4 inches -- 35 inches above normal.

Earlier this evening (as of about 6:45pm), Milwaukee had already received 11.5 inches of new snow. Just southwest of the city, Beloit clocked in at a whopping 21 inches!

And if that doesn't put things into perspective, today's storm closed Mitchell International Airport at 1pm (due to visibility issues), forced snowplow operators off the runways due to intense falling and drifting snow, and stopped all flights not long after. Even the Milwaukee County Transit Service stopped service, as -- after 5pm -- 23 of their buses were reported stuck in the snow.

And how about this: my roomate's place of employment -- a local Office Depot store -- also closed early due to the snow. So did all four of the major malls in the area (rarely ever does that happen!). And opening night for the touring Broadway production of "The Lion King"?... Canceled. Heck, even the massive Milwaukee courthouse was closed down!

Yeah, we got some serious snow today. Some SERIOUS snow!

"Ground to a halt"

"WeatherBlog: Winter Storm"

-Jon
posted by Jon at 9:31 PM  I   I  0 comments