"And Then There Was Snow"

It's begun. Our first significant snowfall of winter has arrived. At the Milwaukee lakefront (7 miles east of me), 2.2 inches of snow has fallen. Here in my neighborhood (West Allis), we've gotten about 4-8 inches. And 75 miles west, in Madison, they clocked in at 17 inches! So, the snow totals are are starting to pile up, especially inland.

Here in Milwaukee, the temperatures are still warmer (since we're closer to Lake Michigan), so our snow is falling as slush. As one reporter put it, drivers are "driving through soup." That's a pretty apt description too. More snow is expected today. And with temperatures starting to fall, this slush will easily turn into snow within a couple of hours.

Wisconsin's government has been shut down too. Governor Jim Doyle has ordered that state employees not to report to work, unless their job duties include emergency response, public health or public safety. He also closed all University of Wisconsin campuses. And if that's not enough, ten National Guard facilities with vehicles have been mobilized, and one air crew has been placed on standby beginning earlier this morning.

We're getting hit with snow in Wisconsin. And it's only going to get deeper. Even last night, around 9pm, I was going to blog for the day, but our power started flickering, and it kept restarting my computer. Finally, after three restarts, I gave up, shut things down, found something to eat, and went to bed. This morning, 7,800 people are still without power, and more outages are likely.

It's going to be an interesting Wednesday.

"8 A.M. Update: MPS Open, State Government Shut Down"

-Jon
posted by Jon at 8:42 AM  I   I  0 comments