Mom Nature granted all of those wishes for measurable snowfall in these parts this week. And amply so, cutting a big swath across the middle of the mitt with 11” of wet snow reported in nearby Leota. Now that’s a reasonable snowstorm! Before this day is out, I expect to hear snowmobiles taking advantage of the white stuff.
According to weathermen everywhere east of the Mississippi, we’re in for another big blast of angry weather from Mom Nature for the weekend. This will be followed by some very cold temperatures for next week. I don’t know who wished for that kind of punishment. I hope you didn’t go overboard in your wishes!
This week’s snow is the perfect kind for making snowmen, snow forts, snow hills, snow tunnels, igloos, and of course snow balls. It is the perfect kind of snow to get a kids snowsuit, boots and mittens soaking wet in short order, and have them back in front of the TV with hot chocolate in no time. Hopefully they will dry out, warm up and do it all again.
The Blevins Street kids, just like kids all over town, liked nothing better than a crippling snow storm. As soon as we knew that school was cancelled and winds quit blowing, we were suited up and out the door, ready for winter play, at least until the cold, wet and lunch time put an end to things.
It did not take a snowstorm to get us out, although I’m sure our mother’s ‘urging’ was a big motivator. As long as there was snow on the ground, we used it. In the front yards and vacant lots, the sides of driveways and in and along the sides of the street; anywhere snow and or ice accumulated, we found some way to use it. There was nothing like a good sized piece of untouched snow to trample. It began with snow angels and ended with a “pie” to play Fox and Goose, with a lot of snow play between. After several days and no new snow, all the yards along Blevins Street looked as though a herd of cattle had stampeded through. In a way, they had.
These days I get excited at the prospect of my generation’s idea of a good, old-fashioned snowstorm. And by that I mean a full blown blizzard involving wind and snow that falls so fast and so thick that no one goes out. It is wind that blows hard snow into your face at the door and says, don’t you do it! We haven’t had the kind of snowfall that keeps everyone at home where they belong for many years. So many years, that people do not recall what it was like, or have never experienced it.
Mom Nature has changed her temperament in the last fifty years. She’s changed her tactics and is throwing more and bigger water involved events, tropical storms, hurricanes, icing events and snow occurring much further north. The proverbial rain drenched tornado alley has shifted to the south and east, and wreaks havoc across several states any time of the year.
Soon enough the internet will be full of photos recalling the Michigan Blizzards of 1967 and 1978. These were the two “biggest and baddest” blizzards to strike Michigan in our recorded history. Oddly enough, both struck on January 26 and 27, eleven years apart. They were truly snow monsoons and left behind mountains of wind-driven, packed snow. Both were monstrous, deadly and took days to deal with.
Everyone who sees the posts will click a thumbs-up, or wow face and move on. Some will stop to think about it and make a comment. And, some folks will even swap storm stories over coffee in the same room.
Stay safe and be prepared, Marion, Michigan. We never know what Mom Nature is going to throw at us.
This week’s photo is of the now very tall and quite old, eastern white pine which stands on the corner of Blevins and Grover Streets, in what was once my grandparent’s yard. In fact, Frank and Fern Berry planted this tree when they purchased that property in the 1920’s.
Fern took this photo of her much loved pine after a substantial icing event in 1950.