Winter Storm Xanto

April 15, 2018 11:18 AM

and all their assorted related mid April weather miseries check in thread. How are you handling the snow / freezing rain / thunderstorms / tornadoes / fire weather?
posted by mygothlaundry to MetaFilter-Related at 11:18 AM (69 comments total)

Also mousepocalypses! ;) <3
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:04 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm enjoying the mildly crappy weather here that's preventing Trump from golfing today.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:39 PM on April 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

Northeast Wisconson here. We had a foot of snow yesterday and expect 14 inches today; about 8 inches so far. It's wet, heavy snow and an evergreen tree has snapped under its weight and come to rest on our solar panels, which worries me. I just came back from town ~10 miles away and the streets were empty. The plows seem to be keeping up but the local government apparently got a late start because they had to reinstall the blades on the trucks. There was still plenty of milk and toilet paper at the grocery store, unlike my memory of pre-storm panic when I lived in northern Virginia; we are hardy folk who do not get hysterical about snow. At the hardware store, the shovels and ice melt were prominently displayed and for sale at full price; I don't know if they were on sale before.

A week ago I was looking at tortoises in the Galapagos.
posted by carmicha at 12:42 PM on April 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

Grand Rapids, Michigan. We’ve had a steady diet of ice pellets, although they did slack off enough yesterday afternoon through last night to melt. It started up again overnight, and we had about an inch of pellets on the ground when I woke up. We’re up to about two inches now. It’s also been really windy, ripping vinyl siding off one building in my area. Our weathermen seem to be holding steady after outbursts earlier this week.
posted by LionIndex at 1:17 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm resigned to the new reality that Toronto is all winter all the time, forever.
posted by chococat at 2:13 PM on April 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

I haven't minded TOO much because I like the cold weather, except I completely lost my shit today when I had to go grocery shopping in sleet and snow on April 15. My kids, otoh, are a bit stir crazy -- and it's not so much the cold (although they're ready to be done with that) as the incessant rain/sleet/snow that keeps them indoors. They were out riding bikes in the driving freezing rain yesterday, came in soaked, because they just had to get outside for a while.

It's also been raining and snowing so many days in a row I am playing trash jenga with my recycling because I just don't want to go out in it to take out the recycling.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 2:33 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Northeast California -- it was warm yesterday (69F) and still warm (52F) when I let the dog out at 5am today. Imagine my surprise when I checked the weather forecast and it said that it's going to be snowing and 22F late tonight/tomorrow morning. I would have eventually figured it out from the constant wind gusts we've had all day...there's definitely a storm blowing in. I need to bring in firewood soon and make sure the tarps over my woodpile are still weighed down. Then Tuesday and Wednesday are supposed to be clear, but Thursday we'll have a wintry mix (I'm not sure what to call it when it's no longer winter...sprleet!).
posted by elsietheeel at 2:45 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Isn't it a spring storm at this stage?

It was a bit grey in Cornwall but temperate today. That is likely to be true for most of the next 6 months.
posted by biffa at 2:54 PM on April 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

Buffalo; we got an inch or so of freezing rain / sleet. Thankfully it mostly bounced off things and accumulated on the ground instead of on the trees. Shoveling heavy ice kinda sucks, but honestly the worst part for me was seeing the stupid warm temperatures on the other side of the front. 80 in Pittsburgh, at this time of year? Ugh. Bodes poorly for summer, which as far as I am concerned can just go fuck itself right in the eye.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:10 PM on April 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Thunderstorms in Atlanta. The temperature dropped throughout the day from the mid 60s this morning to the low 50s this afternoon. This weekend is the Dogwood Festival in Piedmont Park, which marks the official beginning of festival season around these parts. Not such nice weather for dogwoods, or being outside, but no snow, think goodness.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:53 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

St. Paul: this morning my back door had a foot-plus snowdrift behind it. I had to shovel a path down the front walk and sidewalk, go around through the alley, and shovel up the backyard and deck to get it open. All that plus the driveway took two hours.
posted by Flannery Culp at 4:03 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Toronto. This is bullshit. The plow contracts have expired so there's 10cm of ice pellets and slush on the streets and it isn't going anywhere until there's an actual melt cycle. It's just below freezing, wind's up to 40km/hr with gusts of more, and garbage is still falling out of the sky, 24 hours later, and probably for at least another 12. The trees are getting heavy.

That said, back in my old hometown it's reportedly much worse, with power hits and police advisories to just frigging stay home.

IM SORRY I DEWINTERIZED MY MOTORCYCLE in mid-march. IM REALLY SORRY
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:10 PM on April 15, 2018 [8 favorites]

My black humor for my runner guest at breakfast yesterday was that in front of the elite Boston Marathon runners is the wheelchairs and this year in front of them is a kayaks. This morning I suggested that now they were adding a wave of cross country skiers in front of the kayaks.
posted by sammyo at 4:18 PM on April 15, 2018 [6 favorites]

Friday it was 78 degrees here and bright and sunny. I got too much sun working outside and my face is kind of red. Yesterday and today it rained and rained and the temperature slowly dropped more and more. Tomorrow morning it is supposed to snow a bit.

So yeah, just normal weather.
posted by dilettante at 4:28 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

I am still in south central Wisconsin - near Stoughton, actually, where much to my surprise I seem to be related to roughly half the populace (I've been doing a little genealogical research; my mother's mother's family was from here, which is to say this is where they came when they left Yorkshire. They had BIG families back in the day and wow, hello Wisconsin, you are my cousin.) It has been snowing all day. Enough snow to shut Asheville down! Perhaps not Wisconsin, though. I went out with a broom and tried to knock a bunch off the camper roof and then I finally went for a walk which calmed me down a bit. The roads aren't terrible but then the temperatures in the teens that are predicted for tonight isn't going to help them much. Being in a tiny camper in the snow and freezing cold is really NO FUN just as soon as the novelty wears off which it did about 600 miles ago. I'm warm enough as long as the electricity stays on and the space heaters don't give up but it's just - not great and mysterious puddles of water keep appearing and I'm running out of data and just, argh. If/when the winds kick up again that will be super fun as well because yeah, this is very heavy, wet snow and that never bodes well for the trees.

edited to change southeast to southcentral because my wisconsin geography was way off
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:34 PM on April 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

We got slammed with quite a bit of ice/snow/slush yesterday and the early this morning. It started to taper off into rain but the roads are garbage. I work shift work and I snagged weekends off this month, so it's mostly been me being indoors playing some video games and staying in my pajamas. I hope everyone is staying safe and that your power stays on and you keep off the roads if you're able to. Also, April is just like this in Southern Ontario, we always seem to get this last shitty blast.
posted by Fizz at 4:41 PM on April 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

Drove from Quebec to the Kawarthas today. It took 11 hours. My car has about an inch of ice all over it. We saw jacknifed tractor trailers pounded into cliffs, cars abandoned at the side of the highway, and probably about a dozen accidents.
posted by LegallyBread at 4:46 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

It just keeps raining and thunderstorming here in St. Louis. I like thunderstorms, but I also like sunshine. I finally had to give in and get a gym membership again, 'cause at least with that I can move my body around indoors somewhere. I'd rather be outside.
posted by limeonaire at 4:50 PM on April 15, 2018

It was nowhere near so bad here as predicted, although my campus lost power for several hours (the surrounding villages had minor outages, nothing so bad) and the sidewalks were thickly crusted with ice. My trees were lightly glazed, as it were, but nothing serious. I was a bit worried this morning because I needed to drive into the city, but everyone was on top of salting and scraping the roads (the plows went by repeatedly last night).
posted by thomas j wise at 4:53 PM on April 15, 2018

We slept with the windows open last week. It was in the 70s on Friday. We’re supposed to have some form of snow tonight. In between the two, it’s been a deluge of rain.

Enough.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:03 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

It is snowing right now here in KS. One of my big hobbies is keeping houseplants, and many of mine prefer to summer outside. I'm now battling increased etiolation and pests (mealybugs/scale/spidermites) in my collection due to having to keep them in - last year they were outside before the end of March. I cannot wait until I can start acclimating them to the outdoors again - it's looking like I can bring them out this Friday.
posted by vegartanipla at 5:05 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Twin Cities, we got an extra 3 or so inches today on top of the 14" yesterday. I mean, it's Minnesota, this happens. But I'm just so tired of it. Whither spring?

I have 4 blueberry bushes, 3 apple trees, a gooseberry bush and a pear tree ordered. The nursery will send them when the weather is appropriate for planting in my area. Their estimated delivery date, when I ordered in October? Tomorrow. April 16th. Needless to say I don't think they'll be arriving anytime soon.
posted by Elly Vortex at 5:06 PM on April 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

I flew from Austin to Boston yesterday. It was a very bumpy ride across the midwest, and my seatmates were on their second flight ever. It was actually a little helpful because I just tried to be chirpy and cheerful and not at all look like I was panicking on behalf of the very nice but terrified couple sitting next to me. We mostly talked about monkeys and motorcycles, and I tried to reassure them that plane wings are supposed to flex that much.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:31 PM on April 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

There's an ice storm rolling over Montreal right now. We took the snow tires off the car two weeks ago. I checked the front stairs before coming up to bed and it's only a thin skin so far. If it's going to come down I want it to ice up so bad that school is cancelled for the kids and I can stay home from work tomorrow. We all deserve a long weekend out of this never ending miserable winter. At least it's been so cold that the magnolia blossoms haven't even considered opening and won't be ruined by this latest April travesty.
posted by Cuke at 7:13 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Thursday I went out for a walk to Kensington Market, and it was hot enough that I was sweating a bit in my spring coat. I got some good steaks (ok the best steaks*), thinking we would have a nice bbq on saturday. Damn was I wrong! We did, however, figure out how to do a pretty good steak in a pan, so all was not lost. The lights were flickering a bit today, but didn't go out entirely (so far) I hate that winter's back. go home winter, you're drunk.

*rib eye, sanagans
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 9:02 PM on April 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

Would you be surprised to learn that it keeps raining in Portland (OR)?
posted by Cranberry at 12:25 AM on April 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Also snowing in the mountains. The ski run owners must be delirious about 5 new inches of snow in the middle of April.
posted by Cranberry at 12:27 AM on April 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

This weekend was utter crap here in Kingston. Sleeting, then snow, then sleeting, then snow. I had to cancel a weekend trip to Ottawa because of it. It's still pretty gross outside. I work in a hospital setting so the ELOAs and sick calls are coming in fast. All floors are going to run short today. It sucks, especially if you're a patient.
posted by Kitteh at 4:12 AM on April 16, 2018

Durham/Raleigh area checking in. North Carolina had violent storms and a lot of rain yesterday, enough to close some roads from flash floods. Tornado watches too, which escalated to a warning in one of the counties on the Virginia border. The storm's mostly passed, but now all that freshly-fallen water has to wend its way towards the sea, so the counties east of here are going to be on flood watch for days to come.
posted by ardgedee at 5:00 AM on April 16, 2018

I biked in to work this morning here in the Boston area. Pros: light traffic due to the holiday. Cons: Everything else. The rain was bad, but the wind gusts were just too much. I also determined the limits of the waterproofness of my jacket ("resistant" was the appropriate marketing word, yes) so I am sitting in my office, mildly damp, looking out the window and watching people's umbrellas flip inside out.

In case anyone thought spring was coming, the local ski hill reopened this weekend.
posted by backseatpilot at 5:19 AM on April 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Well, the reenactment of the Battle of Lexington was a wet one, for sure. I live about .5 from the Battle Green and it's A Thing Lexingtonians are expected to do, along with ALL kids forced into Fife and Drum Corps.

So I headed down to the Green--they cancelled the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and William Dawes--and good lord, every year it's just the most extraordinary thing.

These scrappy Minutemen are milling about the Green. And they begin to come together. Some start running and they try to get into a bit of a formation but obviously they're not an actual military force. So they're standing there and nobody really knows what the hell is happening, and then...

Two Minutemen run from Buckman Tavern, carrying a large chest of John Hancock's secret papers, and they cross the Green and go to stash them.

The Regulars begin to come. The Redcoats. In perfect formation, they walk up Massachusetts Avenue and turn onto the Green. They get into a perfect formation.

"Lay down your arms!" British Major John Pitcairn orders the nearly 80 colonists to disburse. "Lay down your arms!"

The Minutemen take steps backwards, unsure, following the orders of Captain John Parker.

And then, a shot rings out. (fun fact--every year the re-enactors alternate who fires that first shot because nobody knows who fired first). Hell breaks loose. Minutemen are killed. The Regulars (remember, they weren't the British--we were ALL the British and Paul Revere called out, "The Regulars are coming out!", not "The British are coming!"--we take this shit very seriously in Lexington). They attack.

Scrappy Minutemen fire back. But come on, it's muskets and it's really hard to hit anything. A few volleys go back and forth. Men on both sides fired, smoke cloaks the battlefield, you cannot escape the scent of sulfur in the air, cartridges lay on the ground. In minutes, eight colonists lay dead; nine more were wounded.

The Regulars regroup and continue on to Concord, where a shitstorm awaits everyone.

We all go to St. Brigid's for pancakes but there's a quiet solemnity in the air. We're thoughtful. Witnessing history. Remembering what America means.

Happy Patriot's Day, y'all. Peace from the Birthplace of the American Revolution.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 6:07 AM on April 16, 2018 [12 favorites]

Nothing about running 26.1 miles has ever appealed to me, but watching the very damp, kind of apprehensive and sad marathoners make their way around Boston this morning really solidified the fact that I have made good choices.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:08 AM on April 16, 2018 [10 favorites]

Wednesday might be 9 and partly cloudy, which is good because I'm having lunch with a friend and would rather ride than take transit, and next week is a bunch of Sunny and 10+ and no freezing overnights so I am cautiously optimistic. Meantime TDSB has canceled bus service because the roads are basically dirt-flavoured snow cones.... but the schools are still open so ... everybody drive your kids to school! [ one clap ]
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:28 AM on April 16, 2018

My dog is suffering
posted by moonmilk at 7:05 AM on April 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'm in Nebraska, didn't get the worst of it by a long shot, but I am extremely bitter that my first day out of the boot for my busted ankle was Saturday, after having glorious weather mid-week that I could not properly enjoy.
posted by Sequence at 7:39 AM on April 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Every time someone lists multiple weather phenomena, my brain sings "♪ here in Duckburg ♪ " so I guess that's how I'm dealing with the weather. It's a duckblur.
posted by Metroid Baby at 8:02 AM on April 16, 2018 [8 favorites]

Still snowing here! My footprints from yesterday, even the ones from last night, are almost invisible. I was hoping to hit the road today but that’s just looking less and less likely.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:24 AM on April 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Southern Maine checking in, 35 and raining. Absolutely miserable. On the upside my husband and I are having Serious Conversations about how to restructure our lives so that we can become a young snowbird family.
posted by pintapicasso at 8:50 AM on April 16, 2018

There was a story this morning about how some poor Boston marathoners in Toronto had their flights cancelled, so they drove to Boston instead. Yeah, definitely not the coldest marathon, but not pleasant (37°F, 40 mph wind gusts, rain). Traditional 11 a.m. Red Sox game postponed.

I am the type of person who is cold when it's below 90°F and I'm at the point where I can't take the weather anymore and yesterday I had to spend time calming people down, which I am sick to death of (who's calming me down??) and I was successful thanks to all the Metafilter clichés I had at my disposal (that's not your problem, you can control your own actions but not others, etc. etc. etc. etc.) I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH THANK YOU
posted by Melismata at 8:55 AM on April 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Some NYC subway stations were flooded this morning, and in others there was rain pouring from the ceiling. A couple hundred flights were grounded as well.

And now, of course, the sun is out and there's no rain at all...
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:32 AM on April 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Seems like the worst has passed and we're back to the regular shitty April weather we've been having here in Toronto for the past thousand years.
Quite a night and morning, though. I didn't get much sleep, worrying about kid #1 driving back from NYC to Montreal with her boyfriend. She finally texted around 2am that she was safe at home after a SLOW drive, so phew.
Kept kid #3 home from high school because it was still a nightmare this morning and why bother attempting that commute. Kid #2 is quietly studying for 1st year finals in the kitchen. Unfortunately my wife will have a hard day, working for the TTC. Just finished clearing away the catch basins and sewers on our street so the lakes of water have somewhere to go.
After this coffee, I might be able to get some Christmas shopping in WAIT WHERE AM I WHEN IS THIS
posted by chococat at 10:40 AM on April 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

Maine. I am just about ready to start building cargo-cult-like approximations of spring in my yard in a desperate attempt to manifest some warm sunshine.
posted by donnagirl at 11:07 AM on April 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Seems like the worst has passed and we're back to the regular shitty April weather we've been having here in Toronto for the past thousand years.

I've taken to calling it Cruella D'Avril.

Fuck you, T.S. Eliot!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:25 AM on April 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

Tornadoes yesterday. Frost warning tonight. WTF.
posted by joycehealy at 12:12 PM on April 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think we had about 3.5 inches of rain.

A couple of trees came down at work and some run off removed a bunch of soil from some plantings; there will be a bunch of shoveling of mud tomorrow and raking of wood chips and the chain saw will come out and trees will be cut into pieces.

There were waterfalls going down the Palisades - it was quite stunning.
posted by sciencegeek at 12:51 PM on April 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

I did not leave the house all weekend. 21 inches of snow reported on my side of the Twin Cities. Another round of snow is predicted mid-week. A bunch of school districts canceled school for the day because side streets are not cleared.

Everyone here is grumpy about it. It's absurd.
posted by beandip at 12:57 PM on April 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Happy Patriot's Day, y'all. Peace from the Birthplace of the American Revolution.

Ha, I used to get dragged to those reenactments all the time as a kid and now I am oddly nostalgic about them. Thanks for sharing that.

I just found out yesterday that the Chair of the department where I teach (who I met for the first time yesterday, in Hawai'i. I'm sorry, I will not discuss the weather) was born in the same Concord MA hospital that I was, despite having grown up nearly his entire life in California. The world, it is small, and mostly cold.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 1:06 PM on April 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

Trying to stay cheerful in southeastern Minnesota, but whipping winds and wintry mix are making people crabby. How the heck did pioneers survive in tiny dark sod dugouts for months on end?
posted by a fish out of water at 1:37 PM on April 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Central NY reporting. So far, just a lot of cold, wet wind. I'm laid up with a busted rib anyway, so I just threw on another blanket and upped my hot-tea-and-Roku dosage.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:17 PM on April 16, 2018

I’ve been making soups (broccoli, spinach, cabbage, tomato) topped with the sharpest cheese I could find, while dreaming of running a bnb somewhere with endless summer. I have paid my goddamn weather dues!!! (Toronto, now; hatched in the prairies.)
posted by cotton dress sock at 3:06 PM on April 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

After wind and sleet all weekend, low 30s and snowing today. Mid-30s tomorrow. Forecast predicts that the temperature will essentially double over the next week.
posted by LionIndex at 3:18 PM on April 16, 2018

I didn’t leave - there’s no way and I do not even know how I’m going to manage it tomorrow! Hitching up the trailer in the snow / mud, hmmm, and I don’t have 4 wheel drive - but the campground very kindly gave me tonight for free as a small recompense for the weather. So that was super nice of them.
posted by mygothlaundry at 4:58 PM on April 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Several of my coworkers claimed to be unable to get out of their driveways, or even into their car in one case. I had to double back when my route was blocked by a semi truck stuck sitting sideways across the road. Bleh.

Anyway, April ice storms bring May, I dunno, white worms?
posted by rodlymight at 5:29 PM on April 16, 2018 [3 favorites]

Because of this thread I saw a thing on weather.com or somewhere about the unbelievable, epic rainstorm that hit Kauai. At least 28" of rain in 24 hours (the gauge broke). Hundreds of people cut off, roads washed out, houses washed off their foundations, some into Hanalei Bay.

In SFBayArea weather, it hailed so much in parts of the East Bay that people were sledding down the streets.
posted by rtha at 8:14 PM on April 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

We are on spring break on the Cape- the weather has been positively dreadful. At least we got to stay inside today and watch the Boston Marathon from the comfort of our couch. Next year, Cabo.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:29 PM on April 16, 2018

East of NYC: Nasty wind, heavy rain and thunder. Lots of thunder. The dog was in a total panic, so he left me a couple of "presents" in the living room. One good thing, I had to work till 5am, and mom has daycare at 11. I managed to get up at 10 and roust her out of bed, she looked out the window and said she didn't want to go. I just said OK and went back to bed.

I do apologize, the weather was my fault. I know correlation is not causation, but I left the cover off the grill, and that always makes it rain.
posted by Marky at 9:31 PM on April 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

4 - 7 more inches of snow coming tomorrow! I had better get out of here today. Time to start shoveling and dramatically change the itinerary. I was going to go to Racine and get a look at Lake Michigan (I’ve never seen any Great Lake) before heading south and east but oh well.
posted by mygothlaundry at 6:34 AM on April 17, 2018

I was just reminiscing the other day about the year I moved to my current city, when we had snowstorms with significant accumulation on both Halloween and Mother's Day.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:41 AM on April 17, 2018

I woke up yesterday and it was snowing, but it all melted by noon. It was still snowing on and off in town most of the day, but it wasn't sticking. Also when I went to the doctor at 2 I hit a hailstorm, so that was fun. I honestly wouldn't mind a lot more snow, we need it so badly in California.

It feels like climate change is not just causing more variable, extreme weather events, but also like the seasons are shifting a couple months. We haven't been getting our first real snows until mid-December, but the risk of snow is still around until June. Of course, if I think back to my childhood (or consider the Donner Party), the risk of snow in the mountains in June has always been a thing, so maybe I'm just imagining it.

Also mygothlaundry, I've seen Lake Michigan and Lake Superior...they mostly just look like the Atlantic ocean as far as I can remember. But still super beautiful!
posted by elsietheeel at 7:51 AM on April 17, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's motherfucking snowing again in Toronto. And starting to stick to the roads. And, of course, to the frozen shit from the weekend. OMFG.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:22 AM on April 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

HURRAY IT’S SNOWING AGAIN YAY THERE’S A BLIZZARD ON APRIL 17th IT’S A FUCKING MAGICAL WINTER
posted by chococat at 10:41 AM on April 17, 2018 [4 favorites]

> Well, the reenactment of the Battle of Lexington was a wet one, for sure.

We just had one of our Napoleonic battle re-enactments cancelled at the last minute, thanks to the location being dramatically flooded out. (We Frenchies offered to perform the Battle of Trafalgar there instead, and I'm still not sure whether I'm sorry or glad that we weren't taken up on this generous offer...)
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 2:46 PM on April 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

I did a day trip to Bruges today, gosh it was warm.
posted by biffa at 3:15 PM on April 17, 2018

The snow started this evening. The cats are sleeping on each other instead of me, the furry little bastards.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:32 PM on April 17, 2018 [2 favorites]

I wish I could send y'all some of this hot dry weather we're having in Austin. It was 87 today and windy and the fires have begun. Couple days ago some guys towing a BBQ pit behind a truck with LIVE COALS in it managed to start FOUR GODDAM fires along the roadway as embers flew out. We may not have any snow but we're about hip deep in dumbass. Year 'round.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:27 AM on April 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

Hello from Denver, which had hurricane force winds over the entire Denver/Boulder metro area yesterday! 50-60 mph over the whole area with soft reports of 90 mph gusts. Though a small thing compared to all the other damage, all over the streets are shingles from all the brand new roofs which got put in after our freak softball sized hailstorm last year.

Luckily nobody got hurt though more than a few houses have trees in them. I feel so bad for them. In our neighborhood, which has undergone heavy gentrification, most lots have had all the trees torn out when the lot was scraped (usually a 800 ft house gets bulldozed and then replaced with a 3000 ft 4 story monstrosity) - so all the big trees that went down were on properties with older or impoverished folks. Feel super bad for them, tried to help them out the best we could last night and today.

All the downed trees make me so sad. Three cheers out to Xcel's (the local utility company) tree cutting crew, who had a very long night ahead of them and were working extremely hard in still windy conditions.

We also have entered fire season, and it looks like a bad one.

HURRAY IT’S SNOWING AGAIN YAY THERE’S A BLIZZARD ON APRIL 17th IT’S A FUCKING MAGICAL WINTER

Heh. One of my most vivid memories as a kid is the year we had a blizzard that closed school on a snow day - the day we went to school to make up for a snow closure - in June.
posted by barchan at 8:32 AM on April 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm normally all about winter but for once I would like summer to finally be here. It's taken 8 years but I've finally had enough rain. This winter was so very dark, cold and wet that even life-long locals are complaining about growing gills and turning into mushrooms.

It's small potatoes compared to what you're all dealing with with the snow, but my cruddy (but free) basement room is flooded again, which means there's up to a standing inch of water in places.

When I went to dinner with Kristi and her partner I had to explain that this kind of rain wasn't normal for Seattle. Adventurously we walked all the way there and back, and even with my good rainshell, wool pants and waterproof boots I got soaked to the bone like I jumped into a pool fully clothed. I had standing water in my boots and pockets. I haven't seen or felt rain like that since I lived in Arizona and it was monsoon season.
posted by loquacious at 9:08 AM on April 18, 2018

Wow, Colorado winds yesterday. I hadn't wanted to comment yet, since everyone else was having snow-chat and I've been wearing sleeveless dresses and took my studded tires off this weekend.

If I'd realized exactly how bad the wind was I probably wouldn't have biked home. Glad the spot I had to stop and plant both feet to wait for the wind to lose interest and go away was a reasonably safe place to stop. Strong winds from what felt like multiple directions at once was a novel experience.

Had to tell a coworker visiting from out of state what a red flag warning is. She's a smoker, so... useful information for her to have. Here's hoping other smokers get a damn clue about not burning our state down this year.
posted by asperity at 9:12 AM on April 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Another day, another winter weather advisory in Wisconsin. Occasionally I'm glad I'm not working and don't have a car so I rarely have to leave my apartment. I'm feeling pretty cooped up and sick of this shit though.
posted by AFABulous at 10:12 AM on April 18, 2018 [1 favorite]