No trivial snow

Late Monday afternoon a strong and stormy cold front came through town.

The day had started off nice - for North Dakota - with little wind and a temperature of 19 F. Around 4 pm I could hear the wind pick up and see the leafless tree branches sway in the wind. The wind increased to a low roar and soon snow either began to fall else merely get blown in from Canada miles away.

I had planned on attending Trivia Night at the Landing Bar but dropped those plans. The temperature fell to zero and with the very strong wind (gusts to 40 mph) the wind chill was well below zero.

My brother was at Manor Care with my mom but he came home after 5 pm before it got dark. It was hard enough to see to drive in the blowing snow much less try to do so in the darkness. He said it was hard to keep the pickup's window defrosted during the drive home.

Here are a couple photos I took of the weather as the storm came.



My brother had bought a bunch of bananas earlier that day and had left them in his pickup when visiting mom. The bananas were frozen by the time he got home. This morning their skins were black.

This morning the temperature on the thermometer outside the window was at -24 F. Officially the overnight low temperature was -20 F. The wind was still blowing at 27 mph with gusts to 34 mph. The wind chill all morning was -46 to -48 F. A little cold.

My brother and I waited until noon to drive up to visit my mother. The temperature had warmed in the clear sunny sky to -14 F and the wind chill was still less than -40 F. I must have psyched myself up to the cold as it actually didn't feel cold as I swept the snow off the driveway. The sun made it feel warmer.

At Manor Care I saw a woman scrape frost off a window outside mom's room so she could use her remote car starter from inside the building to start her car. Later I noticed someone had pressed one of their hands against the frost and used their body heat to melt a hand print in the window. This window is on the north side of the building which is why the today's sun hasn't melted the frost on this cold day.

My brother has an engine block heater in his pickup so when we left he was able to start his pickup rather easily even though it was -18 F with a wind chill of -41 F. There is a post with many electrical connections for vehicles with engine heaters - and many vehicles were plugged in.