The Ash Wednesday Blizzard of 2008

Folks in Wisconsin don't get very rattled by winter. Sure, the news stations scratch and claw to see who can provide the most weather reports and the best fear-inspiring storm graphics, but I think  to Wisconsinites that's just a form of entertainment, like professional wrestling: no one here takes it seriously, but its fun to watch.

So the blizzard that hit last Wednesday didn't induce panic in the streets, but it sure packed enough oomph to make us pause.

Predictions going into Ash Wednesday were awful, with phrases like 'whiteout conditions', 'icy roads' and '17-20 inches of snow' batted about.

School was cancelled throughtout the city and anybody with common sense stayed home.

Naturally, that didn't include me, since I had to go to work at noon. I really, really, didn't want to leave the house but felt obligated A) because I'm the boss, and I couldn't expect other folks to show up if I wouldn't and B) I had an early afternoon meeting with a lawyer to oversee a deposition.

As you can imagine, once I got to work the lawyers cancelled and my second shift called in.

Not that I blame anyone; it was really turning into a whopper of a storm. This next pic hardly looks as if threatening weather was upon us, but trust me, it was just the eye of the storm.  

Pretty, isn't it? I thought so when I stopped the car to take the shot. But these next few are far more typical of the day:

Keep in mind each one of the preceding shots was taken before 2 p.m - the blizzard would continue until well into late evening, tapering off in prime-time.

In the middle of this

no-visibility

 ice-under-snow-covered roads

drifting and blowing snow

bitter strong wind

heavy wet snowfall

my wife called me and said she was going to take advantage of the snow day to pack up the kids and take them to Target to buy a pair of jeans for YaYa..

What???? Evidently she'd fallen into the comfortable 0pattern of discounting the weather predictions by 75%, which frankly is usually a safe bet. One look outside quickly discouraged her.

But about half an hour after hanging up jsonline.com broke a news story of a fatal van crash less than mile from our home, on a street we take often. Of course, it wasn't my family (thank God!) but for a moment there . .

Now one of the unique aspects of my business is that, much like funeral homes, we tend to benefit from other people's suffering. Big storms bring in big bucks, and Ash Wednesday was no exception. (we also tend to do well in great weather; it's the in-between where you have to fight and scrap for every dollar; go figure)

So, thrust temporarilly into the same job I held 9 years ago, and working alonside a brave replacement for my absent employee, we busted our humps throughout the long grueling evening.

The airport closed; more business. The local restaurants closed; more clients. By seven this was the situation: the city was shut down. No one was coming in, no one was going out, and no one was going to have any opportunity to eat, drink or be merry.

[Well, not quite true. We had a solid stock of alcohol, but it sold out quick]

During a lull I went to take some more pictures before darkness descended. Here's the depth ofthe snow as of, oh, 3:00 or 3:30. The numbers on the ruler are purely for decoration and don't dentote the actual depth - it's a foot long, minus whatchya see.

Note the ruler in my footprint.

As you know by now, this was a religious holiday, and one of some importance both to myself and my staff. With masses cancelled it was the first year in quite a long time where I didn't have the glory of having some descendant of the Reformation giggle and tell me I had dirt on my forehead.

More imporantly, we had to abstain from meat, and we had no fish on the premises. Thus we bravely sent out a young gentleman into the peak of the storm, to return shaken but not stirred, fish fry's in hand.

Suprisingly the ride home wasn't too bad, as I have the fortune of being able to take two major throughofares (sp?) to within blocks of my house. It was near my home that the fun began.

I ignored my wife's telephone warning and attempted to drive into our alley. I got no further than the entrance before I was hung up on drifts three or four feet deep. Once I got help and pushed my way free I parked blocks away in the only halfway decent spot, and walked home.

The alley was miserable, with snow drifts going up to my hips. And then, horror . .

The picture doesn't do it justice. The drift was three or four feet high and covered the majority of the 400 square foot parking slab we'd put in last year. Add to that the fact that if wehad any chance of escaping in the morning, I had to dig out a good chunk of the approach in the alley.

This was heavy, wet snow, a pure pain to move. Best of all? My snowblower was buried under a drift and I couldn't get it out without digging a path to the shed. So it was back to a good ol' fashioned snowshovel, yessir.

Suprisingly it went quickly. This didn't take finesse, it took brute strength, and of that I have plenty to spare. Still, thanks to Lisa the front had been shoveled once early in the day and a gracious neighbor had snowblowed the rest of the buildup, sparing me that chore.

We still were unable to get the van out the next day and Lisa wrote a very angry but articulate email to the Alderman complaining of Milwaukee's longstanding policy to leave alleys untouched (but under penalty of fines require homeowners to shovel out the garbage cans for city crews). The alderman not only wrote back but called me, gave me his cellphone number, and then called and left a message that was so long and chatty my machine cut out.

Huh. Guess it's an election year.

The next day I had to dig some cars out at work, and boy did my muscles feel it. By then the snow had melted just enough to give it some extra weight, making it just that much harder to clear out.

Oh, one cool thing: on the way home from work one dayI stopped and took photos of the biggest snowman I'd ever seen. Keep in mind this was taken a few days after the snowfall and it had already partially melted and shrunk. Note the pedestrians relative size to the snowman.

 

The total snowfall?17 or 18" I believe, with drifts of much deeper depth. Other areas of Southeastern Wisconsin got hit much harder. That snowfall put us over the five foot mark for the year; last year at this time we had experienced just over TWO feet.

Tonight's forecast, following two days of temperatures of  -5 F and windchill temps of negative 35F?

Three to seven more inches of snow.

Tags: Ash Wednesday, Blizzard, Milwaukee