Friday, February 4, 2011

White Christmas, January & February

One of the best winters ever... if you like snow.  And we do!
We've had snow on the ground for almost 3 months now except for a brief 3-4 day span just after Christmas.
 
45 inches and counting so far this winter which makes it the 5th snowiest winter (so far) on record for Central IL.  The average snowfall in this part of the Midwest not as much as you might think and we just don't get the big snowfalls more common to parts of the West, North and even Northeast.  So this past weeks snowfall of 17 inches was quite a thing.  

This photo is taken from Karmen's townhouse north of Chicago. 
They definitely got more snow up there than we did.

My neighbor saw me shoveling the driveway and came to help.  Before moving to our town he'd lived in MN so he came well prepared with his heavy duty snow blower.

Our neighbors across the street just about have their vehicles dug out.  

Street view of our house. 

Path to the garage. 

Front sidewalk.

Looking out the garage toward the street.
While some areas had troubles keeping the snow plowed and had to deal with stranded cars, etc., I must credit our local snowplow crew who kept our streets passable at all times during the storm.  Even during the night.  Obviously a small town such as ours has less traffic and streets to deal with but also fewer equipment resources.  Job well done gentlemen!