Snowbound!

Now, this is some snow:

Well, ok, ok, that's from a low perspective out the back sliding-glass door. Here's what it looks like when I'm standing up:

Still. The kids finally got their day off today, because high winds whipped the foot of snow that's fallen over the last three days into a thick blanket of blowing snow everywhere – "near-blizzard conditions," they're calling it.

In fact, we're under a blizzard warning until 9 tonight:

SNOW SHOWERS WILL COMBINE WITH NORTH WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS THROUGH THE EVENING. THE COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS AND SOME FALLING SNOW WILL PRODUCE NEAR ZERO VISIBILITIES AT TIMES...ESPECIALLY IN OPEN COUNTRY.

What is a blizzard? I'd always thought it was "a hell of a lot of snow." No. According to the source of all truth, the Wikpedia, to be a blizzard, a storm must decrease visibility to a quarter mile, include snow or ice as precipitation, and have wind speeds of at least 35 miles per hour for at least three consecutive hours. You can get a "ground blizzard" if the snow is no longer falling but the wind is still kicking things up.

From our front door, it kind of looked like this today:

...and it's apparently not nearly as impressive in-town as it is outside of town. I dashed out midday to grab some traditional North Dakota snowstorm comfort food (tacos), and the driving was not bad at all. The winds are pretty high, but there are lots of objects breaking up the flow.

Jen is still en route home from D.C. at this hour. She has had trouble at every turn today: Her 7 a.m. flight out of Washington National was delayed until 10:30, and she almost missed that one because her rental car had a dead battery. Then she got to Chicago, and her 3:24 p.m. flight was cancelled outright. They say they'll put her on the 8:15, arriving here at 10:12 tonight, but I'm not holding my breath.

They've closed I-94 from Fargo to Bismarck, and current weather conditions “make it impossible” to say when it'll reopen. I keep meaning to get photos of the gates they have to block off every interstate entrance around here; perhaps when I go to pick Jen up at the airport tonight, I can get a shot.