Thundersnow

So, we woke up this morning…to absolutely nothing.  We could still see the same patches of grass and the kids’ footprints that we had seen the night before.

Snowmageddon had not come.

Sometime in the middle of the night, the forecasters pushed the snow back until this afternoon.  Then, it was noon.  Then, it was 10:00 a.m.  Most of us were starting to wonder if there really was a storm coming at all.

Then, at 11:30 a.m., it started snowing.  I had the kids shovel the driveway around 2:00, as Jeff was planning to head home at 3:00.  Jeff and I headed back out to shovel again around 3:45. And then we headed back out at 7:30 to shovel again.  It felt sort of like bailing out the Titanic, but we’re hoping that it keeps us from having to dig out from 18 inches of snow tomorrow!  Lots of it is accumulating in the driveway from the wind, which is the real danger right now.

Here are a few pictures of our blizzard.  The kids are playing on piles that we shoveled out of the driveway.

In the midst of this craziness, we experienced a weather phenomenon of which we had never even heard:  thundersnow.  As we were bundling up to shovel at 7:30, we saw a huge flash of light.  We honestly thought that something had blown up in the neighborhood.  About 10 seconds later, we heard the thunder.

I had no idea that a snowstorm could create thunder and lightning, but we saw two more flashes while we were shoveling.  Yikes.  When I came in, I checked Facebook, and many of my Illinois friends were posting or twittering about it.  Pretty crazy!

The Peoria Airport is reporting about seven inches right now, but the snow is not supposed to abate until sometime tomorrow.  But, as I said yesterday, we have food, we have power, and we are all here together.  And with this weather, we can stay home and not feel guilty about missing anything.  I love it!

Hope that you are staying warm and cozy wherever you are!