The Howling Whisper of a Blizzard and sentimental thoughts on snow

I know that this thread will not sit well with everyone, but I will just come out and say it:  I love cold weather weather and I miss it!  I am thoroughly enjoying the weather from yesterday and this morning, and that may make me something of an oddball.

I have mentioned before that I am a misplaced Upper Midwesterner transplanted to the border South.  Make no mistake, I love where I live-it is a great place to build a home and raise a family.  It is one of the few places in it near the Midwest that has large amounts of forests and unbuilt, public land.  

I consider the area perfect but for one idiosyncratic reason—we simply don’t get enough snow, and that which we get is not like the snow I remember growing up.  Growing up in Central Illinois, snow was dry and always accompanied by wind.  Snow drifting was just a normal part of snowfall.  Roads didn’t get plowed until several inches piled up and we just drove on snowpack.  And during a blizzard, the wind had a soft, almost pleasant howl that announced the arrival and presence of the winter storm.

When we get snow it is typically heavy, wet snow that falls straight down out of the sky with no wind at all.  Most of my students have never ever heard of a snowdrift.

But today is a treat!  The temperature is cold—negative 4 and dropping.  The snow is dry and it is blowing and even drifting a little bit.  And occasionally the wind blows just right that I can hear that soft howling wind wrapping itself around my house.  I can’t identify the reason, but a winter wind with snow has a softer sound than a summer wind of the same speed, even if it carries no rain—I have no explanation.

And as a bonus. I just got back from giving our dog her pre-dawn walk.  I really bundled and layered up—this was drilled into me from a young age from my Minnesotan parents—and stepped out into the early pre-dawn darkness and Northern-like temperatures.  While most of my body was plenty warm, my just a bit of my face felt the full blast the winter bite.  Good.  I like that reminder that cold temperatures still exist.  

My dog and I ventured off down the road and found it unplowed—yet another bonus for me.  Around here, the local road authorities are so phobic about snow on roads that they plow if there is so mulch as a single flake of snow on the road.  Actually it looks like the road had already been plowed—at the one-flake level—and some mild drifting had blown back over.  It was nice.  The snow was cold and solid, supporting my weight.  My footsteps left a nice crunch in the air.  The wind continued its soft, gentle howl.  And for the first time in decades, this Northern transplant has felt a bit of a Northern winter.

As I finish up this post, I am sitting back inside my house, bundled under blankets, the room dimly lit by the ample warmth of my ventless fireplace which dumps all its heat into the house—none escapes.  I can sit, cozy, drinking my hot coffee with the thought of the walk in bitter cold still fresh in my mind.

I am thankful.

Eric

Maybe we should trade homesteads!  :-)

Totally understanding your sentiments here, Eric, I neverthless will bring back some reminders of the region here....much of the negatives being a consequence of our own doing.   After the large storm that moved through outside of Fargo, ND last week, the temperatures have struggled to get above 0 degrees F.  Last night when the low was around -18, our new propane furnace decided to "take a break" and was not coming on.... temp in the house when we got up was around 40.  It was around 6 am and still dark and I figured it best not to call the installer until around 8.  Just enough time to fire up the woodstove which still had some embers from the night before.  A few strategically placed space heaters, a cup of coffee, and we both were feeling much calmer.  A phone call to the installer soon revealed our probable problem.....a frozen exhaust vent on the furnace outside the house had caused the furnace to sense resistance in the pipe and stay shut off.  Unclogging solved the problem; -- it happened because our furnace generally stays off at night and condensate must have built up from the cold.  Some ignorance on our part with this our first winter with propane.

Speaking of clogs.....and not the dancing kind....the 25+ mph winds have blown the driveway shut again.  Went up last night to get the mail and with poor blood circulation in my hands, barely got the gate open and mailbox shut again against those winds....can't recall the windchill at that time but somewhere in the -40s.  Back down through the 2-3 foot packed drifts that I can tell will not be moved with anything but the tractor and the rear-mount snow-blower.
....Oh yeah, during warmer more balmy days in the teens a week or so ago, I was blowing snow with that rig and a rock got stuck between the auger sprocket and the auger housing.  The shop is unheated and it's been too cold to try to remove it unless it was an emergency.  Well, now I will need to open that driveway because we will not be leaving the property except over snow or by air unless the drift is cleared.  Time to move all space heaters to the garage for the task! :-/

But it's great to have a 4X4 pick-up truck at the ready even if it sits outside......until it's not at the ready and won't start.  People at the NAPA store said the battery was fine and maybe the truck has a slow electrical drain!  :-o  So for now the battery sits in the house and I hope if we need to use the truck it won't be below zero when I need to reattach those cables. (I don't hear any sad violins yet.....who's assigned to that duty? :-) )

Anyway, perhaps a trip down memory lane??  :-)  But all in jest..... I like winter too and when I think this region has it a bit too harsh and too long, I recall friends and colleagues in in Canada!  I've heard Carbondale, Ill is quite beautiful with the woodlands there...glad to hear they get enough snow for it to feel the season and hope it's a good winter for you down there.

I do still live in the frozen north.    Alas most winters these recent years it feels like there aren't any serious storms like I remember from being a kid here.   (Granted when I was a kid a foot of snow reached much higher up my body than it does now!)  Anyway, we are under a blizzard warning today and tomorrow.  Thus far it's been kinda weak by me as far as real blizzard conditions are concerned, still the wind is picking up creating a fun effect with my RMH.  As a good gust runs by the chimney it creates a stronger draw which then makes the fire roar a bit more rockety for a moment or two.

I'm enjoying the day with the wind and snow blowing around outside, staying warm inside with a good fire burning.  Now if I actually had to go out and drive in this weather I'd be less enthused!

My hope is that by tomorrow that sensuous wild beauty that are major snow drifts will have formed, gracing the landscape with their undulating curves.  

Hi Eric,

As I have commented before, while there are may positives to living I an area that regards 32f as cold, I do miss northern MN in the winter…..minus 50 has its own brand of attractiveness.   Besides, where else can you watch the 6 O’ Clock news to see who lost their pickup through the ice in some lake in an attempt to go ice fishing too early.

I spent my formative years in Oklahoma where it snows.

One of my first memories is coming home from somewhere with my parents and seeing icicles all around the railing on the porch.

In my memory, these icicles were about a foot long and I bet they really were.

I am in USDA growing Zone 8a and so is Dallas, Texas where I lived when we first married.  We saw snow there a lot more than we see snow at this place.

Though I can't say I have ever seen a howling whisper of a blizzard or even a blizzard that I can remember.

OK Eric, Yes you're a tiny bit of an oddball - or is that a goof ball?! My husband used to go to 'man-its-cold-out' to a far northern mining town in Canada to do cold weather testing on vehicles. If you have an accident out of town in winter they don't send a breakdown truck, they send the morgue wagon (the local sherrif gave them a talk the first time they were out to instill some respect for the weather).
In the UK part of the fun is not knowing what sort of a winter you are going to get. I remember cold drifting snow like you are describing once or twice from my childhood - however it's not as good for snowman building or snowball fights! Better for sledging though.
One advantage of a really cold winter is it's drier, and contradictarily, the roads are less slippy. Above -5 degrees C or so if you step on or drive on snow the ice melts and forms a slippery layer (Something to do with physics no doubt!) below -5 it stays frozen and you have more grip, so can drive more easily. That's as long as the drifts aren't too soft of course!
I think we may get a cold winter this year. We've already had a rather cold spell, which is more normal after the new year, but you never know!

I personally love the sound of a howling blizzard.  There is nothing that compares to it.  There is something primal about it, like a wolf's howl, that gets deep into the body's cellular memory.  

I love walking in a blizzard and watching the snow spiral and swirl in the gusts or steady blasts.  I love the drifts, small and large.   I love snowshoeing in a winter storm, and laying down in the forest, watching the trees dance in it's power.

I recall when I was a kid when we lived in a trailer and we got up one day after an all-night howler.  The drifts were in sweeping curves with knife-edged tops that were higher than our home.  Dad had to shovel out the doorway, which had a drift packed high against it; The door, at least in Canada, has to open inwards in case the snow blocks it.

I love the ghostly dancing snow features that play across the highway on a blizzard drive.

There is really something about howling wind when one is safe inside. I grew up in North Dakota in the 50's, lots of wind and snow and we lived on a farm far from anyting. Loved to watch the dancing snows and the drifting, amazing things grew overnight. My brothers and I thrived on Winter, as I am sure some kids still do.

I really had no idea that my musings on snow would generate so many responses, but I like it.  I do want to respond to some of the commentary.

John Weiland--I probably grew up far enough north that while I can remember snows and true blizzard conditions, they were in truth uncommon events.  They did happen at least once to twice per year, but as I was still school-age, a blizzard was a chance to spontaneously not have school as opposed to impeding my work schedule.  I can see where our two experiences with snow could generate wildly different emotionally connected memories.  And while I don't live in Carbondale, Southern Illinois is absolutely beautiful and I love the region.

David Huang--I am glad that you can share my sentimental attachment for a good winter storm!

John Dean--I am really glad that I know someone who lives relatively close to me that also knows the beauty of a good Minnesota winter.  While romanticizing the moment, I am sure that I conveniently forgot the difficult parts of living so far north, but its beauty is undeniable.

Anne--It sounds like we both grew up in relatively productive snow country and then moved to places with snow scarcity.  I share your sentimentality for the beauty of a nice snowfall.

Nancy--Me, an oddball?  A goofball?  A weirdo?  Yep!  Exactly how I like it!  And you are right about the colder, drifting snow being useless for snowmen and not great for snowball fights.  Though even in the coldest snows, I found a way to throw snow!

Robert--Yes!  There is nothing like the sound of the cold wind carrying snow!  And like you, I love how each snowfall makes its own textured landscape, each one complete with individually wind-sculpted features.

Ron--Yes, those snow dances are mesmerizing to watch.

Yesterday our lows bottomed out at about -6 Fahrenheit.  That's nice and chilly.  Today at 3:46 am, the temperature is 8 degrees.  That is still cold, but it seems depressingly warm after yesterday's adventure into winter's cold.

Eric

Growing up on a farm, the only time we could slow down was in the winter, so I came to enjoy it.

Now, not so much. But I live in Maine, and we no longer get the snow we used to. That makes it hard as I like winter, but real winter, with snow. When everything is dead, frozen, and looks like yuck: I have a hard time with it. But 3 feet of snow, yeah I can snowshoe and ski in that.

We did have 30 inches of snow last weekend, but it rained yesterday hard, so its all gone now, and in its wake 6 degree cold. Te power is out, my generator needs rebuilding, but its all good, life moves on.

This morning it was 6 F in sunny Texas with no snow.

Yesterday was the 1st time we have had anything freeze in our plumbing system since we move here in 2013.  Though the frozen section was our french drain outside that our kitchen sink drains into.

We would not have known this if the kitchen faucet wasn't dripping.

We ended up pumping the water out of the sink.

Steve Zoma wrote:.....We did have 30 inches of snow last weekend, but it rained yesterday hard, so its all gone now, .....

Although I grew up in Minnesota, my wife is from central PA and remembers the snows you are referring to.  Living on the edge of a developing Lewisburg in the 1960s, she recalls farm fields and fantastic snows that would arrive.....only to disappear by the next day under a gray drizzle.  With age, both of us are a bit weary of northern Plains 'weather drama' these days, but still marvel at its power.  We finally will be inching above zero tomorrow, but then it's threatening to jump to the 30s over two days and give us freezing rain!  At least the chickens can come out for a bit and peck around in the driveway for a while with those tropical temps...    But even the threat of rain means it's time to get snowblowing before such a potential event turns all of the snow in the driveway to an ice block.