The Blizzard and North Dakota Winters

For those of you who don't know, a pretty nasty blizzard just made its way through pretty much the entire eastern half of North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. It went from about some time last night to sometime early this morning. I'd already experienced one blizzard out here before, just after Thanksgiving, but this one may just have been worse.

Those of you in places that don't normally get blizzards (A.K.A. Washington), they're a pretty interesting experience. Yesterday, there was heavy snow, and according to measurements, the winds were gusting in excess of 35 knots. What that translates to is lots of snow blowing all over the place, leading to visibility that, at its worst, was probably only about 100'. The temps and wind chill are so low that staying outside for any amount of time over say, about 20 minutes, can lead to some kind of problem. In other words, they're a bag of fun. The following is a picture of the blizzard from my dorm room, slightly enhanced for effect. This was taken at a point when the blizzard wasn't that bad, and visibility's maybe about 300':


North Dakota doesn't have the best winters, I knew that coming in to UND. They're cold, windy, long, and dark. You know, they're not really all that bad, though, once you get past the fact that it's so cold you could throw boiling water into the air and it would vaporize before it hit the ground. I can't say it's been a short winter. On the contrary, the winter around here seems to drag on forever, refusing to go away. I'm used to Washington, where it hovers around 40 for a couple months, maybe dips down into the freezing range a couple times, then suddenly things get better. This year might be an exception (Snow in WA in March? LOL WUT?!), but the rule generally holds true.

Hopefully this blizzard is the winter's last hurrah. Maybe now it can start warming up, and North Dakota will seem moderately hospitable again.