The Groundhog Day Blizzard That Fizzled

I am coming to believe that our local weathermen are like the boy who cried "Wolf".  They see the monster storms that our cousins to the south and west of us are experiencing and then the jump on the Panic Bandwagon and hype up impending doom in the form of snow, sleet and freezing rain, all to have less than 1/2 the amount arrive in the storm's wake.

Yesterday, as we in Ontario, Canada, watched the U.S. cope with massive amounts of snow barreling across over 1/2 of the U.S. land mass, fear began to loom in hearts and minds of people here.  School boards started closing schools.  Flights were cancelled at Toronto Pearson airport.  Amounts of 12-15 inches were the expected amount of the white stuff anticipated to dump on our little piece of the Canadian map.

One of the perks of all this hype was that Hubby's company was allowing many of the employees to work from home, alleviating the horrific rush-hour traffic jam, an early morning norm on the best of days.  So, with anticipation of a frozen "Armageddon" of sorts, we awoke a couple of times in the night, peeking out the window to find a normal snowfall in action.

Around 5am we did hear the "snow thunder" as the heavier band of snow made its way into our area.  Now it's on it's way we thought, only to wake up a couple hours later to again find a nominal amount of snow ~ nothing like Chicago was dealing with.  Check out the scene from Lakeshore Drive in Chicago.  Follow the link to see what it looks like as I type this post!

We did get the largest amount of snow we've had yet this year, despite the over-rated hype.  About 6 inches of fluffy white snow cascaded from the heavens into our yard and front drive after the strong east wind blue lighter, drier flakes overnight.  It is so pretty when it isn't blasting around at extreme speeds.

As the groundhog peeked his little nose out of his winter hiding spot this morning, he couldn't help but miss his shadow amidst the blowing snow, but even he might have said that this was the Groundhog Day Blizzard that fizzled!

Fluffy Flakes Falling