Desert View - Day 102 - 6", 1º

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5:42 am - Tuesday - February 20th - Grand Canyon - 1º F, 100% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the southwest...about 6 inches of snow on the ground from our storm yesterday.  The forecasters had predicted a 'TRACE' of snow, but it snowed for 6 hours, hard at times......

.....forecast high for today is 30º F with a low tonight of 3º F.....there is still snow looming out there on Friday.....up to 60% chance of snow now.

Storm clouds on the way around 7:25 am....

I began my walk to work under partly cloudy skies with winds in the 20's knowing that by mid morning, or earlier, it should begin to snow, and snow it did.  Our forecast was for just a 'trace' of snow, but we got a boatload.  By 9 am a very fine snow was falling from the windblown skies, and by 10 am it began to get very serious.  By 12 pm they were beginning to close the road between Desert View (SR-64) and the Village, and by 12:30 pm there were numerous accidents on that road including a truck jack knife.  So much for the "trace" of snow, right?

As might be expected, it was not very busy Monday....I dropped just $97, and TLE dropped $110.  That there was anyone arriving at Desert View in that heavy snowstorm was remarkable.   I clocked out from work about 12:25 pm and got a ride home from Scott, our receiving supervisor, in the company truck.  The snow was deeper than I had previously seen here at Desert View, and I am glad I chose to accept the ride......by the time I left it was near whiteout conditions.

During the course of the afternoon, according to TLE, the Deli began to fill up with  refugees from the storm.  At one point the NPS (National Park Service) had planned to set up an emergency shelter in the Watchtower should the snow not stop in time to clear the exit road.  As it turned out the snow did stop around 3 pm, and they were able to evacuate the 30 or so people stranded in the Deli by 4:30 pm.

......needless to say, I spent the entire afternoon inside the Newell.....well, I was outside for about 30 seconds relighting the water heater pilot light which had been blown out by the winds before I got home.....have to keep the water heater lit to be sure the water in it doesn't freeze.

By the time I took the above pictures our sewer hose was completely covered by snow.....the top of the sewer hose is about 6" above the ground.  Once the snow stopped our heated water hose did not stay covered with snow long as it is, after all, heated.

As I wrote earlier, the snow stopped around 3 pm, but the wind continued until about 6 pm.  There were times when I couldn't see the street behind our trailer the snow fall was so heavy.  Once again, even with temps in single digits, our water line did not freeze, so we've got that going for us.

TLE was home before 5:30.....she also got a ride home from work from Scott.  She had decided not to drive the VW to work due to the depth of the snow at 11:30.....the VW is very low slung and there is not 6" of clearance.  Good decision TLE!

We spent the evening watching the Ice Dancing Long Program finals.  All the performances where exceptional, and there were very few mistakes on the evening.  Canada came in first, France second, and an American sister/brother team came in third.

I was in bed at my usual 9:30 pm hoping the water hose would not freeze (it did not in spite of temps getting down to 1º by 5:30 this morning).....thanks for stopping by!

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