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I have wanted to chase after a good blizzard as I am really a high wind fan. Everytime one was forecasted around here(very rarely but often some with forecasted gusts over 45-50mph) it never became impressive enough to bother. That and often I could not get a vehicle to do it in since mine is a Mustang. As this one showed up on the models it became pretty clear it would be impressive. One problem was I also wanted to see more tornadoes in November. Well as of Sunday morning(27th) I was still uncertain of which I'd chase, or if I'd chase anything, or even if I'd try and do them both. Well bad cloud cover in all of KS helped me out. I figured there'd be storms in all of eastern KS but really expected the only ones worthwhile to be in extreme se KS and points south. Since I really wanted to take in this Blizzard I also needed to get positioned before it hit. I blew off the severe storms side and committed to the blizzard. The plan the night before was to leave at 8 a.m. for Topeka. Ah well, hind-sight doesn't just show it is fairly likely I'd have found one tornado with that game plan, it also shows that I would have likely not seen this impressive blizzard, a significant one, the likes of which I've never experienced.

I almost got on the road too late. I left around 2pm and thought I'd be in good shape. Well I crossed the front much sooner than I thought I would and it was sharper than I was thinking. I crossed it not far west of West Point. The winds were strong out of the north and cold. By Norfolk I was in a good drizzle/showers with a temp of 33. This is not a good ob for a halfway point heading into darkness. I get to Neligh, get out to get gas and am a bit nervous. It was raining and the temp had to be below 32 now. It was also getting darker out. I was 40 miles or so from my destination and getting more paranoid about how bad that 40 miles might be. Well about 5 miles after leaving Neligh I see frozen fields and trees. 20 more miles and trees are broken all over the place. Each time I'd pass trees on the north side of the road I'd get showered in pieces of ice and tree branch chunks. I'm doing 60mph behind this car because I figured any time now this road would become undriveable. Areas on the road looked to be turning to ice.
This is the powerpole to my motel in O'Neill when I got there. It was swaying all over and completely frozen. The parking lots were sheets of ice, so I know the road I was just on was likely close as well.
Again, I just got here. Thank god I didn't leave any later.
It is now around midnight and it is now snow, but very light snow. Remember this van.
Bye bye cable tv. Ice and wind must have already taken care of the power there.
I love wifi in motels, well most times. Something was always screwy with the internet provider. My connection was usually great but the browsing was a joke. I think this IR image is from early morning. I'm just east of northcentral NE.
The area was in a blizzard warning before I left at 2pm Sunday. It stays in a blizzard warning until midnight Monday. That is pretty impresseive. This forecast of gusts to 70mph was pretty close. Measured gusts in Valentine and another area near here were 74 mph. Most places just east of there(area I was in) had a ton of ice on things and weren't reporting winds. Those that were were certainly skewed a bit.
This was until midnight in my area and the 8-14 inches was right on. I think O'Neill reports 9 inches when it is done. Somewhere just west of here were reporting around 14 inches. 10-14 inches and winds to 75mph equal trouble. Also adding to the severity of this was the ice on everything first. Then after the rain and icing there was a lull allowing it to get nice and frozen. So all the snow as able to just blow around on this ice.
Ok, back to the chase itself. This is early morning and things are really just getting going. This is a heck of a change from 2 a.m. when I went to sleep(for 4 whole hours). That is the van pictured above. The Blazer I'm driving is on the other side. I move it right now. This person in the van could have backed out now and made things a bit easier but for whatever reason they never do.
East side of the motel. Most snow is just blowing on by here. I move the Blazer over here and do most of my "chasing" from there.
Some stills around the motel.
Stills don't do much for a blizzard.
I tried going up town but there was a foot of snow on the main drag. I'd go to turn around on a side street and they were of course worse. There was hardly a soul out right now. Not caring to get stuck, even with a 4 wheel drive, I went back to the motel pretty quickly. Some powerline down in someone's yard here.
I'm now parked over hear for good(east side) and really wishing that door was clear so I could use it.
It is now extremely windy. You can see the wind flattening my jacket to my back. This was around noon and is when the 74 mph gusts are being recorded. I get a bright idea that I should play 'hurricane chaser' and stand in the wind on cam. Well I'm parked on a sheet of ice(the parking lot) and right when I go to walk out and stand infront of the cam the wind blows me southeast. I don't step, it just quickly moves me while standing up on the ice.
I'm now leaning into the wind. The only way I could figure to do this was leave the drivers side door open and put the cam on the tripod and let it lean against the open door. The blowing snow quickly covers the lens with this approach. It worked well enough though.
Here is an F-150 stuck on the road. That's not even a half a block away from me. Do they sell F-150s that are only 2 wheel drive? I imagine they do but not sure. I figured it was a 4 wheel drive and he still got stuck in the drift. I go over by this drift later and I don't think a 4 wheel drive vehicle would get stuck in it so it probably was just a 2 wheel drive.
This is the same truck from the same spot. That line across the top(only thing showing) is his open door and the top of the truck(I just went over the video again to make sure this grab was this). That is what a white out is. This is in town too. If you were on an e-w highway during this you would be having some serious problems. Here is a very cool image of highway 92 between Arnold and Merna, shot by Crystal Day and sent into KGFW 1340. Click Here That is insane. It makes me really wish I had gone sw for photo ops like that. KGFW Page Here
Powerlines jump roping in the wind. The top of the pole gets to twisting back and forth.
Digital still between gusts. Ok, maybe that snow is up to the bottom of the truck. It did not take him all that long to get out.
Looking back nw from the same spot on the east side of the motel.
Again, stills don't really tell the tale.
I kept trying to get a cool shot of this but would have to wait on the better gusts. I wasn't wearing gloves so that I could shoot stills and video quicker. I was not lasting long at each attempt because of this.
The distance I walked from the blazer wasn't very far. Each time I'd go back to the truck I'd have to fight sliding in the wind while getting the door open without it flying out of my hands. There was a little ditch of wet slush I'd jump over to get here. I cleared it everytime but the first one where I just stepped into it, learning it was slush underneath. Go to PAGE 2