|
I wasn't expecting the cold frontal passage to be quite this snowy. I'm not sure I thought it'd be this cold and windy either. Since the first week in December there has been snow on the ground here. January 28th, the day before this, it got to 59 in Omaha. A good chunk of the snow was gone by evening, except any areas in the shade. Fast forward 12-18 hours and it's about 5 degrees, very windy, and snowing pretty good. The heavier snow didn't last long, and we only wound up with an inch or so. The winds made a big mess of things, even with that little bit of snow. 5 degrees with winds gusting to 50mph sucks. My gloveless hand was toast sooooo fast. The above is taken along highway 30 in western IA at the entrance to Desoto Bend NWR.
|
|
I'm now farting around in the refuge as I wait for Randy Chamberlain to show up.
|
|
Randy's truck here. We looked for an open area north of highway 30 and found it. Visibility was getting down to about 3 car lengths. The snow shadows by our vehicles were pretty interesting. We hadn't been here long before this picture. Look at the snow streaks left in the wake by his tires. Then there is another one, harder to see, left by his cab. It's further out to the right of the truck. Wind blowing under kept it clear up to that spot.
|
|
I'm getting bored, but it gets worse. I was using the timer to shoot these and it was getting quite annoying, waiting for the stronger gusts.
|
|
Randy saying, to hell with this. Without coveralls you wouldn't last long out there. Without gloves your hands were in pain in 20 seconds. I grabbed my camera and tripod to take this shot. Grabbing the metal tripod legs did not help my hands.
|
|
Trying to look like a dumbass, and doing a damn good job. That stocking cap is like, 15+ years old. It's all I could find. I got that when I was a kid, at a ski-resort in CO. It has 3 tassel extension things on top. It's strange. They worked as good wind direction and strength indicators...not so much in this one.
|
|
Back on highway 30. I'm being a dumbass here too, but I wasn't really trying to be. I only realized it when a nasty whiteout happens and vehicles going both ways are coming to a very fast stop, trying not to hit one another...a few feet away from me as I shoot from outside the van. There was a turning lane and then a shoulder I was on, so I was well out of the way...unless they lost that much control I guess.
|
|
Bad bad visibility.
|
|
You know it is bad when you can see the back of the semi but not the front.
|
|
Looking across highway 30, into the wind....freezing my butt off.
|
|
LOL, now if that's not a sign you should get away from the whiteout highway, I don't know what is. Randy had already taken off for the day, but called back to say there'd been a bad semi/van collision only 3 miles back west, at the bridge. From what I could see, there were plenty of semis going way to fast in this stuff. If I had to bet, I bet the van was eastbound, a semi or some cars went by, and he lost ALL visibility and hit another semi in the line. But I guess anything could have happened. Whatever the case, it didn't sound good.
|
|
It's no longer snowing, but the ground blizzard is kicking in.
|
