If I were to place a bet on which way this ends up going I would say we are in for a good sized storm.
BUT, always keep in mind, weather forecasting is the only business where you can be wrong 90% of the time and still have a job the next day. And the news shows thrive on whipping things into a frenzy of panic in these situations.
Here, the city clears away the snowbanks whenever they get large enough to impede vision or future snowclearing. Happens 1-2 times each winter (depending on snow accumulation) for the main feeder streets in our area, more often for major roads or downtown streets with less roadside space for piling snow. (Unlike the cool warning-siren-equipped truck shown in a recent post on snow clearing in Montreal, all we get are little signs stuck in the snowbanks. 
)
Is anyone familiar with Wundermap? It’s pretty good for zooming down to see what’s going on right at your house or office w/ radar, winds, temp. and animation. Paints a pretty good picture of the storm right now. Type in your address and zoom in. The detail is impressive.
I want to thank you all on behalf of my wife, who is having a wonderful time watch the disaster on The Weather Channel safe and sound in the Bay Area (70 degrees and sunny) where we have climate, not weather.
We enjoyed being in the 30 inch NJ blizzard of 1996, so we’re not snow newbies.
Your winters are still too cold; I’ve gone to SF in February twice, and been miserable. (This from a Chicagoan watching snow pile up outside.)
I’ll give you a winter prediction: It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be gray, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.
(ETA: Dang, one day too early)
I have snowdrifts and have shoveled the driveway twice. Also today I scared a squirrel who pried the lid off the bird-feeder to shovel seeds in its face.
It hasn’t stopped snowing and every so often i can see piles of snow falling off the kitchen roof when i watch the birds at the feeder.
Here in Detroit area Radar shows the fringes of the storm hitting, but i don’t see nothin yet. I couldn’t care less about 12 inches of snow, it takes 30+ to get my attention except… I live in an old neighborhood where a good sneeze can take down the power line. And no power no furnace fan, no heat. So my place is about 85 right now as a buffer in case I lose it for a while.
But I got a nice Crock-pot chili bubbling away, and work made arrangements for flex time for those of us who don’t live close tomorrow, so I guess I’m ready for it. 
Central Indiana is getting hammered by ice. This isn’t a lot of fun. There are businesses and government entities closing that haven’t closed since the Blizzard of '78.
On the plus side, everybody and his uncle is busy posting on FB.
We don’t have anything else to do tonite I guess.
It’s started snowing here (Detroit area) right on schedule. We were going to head to Hamtramck for a music performance tonight, but the timing turned out to be…bad. Getting down there woulda been fine, it was getting back around 10 that would be problematic. Gonna pop open a bottle of 3 buck Chuck I think.
Winter started off so well, we only got 8" of snow all of December, at least according to the stats for Concord which reflect my part of the state pretty well too. But then…then January happened. 38" of snow in 31 days (for those playing the home game, NH’s average snowfall is 60" from November to April, so that’s well over half in just one month). What did we get today? 3"? And tomorrow, who knows, they keep reguessing how much we’ll get.
Woo morning update! The Natl Weather Service update now includes this (and a wind chill warning) as of 4am today:
LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS REPORT THAT NEARLY EVERY ROADWAY IS IMPASSABLE AND IN MANY CASES CLOSED. A STATE OF EMERGENCY HAS BEEN DECLARED AND LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS ARE PLEADING FOR PEOPLE TO STAY HOME AND OFF ROADWAYS. THERE HAVE BEEN NUMEROUS REPORTS OF CARS OFF ROADWAYS AND PEOPLE STRANDED AND THE EXTREME CONDITIONS ARE MAKING IT EXTREMELY DIFFICULT FOR RESCUE PERSONAL TO REACH THE STRANDED. VISIBILITIES ARE SO POOR IN OPEN AREAS THAT MOTORISTS COULD BECOME DISORIENTED AND UNABLE TO EVEN SEE BEYOND THE HOOD OF THEIR CARS. BEFORE CONSIDERING GETTING ON THE ROADS THIS MORNING… ASK YOURSELF IF GETTING TO YOUR DESTINATION IS WORTH RISKING YOUR LIFE.
I just took a look outside and we have snow drifted up so bad against the front door that I’m afraid to open it (door opens inwards so it will open, but it might not shut again). My roommate who said “she didn’t have a choice” about going in to work at 4am is still here–she’s the gen manager of a gas station and so they’re surely not open right now. My other roommate+his gf came in at 9pm last night from their retail jobs, I couldn’t believe they let them drive. But they made it okay fortunately. His gf said there were 2 cars in the ditch when they were traveling, and that’s just the ones they were able to see because visibility was literally zero with all the wind. Visibility is good NOW since it isn’t snowing at the moment, but last night gusts were 50+mph. Scary. I should take some pictures before the plows go out to show to my grandkids someday XD
It’s drifted up to 2.5feet at least against our back sliding glass door. It’s not snowing right now, though I doubt the storm is over. The plows have not even attempted to run on our street yet, it’s very pretty like one big winter playland. No tire tracks at all. Which means nobody on my street is at work or school, yet, which is good. Our driveway has 3 feet of blown drifts on it, my other roommate’s car looks like someone dropped it into a snowbank. Mine is in front of his so it has less snow around it, but to get out of the driveway I’d have to back through all of that, so it’s going to take an herculean amount of shoveling (we don’t have a snowblower)
There’s no way anything but a snowmobile could travel on my street in its current condition and I ain’t stupid enough to try!
Wow, looks like my area got really lucky this time. About an hour south of Columbus, and it’s just been raining a little. Luckily, the temp has stayed around 35-40. Really windy though.
The snow never did start here. A bit northwest got a lot of snow, and a bit southeast got a lot of freezing rain, all we got was a lot of sleet.
All day they kept pushing back when it would change to snow and lowering the accumulation prediction. When I went to bed, they were still calling for 2-4 inches overnight, but even that didn’t happen.
rachelellogram, that’s a pretty intense NWS warning. Where are you?
She’s in the burbs of Chicago, same as me.
Five of the thirteen commuter rail (not the L, the ones that run on regular railroad tracks) lines are shut down and the others are running on extremely restricted schedules. I’ve lived here since the early '90s and never seen more than one of the rail lines shut down at a time, that I can recall.
Chicago has almost reached the 6th highest recorded snowfall for the area and we’re still going to get snow for hours. There’s drifting easily up to 3-4 feet in some areas, I’m sure it’s worse out in the open areas around farms and such in the farther suburbs. The winds along the lakeshore hit 60-70 mph last night, causing multiple traffic accidents on Lake Shore Drive, leading to pileups that left some people stranded until 5:30 am (due to terrible visibility and extremely dangerous conditions), with crews working all night to search cars, evacuate people, and tow vehicles off the road.
At least four of the counties around Chicago shut down all roads except to emergency vehicles and plows, and car searches are still going on to find trapped people.
The postmaster for the office my husband works at gave a “no excuses” lecture yesterday about how they’re going to be in today. Considering surely some of the workers live in the roads shut down, under civil emergency counties, I’m wondering how many of his coworkers will even be able to get there.
rachel, if you have something to scoop with, I’d consider shoveling out around at least one of your doors to clear it. There’s still more snow coming, and you want a clear path in case of trouble, or at least to make it easier on you once this stops.
Not making enough electricity here in Texas, so they have started “rolling blackouts”. I lost my power for 5 minutes at 7:30am. WAKE UP MORE HAMSTERS AND GET THEM RUNNING, ONCOR!
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
Ice is winning.
I was watching the Weather Channel’s coverage last night and at that time the storm was shaped like a large number “9”, positioned just below Chicago and headed that way. It was obvious y’all were going to get creamed. Jim Cantore had a live feed that happened to catch some snow thunder which, despite the danger, was pretty awesome to witness.
If someone was on vacation with no urgent schedule and staying at the Swissotel or someplace comfortable downtown in the middle of things, this storm would be really interesting to watch develop. If though you’re trying to get places, operate normally and be productive it’s gotta be a royal pain in the keister.
We aren’t really getting any big snow out of this particular storm (though we have plenty), but it was -31 F at my house this morning. Wheather Channel says -47 F with wind chill. My car was a bit grouchy about it.