Wordless Wednesday - Tulsa Blizzard 0f 2011

The Blizzard of 2011.  Our garden deck on February 1, 2011

February 1, 2011 will be remembered for the record snowfall in Tulsa as well as a wide area across Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana and across the US to the Eastern Seaboard.  We got 14 inches in the less than 24 hours, and other cities in the area got even more.   And it is very cold.  The daytime high on Tuesday was 12°F (-11°C) and the low was 1°F (-17°C).  The forecasted low for Wednesday night is for -9°F (-23°C).  

For comparison, here is our garden deck on September 7, 2010.

Add to this that the wind is blowing at about 25 mph (40km/h).  Everything in Tulsa has been canceled or postponed; schools, businesses, even the postal service.  Needless to say that Susan and I stayed home and watched the news on TV.  Poor Smokey.  When he went outside to do his business the snow was up past his belly and onto his chest.   When he came back inside he curled up on our bed and slept the better part of the day.  

In this day and age almost everybody has a cell phone which will take photographs and video clips.  The TV station ran photos and videos sent in by listeners.  People sent in pictures of lots of stuck cars and trucks.  Even police cars, firetrucks, and ambulances were getting stuck.  City ice scrapers and salt spreaders got stuck.  The tow trucks sent to pull them out of the snow got stuck themselves.  It is a real mess.  People with four wheel drive vehicles were stopping to help pull cars out of embankments.  A group of young men were seen pushing a couple of police cars back on the road.  Oklahomans are good people.  Nothing brings out the best in us like the opportunity to help someone out of a jam.


See More Wordless Wednesday