Starting Friday morning and continuing into the day on Saturday, Calgary experienced what can only be termed a blizzard. In Calgary itself, I think the boffins are not calling it such because some technicality that it wasn’t cold enough or some such <bleeping> idiocy. It was a <bleeping> blizzard.
For those of you not in the know, a blizzard is a huge snow storm with falling snow, strong winds, and cold temperatures. It usually comes with near zero visibility or “white out” conditions. However, it’s not the storm itself that is the noteworthy bit, though it seems it would be. The storm passes in a day or two. The aftermath is much more noteworthy than the storm itself.
First, there was clearing the walks and driveway. That was great fun, but not so terrible or even unusual. The real fun came when I decided to go down to the grocery store for a couple of items. I should have stayed home. The alley leading to my driveway is impassible in one direction and barely passible in the other. But that’s nothing compared to the street, which varied between hopeless to almost useable. While the alley was sheltered some from the howling winds, the street was not and, thus, had much more snow blown onto it that the alley.
All that would not have been a substantial problem except that due to traffic conditions I ended up taking the less optimal turn coming onto the street (there was traffic in the way). Then at the end of the street I again ended up going the less ideal direction. That was enlightening. In my neigborhood, there is a single street that circumnavigates it. That street has two points where it crosses a utility allowance, which is another name for a completely baren (and straight) corridor which allows snow to really drift in. At one point, there was space for a single lane of traffic (that dared) to get through the snow drift. The other point was totally blocked. People were forced to drive off the road and into the school playground to get around it.
Now, the major “arterial” roads are passable if not ideal. They have been kept relatively clear by city crews but there is only so much a limited number of people can do so during the storm, they concentrate on the busiest roads and work their way down to the less important roads as conditions permit. Unfortunately, after a blizzard, almost every road has something that needs clearing. Many of the residential streets will likely remain largely impassible for several days yet as crews continue to dig out the massive snow drifts.
Now, I’m not talking simple snow drifts that a 4×4 with snow tires can power through, either. If that were the case, a few 4x4s would already have done so and the totally blocked parts of the streets be somewhat open. Some of the drifts are easly five high or worse. In some cases, it’s clear that cars are completely buried under the snow.
All this makes me very glad that I work from home. It means I will not have to head out onto these roads come Monday. Well, I won’t have to as long as nothing that requires my physical presence goes wrong; the joys of being on call. Still, the powers of the universe willing, I will not have to figure out how to get downtown in these conditions.
Now I’m going to curl up with the TV remote and studiously ignore the weather.