Storm of the century? Wait and see...

We both worked from home today; thought we may as well, since we came home from work yesterday, prepared to do just that. We watched it snow, rain, sleet, blow all day long; even saw a couple of snow plows on our country road (or was it the same plow, twice?) It's a huge beast; glad the county has a chance to try out its paces in a real storm.

Anyway, it's 2:45, and the sun is out! Still, we're on storm alert. All day long, the weather channel has been updating the story with superlatives: Major Northwest snowstorm. An enormous snowstorm.  As much as 8-12 inches possible in lower elevations. Major, potentially historic, winter storm. Earlier in the day, they actually used the word "Epic."

What really got my attention, though, was when the National Weather Service started to compare this storm to the November 1985 storm and snowfall. That was the winter we moved to our small horse farm, and we had snow on the ground... a lot of snow... from November until after into January. Our well froze up, and we had to haul water from my mother-in-law's house. I melted snow on the stove, so the horses would have water to drink. The nearest plowed road was 3 miles away, so getting to work or to the grocery store was a major effort (and pain in the neck) involving tire chains and tarps as bookends on each end of the drive.

When the sun is shining into my home office and there's plenty of blue sky to the west, it's pretty hard to believe that major snow is coming. I remind myself that our winter weather comes from the north, not from the west. Still, I'm prepared to take the experts' word for it. We should know later in the day, if snow starts to fall and this time, doesn't stop. I'll keep you posted. And if the snow does stack up, I'll post photos. Because there's nothing more beautiful than the farm in winter.

We don't typically get a lot of snow around here, and the historical list of single-day snow totals is pretty impressive. These are the 10 biggest totals; I've listed them by year.

• Jan 13, 1950  20 in. & Jan 26, 1950  10 in.  Before my time. This must have been quite a January... two separate storms dropping 30 in. of snow, just two weeks apart
• Feb 28, 1962  7 in.
• Dec 23, 1965  8.9 in.  I remember this one... this much snow, just two days before Christmas, was incredible!

My first year of high school... look at these three storms: within a month, 3 record-breaking days

• Dec 31, 1968  9.3 in. 
• Jan 27, 1969  14.9 in. 
• Jan 29, 1969  7 in.

• Jan 25, 1972 7.9 in.  My first year of college
• Dec 26, 1974 8.8 in.  My sister and her fiance flew home from Australia to get married, and we woke in the wee hours to find all this snow and ice, and Peter missing. He'd gone out walking through the neighborhood; he'd never seen so much snow at one time.
• Nov 21, 1985  7.8 in  On the farm, melting snow for horses to drink, and trying to stay warm
• Nov 27, 1985  7.6 in. | Ditto