The headline is all I have to say: I just want to be among the first to dub this week’s monster winter storm in the eastern half three-fifths of the United States The Great Groundhog’s Eve Blizzard. In fact, I think Groundhog’s Eve is a concept that needs to be explored further.
In other news, the big post-storm controversy in Chicago is over the timing of the city’s closure of Lake Shore Drive at the height of the storm (see today’s Sun-Times: City stands by Lake Shore Drive closing; and WBEZ: The Great LSD Gridlock: Blizzard of 1979 redux? ). The Sun-Times also has a stunning photo gallery of the snowbound Drive (that’s the source of the photo below).
Small correction: the monster snowstorm started its path of frigid mayhem down here in Texas, cutting a path northeast through Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and points east before dumping its load on New York and New England. Granted, we only got a couple of inches initially but that’s enough to shut us down, and temperatures have stayed in the teens all week, preventing any of it from melting. Schools and businesses are about to be closed a fourth day in a row. I’m writing this at 3:30 AM while waiting for the cat to come back in and it is snowing again – we’ll probably have another 2 – 3 inches by morning. And by Superbowl Sunday temperatures are supposed to be up in the fifties.
Great bookend photos of Lake Shore Drive.