The Blizzard that Wasn't

Earlier this month I signed up to get weather alerts text messaged to me on my cell phone. Since it was the beginning of Tornado season, I thought it was a good idea. So, Thursday afternoon at about 4:00 I 'm driving to a small town east of Wichita when the alert notification sounds on my cell phone. It said: "A Blizzard Warning has been issued for Wichita, KS". What? Well, I must admit, the weather reports had been talking about a significant amount of snow coming to our area on Friday and Saturday, but I didn't really believe it. I mean, after all, it was 75 on Sunday and the signs of spring are apparent everywhere! A blizzard! Let's get real! But the weather forcasters were insistant! I even recieved 6 more text message alerts over the next 36 hours. The weather was supposed to begin Friday morning with some wintry mix, changing over to blowing, heavy snow (otherwise known as a blizzard) by Friday evening and continuing well into the day on Saturday. I had an appointment on Friday morning and by the time I got home it was indeed beginning to sleet, and by late morning we were convinced we were experiencing the beginnings of a big, bad spring blizzard. There was even some talk of "thunder snow" (that would be a new experience!) The weather forecasters were predicting anywhere from 9-16 inches of the white stuff and the early quick accumulation of sleet had us pretty well convinced that the meteorologists may even be underestimating this thing! But then it slowed to almost a stop, and then it began to rain. By the time we went to bed last night, the total accumulation was little more than it had been at 1:00 in the afternoon! The rain was freezing so there was a fairly thick coating of ice accumulating on the branches and surfaces, but we had been anticipating the white stuff! And although we were concerned about what a blizzard could mean, anticipating a larger accumulation of snow then this family had witnessed in over 10 years was kind of exciting. An ice storm was definitely a dissappointment! When we woke up this morning, there was just more ice. It had obviously rained a good bit overnight - our pool cover was quite full. We were all shaking our heads at how wrong the weather forcast had been for us (there were parts of Kansas west of Wichita that did get almost 2 feet of snow). Then at about 8:00 this morning, it finally began to snow! And it snowed pretty hard until a little after noon (not a blizzard, but a decent amount of snow). There was enough wind to cause some drifting, but still not even close to blizzard conditions. So, Steve's mom is getting to spend a couple of extra days here - she was supposed to go home this morning, but the ice and snow was enough to cancel flights out of town. And we are having some fun playing in the snow today. It won't last long, spring will be back in a day or two. And we'll be back into Tornado season again. Hey, I wonder if there is such a thing as a snownado?