We got 220 mm (8.6 in) of snow at O'Hare by 6am today, which means the storm dumped more on us than on any November day in history (earlier reported as the worst in almost 10 years):
As of 6 p.m., 6.9 inches (175 mm) of snow had fallen at O’Hare and 5.5 (140 mm) at Midway, making it the heaviest single-day snowfall since Nov. 21 2015, when 7 inches fell at O’Hare, according to the National Weather Service.
O’Hare had been predicting its busiest Thanksgiving week ever, despite the FAA recently lifting flight restrictions across the country during the country’s longest government shutdown. More than 1.63 million travelers were expected to pass through O’Hare during the seven-day Thanksgiving period through Monday.
Sunday is expected to be the peak travel day at O’Hare, with up to 290,000 passengers arriving. The snow is expected to fall through Sunday morning, snarling travel for those returning home from Thanksgiving. Another snow system could move in Monday night.
The Chicago area could see up to 10 inches (254 mm) of snow by the time the storms move out of the area, said National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Donofrio.
Also according to the National Weather Service, "This was the greatest storm total snowfall since 10.8" (275 mm) fell from January 30-31, 2021."
Another round of snowfall is due tomorrow evening. I guess I won't be dining alfresco on my patio tonight:
And after running (or porpoising) through snow that comes up to her chest for an hour yesterday, Cassie had a relaxing evening:
It's nice when you can plan for severe weather.
It's snowed nearly all day, lightly at first but turning a lot worse after noon. Since the temperature has stayed right around -1°C it wasn't a problem to give Cassie some off-leash time at the local park:
She even made new friends:
And you'd think after 9 hours of snowfall, my rain gauge might have registered some precipitation. I wonder what the trouble could be?
As of noon we had 76 mm of snow officially at O'Hare. I expect it'll be more than double that when the 6pm report comes out. About an hour after that, my big pot of beef stew will be ready. And the forecast predicts the snowfall should start to taper off after 2am and skies should clear up by tomorrow night.
Hey, it's the last two days of autumn. We were due.
Cassie and I hauled out to Far Suburbistan and met friends (one dog, one human) for a 4.7-km walk around the St James Farm Forest Preserve:
Because I wanted to get groceries ahead of tomorrow's snowfall, poor Cassie had to suffer in the car for about 3 hours. Don't feel bad: my friend had tons of leftovers from yesterday, so Cassie got enough turkey to last her until dinner next Thursday. She's now plotzed on the couch.
She doesn't know it yet, but we're about to go for another walk. My 77-day streak of 10,000+ steps may come to an end tomorrow, but I'm not going to give up my 7-year streak of 70,000+ steps per week.
I miss my old friend.
My new friend is pretty great, though.
Before I get to the best form of public transit available in the US, let's everyone say hello to my sister's dog, Omen:
Omen is a whippet. Good. (She's quite devo-ted to him.)
Anyway, this is how I got from the BART to the start of my 5.5 kilometer walk on Saturday:
If you take the Powell and Hyde line, the best part comes at the corner of Hyde and Lombard, at the top of Russian Hill. Just look at this view, and imagine seeing Alcatraz, Angel Island, and Tiburon directly ahead! (I have seen them from here. Trust me*.)
During my walk, I got to the end of the fog bank just before the Bay Bridge, and caught these cool lighting effects:
* OK, don't trust me. Here are two other photos I took from the same spot, the top one in April 2005, and the bottom one in May 2012:
As threatened yesterday, we got a few rounds of lake-effect snow overnight and this morning. Since not all the leaves have fallen yet, it still looks pretty:
And of course, one member of my household really, really, really likes a fresh snowfall:
Right now we've got about 100 mm on the ground. That will melt quickly as the forecast calls for above-freezing temperatures from tomorrow morning onward, reaching possibly 18°C on Saturday. I hope so, because I've got a 20 km hike planned for the day, and I'd like it not to freeze important bits of me off.
I'll have some photos from San Francisco later today. Right now I have to shovel my walkway again, then take Cassie for a 3 km walk so I get my steps in.
Butters the Engineer sometimes gets too lazy even to get her whole body onto a bed that's twice her size:
Two more days of wrangling two dogs with opposite understandings of how to behave on a leash.
Even though I have a cute beagle hanging around my office this week, and even though I've had a lot to do at work (including a very exciting deployment today), the world keeps turning:
- The OAFPOTUS pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao for the crime of running a massive money-laundering website, because of course Zhao bribed him.
- Brian Beutler thinks the OAFPOTUS's corruption has gotten too obvious for even his supporters to ignore, leading to "the things Democrats like to talk about and the things I wish they’d talked about [beginning] to converge."
- Speaking of corruption, not to mention things that are so prima facie bad that it takes a special kind of felon to even suggest it, privately funding the US military is an obviously illegal and demonstrably dangerous idea. Just ask the Roman Senate.
- Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) refuses to reconvene the House, and the Republican majority in the Senate refuse to waive the filibuster on funding SNAP, which are the two biggest things the Republican majority has chosen to do instead of making sure 40 million Americans don't go hungry next week.
- Michael Tomasky makes a point that I've made to one of my Republican trolls acquaintances: it really doesn't matter to the national Democratic Party if Zohran Mamdani wins the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday: It's NYC, not Maine.
Finally, if you're looking to pick up a little lakeside real estate, this house in Kenilworth, Ill., is on the market for the first time ever. It's a steal at $7 million.
I have mentioned how odd Butters can be. Part of her oddness seems to come from her being a little princess who craves comfort to the exclusion of propriety.
Exhibit the first, this morning, less than a minute after I stripped my bed:
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I had to pick her up to get her to move.
Exhibit the second, yesterday afternoon, rearranging the dog bed in my office for...reasons:
Exhibit the third, last night, getting quite annoyed that Cassie has trouble respecting her personal space:
The poor dear suffers so.