| It's
not every day you are woken up by a clap of thunder at 4am then to peer outside to watch a
blizzard raging, snow so thick you can't see across the road! From the 3 or 4" that
fell the day before, now we were watching 10 to 12" fall in just a couple of hours! By daybreak the view around Hillsboro was nothing short of "breathtaking", snow piled high drifts of 3 to 4 feet covering roads. Most of Kansas was buried in 10 to 18" of fine powder snow. It may have taken 100 years to get global warming to increase the global temperature by 1 or 2F but Kansas entered an ice age in just one night !.It was amazing to see the services get their act together, clearing roads, and checking abandoned cars all over the place, the entire interstate 70 was closed with hundreds of cars and trucks stuck. By mid morning our local town of Hillsboro had graders, snowplows clearing the city streets, mountains of snow were being trucked away to nearby fields, it would take weeks for all this snow to melt....and at last Kansas has got enough snow to dent its nasty drought. Walking around is fraught with unexpected tumbles, your feet just suddenly slip away and often before your brain has realised, you end up all contorted on the ice with a silly grin on your face....no matter how carefully you walk it happens time and time again. Around Hillsboro the local schools have mobilised their students for snow clearing duties, they move around the town to clear paths and driveways. By days end more snow is falling - this time a fine dusty crystal that stings the face. By day two central Kansas has tallied up to 14 or 16" over the two days. Still the Kansanians have fun we watch some dude on a garbage can lid get towed along the ice by a big Ford 350. As day two of the great Kansas snow storm ends the forecast is for another belting of snow within several days. |
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 Yikes !Greeted with snow piled up to the veranda....Day 2 of the great Kansas snowstorm.Photo: Clyve Herbert |
 Photo: Clyve Herbert |
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 Our chase base piled with snow...21/Feb/2013.Photo: Clyve Herbert |
 Jane risking life and limb to photograph the snow.Photo: Clyve Herbert |
 It's amazing what two or three hours of torrential snow will do. Photo: Clyve Herbert |
 A yank tank survivor and roof glacier.Photo: Clyve Herbert |
 Hillsboro main street...Photo: Clyve Herbert |
 Drifting powder snow main street Hillsboro.Photo: Clyve Herbert |
 A frozen moment, storm gutter stopped in its tracks !Photo: Clyve Herbert |
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 Snow was drifted onto the veranda....Photo: Jane ONeill |
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 PJ'like a kid in a lolly shop (candy shop) it was out in the snow first thing and it's only 17F..-7C.Photo: Jane ONeill |
 Almost a foot ! |
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 Clyve interviewing a local college student.... Photo: Jane ONeill |
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 Drifting snow Hillsboro.Photo: Jane ONeill |
 A new type of Beetle ! Photo: Jane ONeill |
 Roof avalanche!! |
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 Attrocious cond itions Hillsboro Kansas blizzard...main street.Photo: Jane ONeill |
 Volunteers on their way to clear snow...Photo: Jane ONeill |
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 Australian Sky and Weather on the scene for their upcoming Going to Extremes - Chasing the Weather USA 2013 DVD !.Photo: Jane ONeill |
 The big boys are out clearing snow...Photo: Jane ONeill |
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 The local gas station Caseys...snow mountains in the driveway !Photo: Jane ONeill |
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 The road disappears in whiteout conditions. Photo: Jane ONeill |
 Dangerous driving Flint Hills Kansas.Photo: Jane ONeill |
 Scary trucks in a blizzard....Photo: Jane ONeill |
 Bovines..unconcerned!! |
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 These guys were out all night doing a great job...Photos; Clyve Herbert |
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 Wildlife...Main St, Marion, KS Photo: Jane ONeill |
 Wildlife...Main St, Marion, KS Photo: Jane ONeill |
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 A foot deep for as far as we could see...Photo: Jane ONeill |
 Snow plows working near Marion Kansas Photo: Jane ONeill |
 Robins...we think they were eating salt or grit..that's all we could find on the road.Photo: Jane ONeill |
| Stay tuned for the next episode... | |