Snowed in...

Well, something this good had to come to an end... Yes, the unusually warm winter ended by the Blizzard 2006 (that's how the weather networks are calling it). A bunch of friends and I had planned for a party long before this snow came and we decided to stick to our plan...

I had to pick another friend of mine and we reached the party (another friend's house) with no problem -- the snow was just getting started and the temperatures hadn't really reached the freezing levels. So at about 1 AM when we decided to leave, there was about 6 inches of snow -- and the snow was falling horizontally with winds up to 45 mph. This condition is known as Whiteout. Visibility was very low and the drive was horrible to put it mildly. The snow shoveling crews wait for the snow to fall upto a considerable level before they start cleaning it. And inner roads are at the end of their queue to clean. So I had to drive very slow and careful to find the actual road to drive on...

Thankfully, I made it home safely but I would remember this drive :) for its adventure. I'd have to say listening to Classical Music on WNYC (NPR affiliate) definitely helped me remain calm. BTW, did I say that I have just recently become a regular NPR (National Public Radio) listener. I am quite surprised that I dint listen to NPR before even though I knew about them. They have a bunch of educational and worldwide news programs that you wont listen anywhere else. Anyways, I digress... Time to sleep...zzzzzz

Update 1: OK, I woke up to find the snow continuing to fall heavily at 3 inches per hour. Already, we have an accumulatoin of 19" and it's supposed to continue for another 3 hours. This has already become the second biggest snowfall in NYC history. I plan to go out within the hour to get some pictures of our parking lot.

Update 2: Well after a whole lotta shoveling & scraping, I was able to get out and get some pictures... Enjoy.. Also more flickr photos tagged blizzard2006.