Falling Snow

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"KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Snow piled up for majority of the Kansas City region on Thursday, and the snow totals certainly prove that.

Kansas City even broke a record for daily snowfall for Feb 9. As of 7 AM Thursday, Kansas City had already seen 4.4 inches of snow hit the ground." FOX News

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The late local news (Wednesday night) had said that there would be some "light rain" overnight, but NO SNOW south of Iowa. So, everyone went to bed not expecting any snow. Although I stayed up late, I didn't pay much attention to what was going on outside. However, while I was turning out the lights to go to bed, I suddenly noticed how it seemed very foggy outside the house windows. Fog? The weatherman hadn't mentioned any fog. Just a little possible rain. It had been raining on and off all day.

Curious, I went outside to see things better where I found very heavily falling snow with significant (for us) accumulation already on the ground. So much for weather predictions... The wind was also high and the trees swaying under the heavy wet snow. A little while later when I got into bed, I could hear the maple trees, next to the house, hitting the wall and roof. Concerned, I woke my husband up. He acknowledged that those trees probably need to be pruned a little, but he wasn't concerned. However, those trees normally don't hit the roof and walls even during high winds. Still, if he wasn't concerned, I went along with him.

Later after getting up, we discovered this surprise, overnight snow had caused a lot of trouble citywide. Even the International Airport had to be shut down for about an hour because of the blinding snow. The airfield reopened to arrivals and departures around 7:05 a.m. Because none of the Metro roads were pretreated, that also caused a lot of problems with numerous accidents. The surprise snow didn't end until after 7 AM making it hard for road crews to catch up. Like most of the rest of the Metro, those workers were also asleep when it started to snow. Today became a snow day for most schools. Although driving later in the day was no problem, all was chaos during the morning rush hour & when kids were supposed to be catching their buses.

During the snowstorm, winds were reported to be sustained at 35 MPH with higher gusts. Under the weight of the snow, our maple trees' branches were in a different position than normally. That's why they were hitting the house. We really do need to get someone out to trim those branches. Fortunately, when the sun came out, this snow didn't stay on the branches for very long. So, all is okay again.


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Interestingly, the sky was black (as night) when I shot the above photo. It was night!!! However, the snow and cloud shrouded moonlight brightened the scene for the very high ISO and a touch of exposure compensation to work. Normally, I can't even see those trees at this time of night; let alone get a handheld photo of them. Between the low light and the heavily falling snow, I was quite happy to have gotten this photo.

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Just 2 1/2 days ago, the same area experienced record-breaking high temperatures: https://pbase.com/britestar/image/173369841
A lot of new weather records continue to be set in recent times. The world is changing.