The “bomb cyclone” as it’s called, was Colorado’s strongest storm in recorded history. I ran around the yard and tried to reinforce the tie downs and landscape pins on any structure that isn’t concreted in place, by the time I was through, I was frozen too.
The picture doesn’t do it justice – the wind was blowing at 65 mph, horizontal, north to south, and whipping back towards the house, which faces east, piling up on the wall and front door. There was a little triangle from the door to the wall on the right that was clear of snow, completely untouched by the wind. We put down a pile of seed there, and in just a few minutes the porch was covered with birds eating and hunkering down against the wind; even a rabbit ventured up to steal some seed from the birds.
I have a great video that I took before the windows iced over, but Word Press platform won’t let me share it. (booo hisss). Within an hour the wind picked up even more and every window in the house was iced over, the cast iron patio furniture had been blown over and some of it actually thrown off the porch into the lawn, the tall skinny crimson oaks were whipping back and forth like a feather duster.
Meanwhile, my workaholic husband who insisted on going to work, called it a day and headed home around 11:30am. This was the scene on I70. They closed the highway about 15 minutes after this picture and literally turned all the cars around. It took Brian 3 hours to get home (usually a 45 minute trip). I asked Brian to check in every 30 minutes so I knew where he was and that he hadn’t ended up in a ditch with a large number of other vehicles that day!
Back at home, the Meanwhile inside, the cats had both run to their hiding places as the corners of the roof shook and creaked, the wind forcing it’s way up under the siding and slapping it against the house, little mini tornadoes whirling in from the bathroom ceiling vents – and something I’ve never seen before, the water in two of the toilet bowls was sloshing up and down the drain! So Weird. Like watching the water gurgle on a horror show and you’re thinking move away from the toilet you idiot! the swamp monster is going to eat your face!!!! This must be how it feels to be in a tornado right before your house blows apart!
After the storm: 3 foot drifts in the backyard and 5 foot drifts up against the north berm, street side. I didn’t loose any trees – thank the Gods! The ditches were totally full of snow making them look like part of the street – but no neighbors fell in this time!
