The White Death Hits Cincinnati

The weather forecasts predicted it for a couple days...everyone knew it was coming...schools were closed or sent kids home early...businesses sent employees home early...and yet the Cincinnati panic associated with a snowstorm (a.k.a. the White Death) hit the city. I took this picture right after I got home. It was right near sunset and the snow was still coming down pretty hard. Click here and here to see a couple other photos. We got 4-5 inches. My usual 15 minute commute took just under 2 hours. Dianne decided to wait it out at work. She went with a couple of colleagues to get some dinner downtown to wait for the snow to pass and the traffic to thin out.

On the way home I was listening to Gary Burbank on xmradio (700 WLW). As I was inching along in traffic, he said something that made me laugh. He said the Cincinnati area has about a million people, but when it snows it seems like about 7 million idiots somehow come out of the woodwork and all of them are out driving a car in the snowstorm. That comment, along with Jim Borgman's Cincinnati snowstorm portfolio he posted today (I love his commute cartoon and the Kentucky snow removal cartoon) made the commute home a little easier to take.

The snow eased up around 8 pm and I took the photo below. It's always peaceful after a big snow. There aren't a lot of people out and about. Any sounds are dampened and the reflected light casts a soft glow on the new snow.