January 4 blizzard, January 5 aftermath January 5, 2018

There had been a few brushes with snow in the last days of fall and the first days of winter, but the first major storm barreled through Long Island yesterday.

The initial forecast didn’t call for more than a few inches, but as I expected, the accumulation prediction went up as the storm approached. Nassau County also ended up in the blizzard conditions that were originally supposed to stay in Suffolk, particularly central and eastern Suffolk.

My plan was to wait for the snow to end before shoveling it. Until then, I periodically took pictures outside my bedroom window.

I took the first picture at 8:25 AM, about two hours after I woke up:

9:41 AM:

11:52 AM:

2:07 PM:

4:06 PM:

An hour later, the last snowflake had fallen from the sky, but snow continued to blow off roofs, trees, and cars as winds gusted above 40 mph.

6:38 PM, before shoveling:

After shoveling the front porch, I stuck an 18-inch ruler into an area with flat accumulation; no drifts. I measured 13 inches of snow on the ground.

8:06 PM, after giving up shoveling until morning:

I felt guilty for giving up so soon, but I just didn’t have the stamina to go on. I went inside, watched The Big Bang Theory, played a couple of games on my Nintendo 3DS, and went to sleep.

I figure I got eight hours of sleep and was half-asleep thinking of shoveling for an hour. Finally, around 7AM, I bundled up and finished what I started. My dad had to leave for work, so he came out to help. My mom followed after that, but she wasn’t out for long. Dad went inside to get ready for work, then he came back out to drive there. I finished on my own for 45 minutes.

I took this picture at 9:18 AM, after grabbing my camera to shoot outside:

…where the rest of the pictures were:

There will be more winter storms this season, and I’ll post about them afterward. Until the next one.