Late Friday

L and I went over to the house of some friends for an evening of good food and conversation, so I am a bit late with this. Oh well. It was totally worth it to participate in the spur of the moment gathering. We don't get a chance to see these friends that often, so when we do it is an opportunity to be enjoyed.

This afternoon/evening L and I went to the store and it was amazing to see all the people scurrying about in the 65 degree weather getting ready to batten down the hatches. (It was at the store that we ran into the above mentioned friends and the impromptu get together was hatched.) Why were the crowds frenziedly shopping on Friday afternoon? The prime impetus came from this little note and its predecessors:

Issued by The National Weather Service
Denver/Boulder, CO
9:34 pm MDT, Fri., Apr. 3, 2009

... BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM SATURDAY TO 6 AM MDT SUNDAY...

SCATTERED RAIN AND SNOW SHOWERS WILL CHANGE OVER TO ALL SNOW BY DAYBREAK SATURDAY. THE SNOW AND WIND ARE EXPECTED TO INTENSIFY THROUGH THE EARLY MORNING HOURS SATURDAY. NORTH WINDS OF 20 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 50 MPH WILL PRODUCE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS AND NEAR ZERO VISIBILITIES... ESPECIALLY IN OPEN AREAS. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS BY LATE SATURDAY EVENING ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE BETWEEN 4 AND 8 INCHES.

So now you know - the weather people are predicting yet another spring blizzard for the plains. Right now as I write this at about 12:45am, it is still in the 40s and raining a tiny bit. So they have a few hours to get the snow and blow going or they will miss yet another forecast. At least we have gotten .02 inches of precipitation thus far. That is better than many of the forecast accuracies out here! It was amusing - L likened the crowds to the Christmas shopping crowds in a really good year. It's been a long time since I have seen the parking lot that full, let alone on a Friday evening.

Time to mosey off into the land of nod. Take care.