Just Another Day of Natural Disasters at Our Little House
Our Little House covered in 12+ inches of snow
I’m still not sure what to make of the fact that this area of Arkansas has seen its share of “100 year” weather events in the 3 ½ years since we moved to Our Little House.
Let’s recap:
January 2008: A rare winter tornado passes over our house and touched down in Cotter, wiping out much of the small town.
Spring/Summer 2008: A “100 year” flood swamps the area, leaving much of the lower lying areas under water. All of the floodgates on Bull Shoals dam were opened, something that hadn’t happened in 25 years. Our property suddenly moves up from “Lake View” to “Lake Front,” which certainly didn’t hurt our property appraisal that year.
January 2009: An ice storm, the likes of which locals tell us they’ve never seen, hits the area, paralyzing NW Arkansas and several other states. Nothing was spared: Trees came down on power lines, cars, houses and even killed a few people. Millions are left without power, including our area. We were without power for 8 days.
August 2010- Arkansas is immersed in 100+ degree heat for several days in a row. It goes down as one of the hottest on record. It’s during this time that we allow our dogs out at night and lose Emma.
February 9, 2011: The area gets hit with between 10-20 inches of snow, depending on just where you’re located. The weatherman says Arkansas has not seen this deep of a snow since 1912. The next morning, the area was treated to record breaking low temperatures.
If I were a person that put my full faith into signs, I would relent and say it’s time to get the hell out of Dodge – that is if we could make it through the 12+ inches of snow that fell for some 14 hours at Our Little House yesterday!
It’s become a joke among Dale’s coworkers and our friends here that nothing like this happened until we “brought it with us,” only we saw these things in Kansas City over the course of a lifetime, not in the span of three years.
Of course, I know other parts of the country – and world – have been hit hard, especially this winter and I know I’m not the only person getting tired of living Winter-Zilla 2011, but writing about it too.
What kinds of extraordinary weather have you seen in your area?
To be quite honest, I don’t think the Northern Michigan winter has been so bad the last couple of years. I have only had my driveway plowed 3 times this year as opposed to 2x per week last year ( difference is I’m driving a Jeep Liberty and NOT a prism) however, snowfall is way down and will probably add to a statewide drought factor, plus temps are way higher than normal. I recall the newsman on the radio saying not to touch your eyes because you would break off your eylashes at -30. It has been an event to hit 0 the last couple of years. As opposed to global warming this could be a result of the magnetic polar shift ( 40 miles toward Russia)turning everything on it’s proverbial ear. It did shut down a runway in Tampa, Fla about a month or so ago.
Hi, Leigh-Ann-I think that areas that are used to seeing a lot of cold and snow didn’t get it and those of us who aren’t, did. Whatever the cause, everything, as you said, is turned on it’s ear, for sure!
We hit -26 degrees (without windchill) the first week of February in Northern New Mexico, one degree from the all-time record. Of course, that led to the gas outages that took down our primary heat source for nearly a week.
I saw that on the news, Nan. Weird weather everywhere.
We’ve been lucky so far this winter. It’s been brutally cold, but no major “snow events” … or at least what passes as a snow event here. What other places call snowpocolypse is just a normal day here.
Well, of course, Roxanne. Colorado is known for its snows! 🙂 If we were in Kansas City, this would have been nothing. We got snows like this all of the time when I was a kid. I think we’ve been spoiled by many mild winters. However, it’s not supposed to do this here. 🙂
In the NW Philadelphia suburbs, we’ve been lucky this year. Last year, we had something on the order of 100″ of snow. It’s been closer to 50 this year. There’s still no room for it. And the weekly arctic blast cum ice storms have been hell for commuting. It’s been sketchy even for me with front-wheel drive and snow tires…and I’m probably one of a handful of cars on the road with that combo. THAT’S the scary part.
I know, Mat, it is scary on those roads. I have a friend in your area and I know you all are very storm weary there. Hang in. Spring is on the way.
We are afraid Cape Cod will get hit with a hurricane like Katrina.
I think it is the crazy storms that are so strange and the result of climate change.
Oh, haven’t you heard? Climate change doesn’t exist!? 😉 I agree with you.
We haven’t had anything terribly extraordinary in NZ this year, but they Aussies have had floods and cyclones beyond sanity. Think bull sharks swimming up main streets twenty miles inland kind of crazy. One huge storm after another up there. The worst hit has been Queensland, but there have been floods in other states as well, poor guys. All this means there will be extra bad fires in a year or two.
I’m glad you’ve been spared the severe weather, Frugal. I’ve read about the flooding in Australia. I haven’t heard from our daughter there, but I know they’ve had some near her home in Melbourne.
Wow that is quite a list! Weather has been weird in my area too but not as severe as yours. We had a huge ice storm in Oct about 5 years ago that took out many, many trees and left us without power for 7 days. People say spring and fall are getting shorter here, leaving us with winter or summer.
Those ice storms are brutal. I’ll never forget lying in bed listening to the trees breaking.
This year we are having what the weather forecasters refer to as “an old fashioned winter”. As in 15 or 20 years ago. Snowbanks in front of the house are 10 feet high. The temperature is currently -7C (18F). Feels downright balmy. A lovely day although if it would like to depart by the end of the month I would be okay with that, too. (If only . . . )
Last year, however, was a different story. We had very little (for us) snow and the temperatures were mild. No ice formed in the ocean around us which is unheard of. Seals were confused as to where to whelp and were heading inland to try and find some ice. THAT was weird. Nice for humans, but too weird. You just knew that something was very wrong.
This is the south, we’re not supposed to have 12+ inches of snow and -11 degree readings! 🙂 We had those types of winters when I was a kid in KC. The snow fell and didn’t melt until winter was over. The weather is extreme everywhere and though the naysayers love to point out this isn’t global warming, it just shows their ignorance of the topic, Global warming means weather extremes of all sizes and shapes, not just severe heat.
So far this isn’t our year for extreme weather on the West Coast, thank goodness. I feel for you and all the other folks who are experiencing Snow-zillas. When you can get out, come on over. The water is fine.
Would love too, if only we could get out of here! ;0