Nature's Triple Threat Plays Out with White-Out Conditions & Dangerous Cold Setting In

My daughter Lauren may only be four years old but she sure knows how to deal with the coldest weather she has ever seen. She is having a nice cup of hot chocolate. She certainly deserved it after cleaning her room, helping to shovel the driveway, and helping Daddy put away some dishes. She is beyond her years and even though her preschool classes were canceled today she stayed busy and held her own class by reading to me and her stuffed animals. She even taught us about the full moon. I may have a crazy television schedule but it all makes it worthwhile by spending great quality time with Lauren during the mornings and early afternoons. I was also very lucky to have been able to do this with my two oldest daughters Megan and Abbey when they were younger. My wife Julie has the tough job of dealing with the chaos in the evenings while I am at work so I really cannot even begin to thank her for all she has done for me and my family. Thanks Julie. It is because of you that our family can enjoy our cups of hot chocolate and someday I look forward to returning the favor.

Dena Flanagan shows us why it was a terrific day for everybody to stay in and have some hot chocolate! We have 3.2 inches of snow here on the southside of Lafayette as of 3 p.m. The snow will taper off for most of us by 6 p.m. but here comes the arctic blast with sub-zero wind chills and blowing and drifting snow reducing visibilities to near zero. Travel is not advised as wind chill warnings take hold across the area. If you do not need to go out do not do so. We have not seen anything like this since 1994 when the combination of snow, wind, and dangerous cold kept us below zero for daytime highs. This may repeat itself tomorrow. I will be back with snowfall totals, pictures, and more on this historic arctic outbreak on the way. Stay safe and warm! I appreciate all the wonderful reports, pictures, weather observations, road conditions, good advice, and overall you have once again proved that WLFI has the most dedicated weather bloggers around. Here are the official weather watcher snowfall totals from where you live.

It was good to hear from Diana Marion from Bluewater Beach in Monticello that was transformed into a winter wonderland with about 4.5 inches of snow. She tells us she would much rather have all this snow and cold than last year's flood aftermath we were dealing with. Thanks for the positive thoughts and beautiful picture of the river which is in its banks and almost totally ice and snow-covered.

I met some excited snow plowers yesterday and the wolves at Wolf Park have to rank a close second on that list as they howled their approval of our snowy day. A big thanks to Monty Sloan for once again bringing those beautiful wolves to us here on the weather blog.


Lauren was outside shoveling with me and we had a great time. The good news it was a light fluffy snow so even a four year old could push it around. But this unusually fluffy snow will tend to blow around easily by late tonight and Thursday. Our snow to liquid ratio was about 30:1 which is about two and a half times the normal. As we all know the five inches of snow you see on the list above in Brookston can easily build into a two foot snowdrift so be careful out there. Hurry up and shovel while you can before the real arctic outbreak hits. I will have more on why it will be one for the books tonight on the news and tomorrow here on the blog! Stay warm and be safe, especially on those north-south roads when the wind kicks up.