Blizzard conditions

I grew up in the Midwest. I lived most of my 26 years in the Midwest, some maybe 20 miles from Lake Michigan. Every winter it snowed, usually after Christmas. No one freaked out, and usually nothing was closed. Growing up, school was maybe canceled due to snow maybe once. School was more likely to be canceled due to cold than snow. I went to college in Wisconsin. We had some big snow storms and some really freezing days. Nothing was ever canceled school wide. Sometimes a professor got stuck, thus they could not show up, but the school itself never shut down due to snow or cold. Or anything for that matter.

My first winter married, we were living in St. Louis. EVERY time it snowed even a tiny bit, they whole area FREAKED OUT. Schools closed, business closed, I got sent home from work twice due to snow. Once, I sat waiting for the others to show up for almost an hour before anyone showed up, and I was late that day. (not due to weather, but due to the fact we only had one car and I had to take the train from the base, and my husband didn't seem to think we'd have to leave early because everyone would be freaking out.) The weather St. Louis had that did freak me out, rain and thunder, no one seemed to notice. I was worried the whole area was going to flood and float away, or the building was going to fall down due to the thunder and lighting, but no one noticed. Snow they freaked out about, but lighting they didn't seem to notice.

This past year I lived in the Dirt Hole. It never snowed. It rained maybe four times whilst we were there, and both times the rain created flooding, as there is no where for rain to go in the Dirt Hole. The first major rain storm, it rained for five hours straight and the back yard was a lake, the front road was a river and my driveway was a waterfall. The spring didn't bring many storms, but the few we had, were not that impressive, compared to the spring storms we had in St. Louis.

Since we've arrived in Alaska, they have had all forms of weather. It was 40 degrees the week we arrived, spring came early! Then, it snowed. And snowed. And some some more. My husband and I didn't think much of it till we watched the weather and they were FREAKING OUT. They were SURPRISED it snowed. They kept saying, from the radio people to the news people, this was the worst snow storm this season. Pilot Boy and I exchanged looked and though, "They think this is bad?"

What makes it bad is the fact they do not salt the roads and I am not sure how they snow plow things here, but most of the roads (even the well traveled roads) seem to be covered in snow. Packed down snow, which almost always turns to ice. Since we have arrived here, we've had two major storms. The first one, we went out in thinking it wasn't so bad. I saw more cars on the side of the road than I had ever seen. I kept thinking, don't people in Alaska know how to drive in snow? Why are they all driving off the side of the road?

It must happen often, as they all seemed to have orange tape to tie onto their cars.

The second storm happened while my husband was going to work, and one side of base was on a two hour delay. The side of base he worked on just said road conditions were red. This translated to show up at ten if you wanted and then go home at one. He didn't go in, as what he had to do that day, no one showed up period. It was like St. Louis all over again. Only this storm of snow was at least ten times worse than the stuff they got in St. Louis and we were in Alaska, so we figured like Minnesota , they'd know how to handle snow.

We're thinking they really don't. Or they just get so tired of it by this point in time, they forget how to deal with it.

The past two days, since the storm ended, its been FREEZING. Single digits cold. Plug your car in cold, the sort of cold we thought we would have driving up here. They do not seem to be phased by that sort of thing. Just snow.