If the visibility was just a little worse, it would be a blizzard.

It started Saturday, while I was at work. I had no problems driving home, especially since I took the back roads to avoid the TransCanada highway. The last half kilometre was the only challenge, with snow blowing across the gravel road making it very difficult to see. And then the drift in the driveway that I almost didn't make it through. I went back and looked at the drift after, I could see that the bottom of the car dragged across the drift.

It's cold, about -16c, which actually isn't that bad. No really, it's been worse. The windchill is only around -30c. Other almost blizzards have been -30c with -50 windchills. The amazing thing is the wind! And what it's doing to the snow!

I thought the drifts last winter were amazing, and well, they are even more amazing now. At the front of the pasture, there is a drift all the way over the fence. If my horse came out of hiding from the shelter, and was wearing horse-sized snowshoes, she could walk right over the fence. Of course though, she isn't interested in walking into a 4 foot snow drift, and the snow wouldn't hold her weight... I hope anyway... Another drift must be 5 to 5.5 feet tall, this one in my riding arena where I keep one of the ponies separated so I can restrict what she eats. I climb it when I feed her (fun!)

I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them.

DH spend hours digging out the drift across the driveway. It grew to about 2-3 feet deep, and maybe 20 feet wide. The storm is still going on, so I don't understand why he insists on doing that (but I don't say a word). It drifts right back over in a few hours.

Played outside with DS for a while. The blowing snow is a little painful on the eyes, but climbing the drifts is great fun. Most hold my weight because they are so packed by the wind.

DH is going to try to go to work tomorrow morning. The kid's school is open, but the buses are not running, so I'll keep them home. It's not worth risking our lives on the highway just for one day of school. The wind is supposed to calm down tomorrow afternoon, so they can go back to school on Tuesday.

I mentioned not driving on the TransCanada highway on the way home from work on Saturday - after watching the news tonight, I'm very glad that I didn't! The highway was closed down sometime that night because the conditions were that bad. People are stranded all over the eastern side of Alberta because of the storm. My brother's girlfriend is one of them, she's at a friend's house waiting it out. Schools and restaurants and community halls are helping people who are stuck. There have been reports of 10 foot drifts! Cool! But not cool if your car is under it!

And, no, this isn't normal weather. It's more normal for winters to be mild and sunny.