Here's what it looked like in central Nebraska at Christmas. My brother's place. He lives out in the flatlands no trees around except where there's a house and just soybean and corn fields to the north of him. We got about 12 inches or so, but the trouble maker was the winds. 50mph sustained with 65 mph gusts. It started Wednesday before Christmas with some freezing rain that turned to snow that night. Thursday my brother went to work but headed for home at noon cause it was getting bad. He just made it. Said that he wouldn't have if he wasn't in a 4x4 truck as it was already starting to drift up. It snowed and blowed all day Thursday, all day Friday and most of Saturday. The wind finally died down Sat afternoon. He was trapped at his place from Thursday at noon until Sunday afternoon about 3:30pm when the snow plow finally cracked through the drifts on the road leading to his house. Here's a few pics.
There's a drive under all that snow between the shed and the cedars, that leads back to his east field. Don't think we'll be using that drive anytime soon. That drift runs the entire length of that building, 120 feet at that height, about 8 feet. At the back of the building it ramps up to about 13 feet high and is actually taller than the peak but my pic of it was out of focus, so you'll have to take my word for it.
Few more pics, Drift beside the house, and back by the combine. When the wind blows like that it packs the snow in super tight. You could walk around on top of these drifts in boots and only sink in a quarter inch or so.
Luckily though we've got some equipment capable of handling this stuff. 1953 Cat D4 we picked up on a farm sale a couple of years ago just as a toy. It's a bear to start when it's cold like that but once you get it going it makes pretty short work of all that snow.
Stay warm everybody.
TDF
