For the past three days, the East Coast has been handling effects of a major snow storm which dropped 29.2 inches in Baltimore, making it the largest snowfall in Baltimore's history. The snow storm which has been nicknamed "Snowzilla" was actually a low pressure system from the West Coast that moved cross country by way of the jet stream, gathered more moisture while dipping towards the Gulf and formed a massive winter storm along to East Coast. 10 states were affected.

The storm officially started in Baltimore on Friday. Here is radar from the storm as it approached Baltimore:
 I had been watching the storms path on the weather models and this storm actually brought out some of my meteorological websites that I used to look at when I was going to school. I had a feeling this storm wouldn't be a bust for the region and I heard on the news that this is one of the first storms in a while, that mostly all the computer models were forecasting the same thing for a week before the storm. Rex went to work that Friday but I stayed home with the kids. I know it would start in the afternoon/evening time and I didn't want to be in the mess of getting the kids from the babysitter and being stuck in traffic during the snow. Rex got back just after 3 pm, and the snow had just started falling. The snow accumulated quickly and by 6 pm that night we had already received about 4 inches at the house. I was worried about the tree in my parents yard because the storm was to pick up winds during the overnight hours and Saturday and the tree in the yard is so old and constantly drops limbs. It's a big tree too. Thankfully the storm did not knock over the tree at my parent's home in NJ and by the end of the storm, they had gotten 20 inches.

When I looked out the window Saturday morning, the cars were covered outside in the parking lot and it was still snowing. It snowed all day Saturday and the winds came in later that day.  Here is what we saw when we opened our front door:

Yup the snow was right up to our door! May saw the snow and asked to build a snowman, we have watched the movie Frozen at least 5 or 6 times now. We did, later in the morning during the time the winds were not as strong. Here are a couple of pictures from Saturday morning:


Rex was home and he took the photos but he didn't go outside. When we first stepped out the snow was pretty compact and thankfully May didn't get stuck. It was hard to move around in though. It was a good thing we got out during the morning because in the afternoon the winds really picked up later that day. I went out a second time, without the kids and I was  almost knocked over by how strong the winds were. It reminded me of the Blizzard of 1996. I was 9 years old, at the time and I remember having to cut short, my slumber party for my birthday party because of the blizzard. The winds were howling then and the snow felt like it was burning the face because it was going so fast. The winds howled this time too. I took a video of the blizzard, the second time I went out. Here's a couple of pics and that video
 I was so amazed by the snow drifts. This one  was right outside our window!


 Later that day on Sunday, I took May and Nia out again to play in the snow.



I must say that this snow accumulation after the event was one for the record books. After the event many places along the East Coast were paralyzed and many services stopped. There has been large efforts for snow removal and I was able to get to work on Monday, Rex had no work or school on Monday but many roads still needed to be plowed and sidewalks needed to be shoveled. Actually on Sunday, Rex's brother Chu Chu came over to help dig the cars out and that was nice.

The news reports are asking for patience as Baltimore becomes more functional. In NJ my mom was already able to go to work and the street had been plowed. Growing up in NJ I am pretty good with driving in snow but having so many cars on the street and narrow roads, I am not really used to that. I stayed home with the kids and worked from home yesterday. I am able to get to work now and so can Rex. I am also able to drop May and Nia off at the babysitters. Life may be slowly getting back to normal, but I am happy that we are all safe, and our family and friends are safe and we have pictures to last a lifetime. We might not get another snowfall like these for years but we sure did have fun in Snowzilla.