* “Snowtorious B.I.G.” knocked out my website’s ISP for a few minutes this afternoon. No biggie. I called over there and two people are holed up and constantly monitoring the equipment, so they knew it was down before I did.

My own power went off briefly here this morning, but the possibility of freezing rain is now making me wonder if I have enough fuel for my kerosene heater - and I’m questioning my own judgement for not shelling out the bucks for a decent generator. Oh, well. I’m pretty well stocked up on Jameson, though, so I should be OK.

* Check out this NASA satellite photo of the storm…

Yikes!

* Click here for all snow-related news updates.

* Keep us updated on your own snowstorm horror stories, and… Hey… Hey!!! Let’s be careful out there.

…Adding… Considering the possibility of mass electrical service outages, the unplugged version seems most appropriate…

Waiting for the thaw out

       

68 Comments - Bring Back Boone's - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:04 pm: I heard that as of 3:30 that it was standing room only on the metra trains leaving Ogilvie and that they were turning people away… snowpocalypse has arrived. - Been There - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:06 pm: Well it’s about 72 degrees where I am at! That’s in my car going 4 miles an hour on the tollway. Going to be a couple of hours before I get to hit the Jamesons. - GetOverIt - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:08 pm: I wish I had some of that Carol Mosley Braun crack about now…stuck in a downtown highrise, interesting. - AlphaBettor - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:11 pm: REO wrote that song after a trip to Colorado. They said they’d never seen a storm that big because “we’re an Illinois band.” - Frank A CBHA - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:11 pm: the next set of cuts from DHS - a couple a hundred million - may be announced this afternon–stormy weather indeed - wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:13 pm: Car’s in the garage for the duration, kids are home safe, but already bouncing off the walls. Please, no snow day, or it’ll be like the Overlook Hotel here before Wednesday night. - Deep South - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:14 pm: Gettin’ lots of rain here in the Deep South. Beer o’clock is just around the corner. - GetOverIt - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:15 pm: thanks for the tunes Rich…perfect. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:22 pm: My Dominick’s was picked clean by about 2 p.m. No eggs or wheat bread, they were limiting milk to one gallon per customer. Apparently, the Donner Party is well-provisioned. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:24 pm: Every one including you young guy’s becareful shoveling snow.It can be dangerous.Say in and keep warm with some sippin’ whiskey. - OneMan - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:24 pm: == No eggs or wheat bread, they were limiting milk to one gallon per customer. == Because everyone knows that after a big snow you need to make French Toast - Snowed In in Springfield - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:24 pm: Re: power outage possibilities, from http://www.sj-r.com/carousel/x1526230/Blizzard-bears-down-on-Springfield-area : “1:50 p.m.: City Water, Light and Power crews are poised to respond to any potential power outages from the snow storm. “The utility says it has linemen crews and bucket trucks on standby to restore power, if needed. Some equipment trailers with spare parts have also been mobilized in various parts of the city. In case of a massive outage, CWLP can request help from area utilities. Officials have reached out to agencies it has mutual aid agreements with and updated contacted information….” - Small Town Liberal - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:24 pm: Still in the office downtown, extremely grateful for the pedway. Beer thirty starts at approximately 5:30. - Lefty Lefty - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:24 pm: That is the most awesome shot from space I have ever seen, probably because I have some part in it. I don’t think the heavy stuff’s gonna come down for quite a while. - Bluefish - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:26 pm: 4:00. Home. Snow outside. Martinis inside. The horror. - Justice - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:27 pm: Long Johns, Goose Down, Thinsolate, Johnny Black. It’s a great day in Illinois! - wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:32 pm: Oak Park schools just canceled for tomorrow. I have to go to the garage and find that axe. All work and no play….. - Secret Square - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:33 pm: Chicken soup on the stove, plenty of hot drinks available… just hoping the power doesn’t go out (we live in an apartment that is all electric). If this is a statewide disaster I’ll take it over tornadoes, floods, earthquakes or nuclear attack/meltdown anytime. - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:34 pm: == No eggs or wheat bread, they were limiting milk to one gallon per customer. == You gotta stock up. It could be a whole day before the roads are plowed! By Friday morning, people are going to be trying to figure out what to do with all the bread, eggs and milk they bought. My recommendations: french toast in the am and bread pudding in the pm. Perhaps eggnog and toast. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:36 pm: Bourbon neat.A great book about Teddy Roosvelt off tommorw.Having a great time in Illinois. - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:37 pm: Here’s another good shot: http://www.intellicast.com/Local/WxMapFull.aspx - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:39 pm: Slight brownout situation here. - Jasper - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:40 pm: Kids off school, wife out of town, no beer in the house. It is going to be a “challenging” day or two. Thankfully some good friends will be dropping by to help entertain the kids. - Wensicia - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:51 pm: Whiteout! Just hope we don’t have any trees taking down wires, our usual problem with big storms. Can’t have the kids home and lose cable and Internet service. I’ll go nuts! - Because I say so - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:51 pm: Comfy chair in my sun room is the best seat in the house to watch the show Mother Nature is providing. Winds gusting up big time. Opening the botle of red when hubby arrives home safely. Wish he would have left work earlier. - maddem - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:52 pm: I like this map. It moves. Scan out and look south. A big gap south of St. Louis. Is it almost over in Springfield? http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?brand=wxmap&query=39.77249908,-89.68367767&zoom=10 - Toi Hutchinson - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:53 pm: I spent nearly 2 hours in the grocery store yesterday making sure we had treats like hot chocolate, marshmallows and brownie mix which I swear have no calories during a blizzard. Downloaded some netflix movies and happily watched my children fly off their school buses beyond excited for the day off from school tomorrow. For once, I’m not thinking about anything important other than today, I’m just Mom and happy faces on kids who are still excited about snow and no school is about as awesome as it gets! Let’s hear it for SNOWMAGEDDON 2011! Reminder to everyone: check on people you love and any seniors you might know who don’t have transportation. - circularfiringsquad - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:55 pm: Bradley leads Creighton by 6 w less than. A minute Smart guys - Retired Non-Union Guy - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:57 pm: Don’t expect any power outages here because they rebuilt all the lines in the neighborhood after the twin tornados a few years ago (out for days then). But if we do lose power, got the NG logs in the fireplace … that’s what we used back then to keep warm. And we got 12 to 110 inverters plus a couple of 12V car batteries in the house (out of the cars stored for the winter) to have a bit of power. Worst case, I’ll fire up the NG space heater in the garage and go out there. - Downstate Illinois - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 4:59 pm: Meanwhile, all we have is rain so far. Our ice, if any, is due for the overnight hours. The Getting Around Illinois winter road conditions map is another good link for anyone foolish to travel north or west of Mt. Vernon tonight. http://wrc.gettingaroundillinois.com/pages/wrc.htm - Gregor - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:00 pm: Downtown Springfield looks like Stalingrad today. Glad to take the rest of the week off to sleep in, snuggle wifey, and wait for “rescue”. Fingers crossed for no ice storms, and nobody knocking down power poles by driving like a dope. As disasters go, it could be lots worse. - circularfiringsquad - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:04 pm: Bradley gets 1st Valley win Can’t. See across the. Street. Hope no one hits. The ditch on way home - soccermom - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:09 pm: Word, did they close the high school, too? - amalia - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:09 pm: Chicago finally lives up to the weather related reputation of Windy City. creepy scary! - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:09 pm: Springpatch is getting hammered right now, first it was heavy snow for three hours, now a mix of sleet and snow and high winds. - soccermom - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:10 pm: i could of course look it up myself - wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:12 pm: Soccermom, sadly, the answer is yes. - mokenavince - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:20 pm: Becareful shoveling,even you young guys. Old timersgat some help - Just The Way It Is One - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:29 pm: WOW!!! Great shot–thanks for finding it; actually, it makes me feel like in comparison to the WORLD, the storm is really not as gigantic as one might think, sittin’ here in the middle of it….One thing’s for sure, however–I’d sure rather be in (mostly) Sunny Florida about now…. - Michelle Flaherty - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:30 pm: That NASA pic is awesome. I haven’t seen that much gray since the GOP controlled the Senate. - Angry Chicagoan - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:33 pm: I get on the ‘el far enough south that there wasn’t a problem but the CYA, oops, CTA simply didn’t shift their rush hour schedule earlier like Metra did. The result was that there were literally thousands of people waiting in hopes of space on a train at 3:30-4pm at Lake, Grand, Chicago and Clark/Division, even a few left behind at North/Clybourn and Fullerton. And you knew they were basically going to have to wait until they were fully up to peak schedule. - 1oth Voter - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:41 pm: Closed the office early and beat the storm home…but now the dog is giving me that look indicating he needs to go for a walk…no alternate plan for that one…damn… - soccermom - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:46 pm: Soccerchild is furious. They never had a snow day at OPRF while she was there. Then she went off to college in New York, and every school in the city was shut down by snow — except hers. And now this. Oh goodness are we hearing about it. - Wensicia - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 5:51 pm: While I’m safe at home, I want to thank the police, firefighters, snow plow drivers, and others who will be working ceaselessly the next 24 hours to keep us safe and our communities functioning. Also, the ComEd emergency staff who will probably working non-stop the next 48 hours. - McHenry Mike - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 6:22 pm: Thanks for the REO riff. You are probably not going to believe this but it is absolutely true. A guy named Geoff Poor and I discovered Bruce Hall, now the REO base player, and hired him for our group in Campaign in the late 60’s. The group was called “Feathertrain”. Bruce was still in High School at the time and lived in a small town outside of Champaign. I then decided to quit the band after a year because we became so successful I couldn’t keep up with my studies. I figured, “who ever heard of a 40 year old Rock n Roll star”? College was a safer bet. The band embarked on a search to replace me on lead guitar and came up with Gary Ritchrath, who later wrote that song. The first time I met Gary was in Peoria where he showed up backstage with his guitar but no amplifier. I watched him race around the neck of the guitar and thought, “if it sounds as good as it looks, he could be a winner”. The song was sung originally by Michael Murphy, who was our singer at one point and was later picked up by REO after Keven Cronin quit the first time. Gary was fired in the late 80’s for “too much partying”, ie. drugs and was replaced by the guitarist featured in the video (Amato). Sure brings back the memories. - anon - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 6:32 pm: Any idea if state offices will be opened tomorrow? - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 6:45 pm: “Any idea if state offices will be opened tomorrow?” Go to www.ready.illinois.gov starting Wens. at 5 AM for updates on work status. - amalia - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 6:49 pm: Lightening at the lakefront, re the news. power surges. must find tequila. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 7:03 pm: It is weird out there. I was lucky enough to get on an express train out that kept stopping because they’re doing manual switching. Thought I was safe when I got into town, but didn’t realize it’s almost impossible to breathe out there–plus walking through drifts that are three feet high in some areas can give you one heckuva strenuous workout. Be careful out there; it really is hard to catch your breath. I only had to walk a couple of blocks and wasn’t sure I was going to make it–and I’m in pretty darn good shape. - Snowed In - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 7:20 pm: All I’ve gotta say is that Senator Hutchinson, I wish I was at your house. Brownies and marshmallows?? YES! - maddem - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 7:24 pm: I was right. It looks like it’s all over in Springfield but for the wind. We had less than 6 inches with only an inch forecast for tomorrow. - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 7:45 pm: Hey maddem, where are you in Springfield, I just came off the streets and it’s coming down in buckets? - Todd - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 7:50 pm: just got back in from plowinf the dirveway for the second time. Winds picked up and is brutal. Had to get the kids airsoft gogles so I could see. Looked like the snow warrior. Anyways snow ain’t so bad as the wind and ther drifting. had some 2 foot drifts to get through.. gonna get interesting later tonight if the big stuff hits. Don’t expect to see a plow in the subdivision till after midnight, the drifting has got to be causing them fits. its heineken time - Angry Chicagoan - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 7:56 pm: It’s all drift and no accumulation out there. At this rate we’re going to end up with alternating bare patches and six foot barriers. The wind is just incredible. Amazingly enough, after the CTA’s initial goof in not moving up the rush, seems as though the trains have been running perfectly normally. - MrJM - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 8:11 pm: There was slim pickin’s at the Trader Joe’s: http://bit.ly/gdJDF5 – MrJM - maddem - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 8:49 pm: I’m over in Leland Grove west of Chatham. I’ve only had light snow for the last three hours. It’s windy. Most of what I’m getting is probably blowing and drifting. Check out this radar. There isn’t much south of here. http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?brand=wxmap&query=39.77249908,-89.68367767&zoom=10 zoom out with the little - sign in the upper left. - Rick - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 9:14 pm: Gotta give kudos to those IDOT snow plow guys. They never give up. Wonder what whould happen if we laid off all state employees we really need to show them some appreciation. - Quinn T. Sential - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 9:33 pm: I 80 closed between Morris and Ottawa. Very bad situation with too many stranded vehicles to be able to respond to and rescue. - Gregor - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 9:36 pm: My Tauntaun froze before I reached the first marker. I guess luke is Wampa chow by now. - Quinn T. Sential - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 9:39 pm: Northbound LSD is also a disaster area; and the CFD is battling a major fire in hand to hand combat near Irving and Western. Great weather to be spraying water. - Quinn T. Sential - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 9:55 pm: You can dial in to the LSD mayhem here: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=wp&feedId=115 - Quinn T. Sential - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 10:07 pm: They are trying to locate a woman having a maternity emergency on LSD and they are working with snow mobiles to respond to the calls from people on northbound LSD - jerry 101 - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 10:48 pm: In my hotel room in Milwaukee. Snow arrived late, heavy stuff didn’t start till 9-ish, I think. There was heavy wind earlier, and moderate snowfall around 7, when I went out to dinner. Got done with dinner at 8-ish, and walked back to my hotel. Snow had picked up a bit. Did a 90 degree turn in mid-air and landed pretty hard. No apparent damage, but trying to be cautious nonetheless. Looking outside now, and its a regular monsnow (or snowsoon, perhaps?). These milwaukee people are lightweights with the snow. They’re all taking the day off tomorrow. My client’s closing its offices all day. If I was in Chicago, I’m 100% sure I’d be in by 8:30 tomorrow. - jerry 101 - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 10:49 pm: By the way, any truth to the rumor that Pat Quinn actually called up the National Guard to invade Wisconsin tomorrow? - Anonymous - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 10:55 pm: “By the way, any truth to the rumor that Pat Quinn actually called up the National Guard to invade Wisconsin tomorrow?” I think the invasion is postponed until after the Super Bowl when we put the National Guard at border at Collinsville on I-55 and prevent the cheeseheads from using Illinois roads to return to their tundra. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Feb 1, 11 @ 11:39 pm: jerry, it’s called prepositioning assets. - Been There - Wednesday, Feb 2, 11 @ 12:12 am: ===jerry, it’s called prepositioning assets.=== I put my beers in the front of the fridge. Just in case. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Feb 2, 11 @ 12:58 am: That’s the spirit! 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