Willow Street, shortly after 7 a.m. May 2. That’s my house on the right.
YOU WOULD GUESS, walking my neighborhood this morning, that this is March instead of May. I am living in a winter wonderland, if you want to put a positive spin on the fresh snow blanketing the landscape.
Our measurements showed seven inches. I expect we got closer to a a foot of snow since it began falling Wednesday afternoon.
An unofficial seven inches of snow have fallen here by measurement of the yardstick my husband thrust into the snow this morning. I expect we got more like 12 inches as much melted upon hitting the ground. I believe the old record for this date in Minnesota was three inches in 1946.
Owatonna, 15 miles to the south got 13 inches in this storm. Falling snow limited the time I spent outdoors with my camera this morning.
Schools are closed.
My husband blowing out our driveway.
It’s a mess out there.
A limb broke off my neighbor’s tree around 6 a.m., striking her house and then smashing onto her car, breaking the windshield. In this photo my husband had already sawed a portion of the limb off. We then pulled this remaining limb from her car so she could move it, before another limb fell.
Branches are down all over, including at my neighbor’s house across the street.
Look to the upper left in this photo and you’ll see one particular limb broken off and looming over my neighbor’s yard.
This shows the intersection right by my house and my husband blowing snow. Note the sagging utility lines.
Branches are broken and littering yards. Power lines are sagging from the weight of the heavy wet snow.
I opened the garage door this morning to this scene.
Cars are buried in driveways and residents are slogging through the snow with snowblowers.
Clearing our snow-covered driveway.
Our snowy backyard.
Note, again, the sagging power lines in this shot taken from my backyard looking toward my neighbor’s house across Willow Street.
Need I say more.
I want out.
JUST AS I WAS WRAPPING up this post, the snowplow barreled past my house, throwing the snow with such force that it blasted the side of our house and the bedroom window. I checked the window and it doesn’t appear to be broken.
UPDATE 3:55 P.M.: Tree service removal trucks and the buzz of chain saws have frequented my neighborhood this afternoon as clean up begins after the storm.
A tree service company arrived at my neighbor’s house across the street this afternoon to remove dangling limbs. That’s her car with the smashed windshield to the left in this photo. See my earlier photo of the car (above) when parked in her driveway this morning. The limb crashed onto her car at about 6 a.m.
Directly across Willow Street from my home, another neighbor had to deal with fallen branches and limbs in his yard.
A City of Faribault snowplow driver and a Thompson Tree Service worker confer along Willow Street this morning.
Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
You got what we had the day before… it is starting to melt again. My sympathies (or should I say ’empathies’?).
Thank you. Sorry to hear you got the same mess up in Canada. Perhaps you sent it our way?
🙂 … it’s tough sharing a continent. Do you have an update on your chairs?
Ha, I like your comment.
As for the chairs, no, nothing new to report. But I will check with a local upholsterer on foam. Thank you for asking.
Oy, vey, Audrey. Thinking about you all today.
Thank, Gretchen. Randy finally just left for work after digging out two neighbors and sawing that limb from our neighbor’s tree. See the new photo added to my post of a limb smashing the windshield on my neighbor’s car.
OH, man. I’ll check for sure. That was great that Randy could help out like that.
Yes, he is so good about helping neighbors. He texted work and told them he would be late, and he’s usually early to work. He finally left Faribault at 9 a.m.
It is pretty if only it was January 2nd. Sigh. It is still coming down here. Chris went to one of the plants and said it was pretty slick out—-schools are closed and it just looks like a winter wonderland. We will have to keep checking MNDOT—seems like once you go west a bit it is not too bad. To quote Dr. Seuss “I do not like it, Sam I Am.”
I was hoping the snow would not move as far south as Mason City. At least the snow has finally stopped falling here.
Still coming down here at 9…..hmmmmm.
I don’t even know what to say any more, Beth Ann. Except I totally understand your situation and misery.
Goodness Audrey. It looks like Christmas at your house. I hope the sun will soon
come out and melt it all. We didn’t get any snow here in Belview but we have had the
cold wind. I think Mother Nature is really mixed up this year! I hope when it gets nice out it won’t be as hot as it was last summer.
Keep your chin up, better days are sure to come!
DeLores
Thanks, DeLores. Chin up, then. Also, I appreciate your sw Minnesota weather report.
“Slogging” is such an appropriate word for getting through heavy, wet snow. Meanwhile, here in Arizona, it was a balmy 95 yesterday (and felt noticeably cooler after a couple days at 100-105)! I guess we pick our “poison.” Happy day!
Well, at least the weather is balmy somewhere…
Those 100-degree plus temps would be tough to handle also.
and after all that the snow plough comes through and makes even more of a mess. I think you should pack a bag and come out here for a few days!! c
That is, oh, so tempting to come visit you. The snow has stopped and the slightest bits of sunshine are filtering through the clouds. The day will get better. It just has to. At least we don’t have any branches/trees on our house, our vehicles, etc. I am trying to consider the positive.
WOW – the damage and destruction of tree limbs and branches!!! My parents are usually back by now in Southern MN, but are holding off until the weather is better. Winter Wonderland and/or Mother Nature has a strong hold on MN Winter – YIKES! Here’s to Staying Warm and Making the Best of It:)
Your parents may want to wait until say June to return to Minnesota. More snow/freezing rain in the forecast for the next several days. I’ve got my camera out and ready to shoot more of this unbelievable weather.
My parents are thinking mid-May unless it is still really bad. The in-laws are Up North, so waiting this year until mid-June. Last year the place my parents stayed half of it was under water because the river rised up.
Yes, flooding is always a concern with these late spring snowfalls added to a winter of above normal precip.
I’m having trouble even looking at it! Yuk!
How much did you get over in Waseca?
Seems to be about 10 inches here, school was 2 hours late. I think you got more, just saw a news report from Owatonna, lots of trees down too!
Trees and branches down here, too, and power out also for some in Faribault and the surrounding area.
NW Rochester (where I live) official snow fall as of 10am … 15.5 inches whoop whoop. My husband is our “snow blower” and he has decided to wait it out….ugh. The snow plows haven’t made it to our cul-de-sac or the street around here yet. To bad for your neighbor, ugh! I suspect a few more stories of fallen branches and power outages. Stay warm !
Dear Winter Lover Jackie,
I must ask, is this even too much winter for you?
Rochester got more than Faribault. Since we live along a major street, our road was plowed early. But so was the less-traveled side street. But, when the snowplow came by for another pass, the chunks of snow flew a long ways, blasting our house. I honestly thought perhaps a window got broken. Perhaps a reduced speed would be in order when houses are as near the street as mine. Here’s hoping you are dug out soon. At least I have power, unlike some parts of Faribault. For that I am thankful.
Well, as you know I do love WInter, but since it’s suppose to be spring, I would have to say lets get on to what season it’s suppose to be….spring! With that said I’m kind of giddy about all the snow today, I’m sure it’ll all be gone by Saturday, then I suppose we’ll have flooding. That sounds scary about the chunks of snow flying toward your house, yikes glad your windows survived!
OK, then, I’ll hop on over to your blog in a bit to see if you posted anything “giddy.”
Blech. I was all set to wake up to a similar scene here in the Twin Cities. We had huge snowflakes yesterday afternoon, but they didn’t stick around. The storm missed us. That heavy wet snow is awful stuff! Here’s to the next melt…..
Happy that majority of the snow missed the metro. I’m wondering now if I should wait to see if the rest of the snow melts from my sidewalk and driveway or pull on the boots and go out to shovel. I’ll wait a few hours.
This was a May Day for the record books! Our friends in Ft. Collins, Colorado, had temps of 72 degrees on the last day of April…then on the first day of May they got 16″ of snow! Your neighbors are lucky to have you and your husband helping them out.
Oh, my, that’s quite a switch from 72 to snow the next day. Yikes. Sounds worse than here in southeastern Minnesota.
When I lived in MN, I remember a snowfall in Clarissa, MN back in the 1960s…in early June. About two inches…and was gone in about 4 hours. So even though y’all (I’m in GA) got a late spring snow, it has happened even later. Mosquitos are on their way!
Thanks for the history lesson and (ahem) encouragement, Brad.
Unbelievable is right! It’s like February 82nd or something like that…not May 2…I hope it doesn’t last long for you.
Laughing out loud here. February 82nd, indeed. Already much of the snow has melted. But I here a mixed bag of precip is in store for tomorrow morning.
I have tried to put words together to comment all afternoon but this weather is just…….well…..just TOO MUCH!!! I left for the pharmacy (fill in today) in Winona a bit before 8 this a.m………65 min. later I arrived….32 of the ugliest miles I remember driving in all the years I worked there!!! Even now…..it looks like a blizzard outside…..May, horizontal snow-definitely NOT a “good thing” 😦
Oh, wow, Doreen, that drive to Winona sounds absolutely horrible. Very thankful you made it safely there and back home. Are you saying that snow is falling right this minute in Houston?
Yes, unfortunately! A weather advisory just was issued…1 to 3″ snow/freezing rain now through tonight and another 1 to 3″ of same tomorrow morning! Totally whacko!!!!! and major UGH!
I am almost at a loss for words. Just woke up to snow falling once again in Faribault.
It is, truly, a sad boat we are all in!!!! Guess this takes care of the ‘drought’, eh?
Yes, the snow is getting heavier with large flakes falling now. My office blinds are closed so I had to walk into the living room to check out the weather. I wonder if I should just keep the blinds closed. Will that help?
Maybe….and plug your ears and la-la-la-la-la………;-)
I’ll try that approach. So the plugging of ears would be to keep out the sound of the snowplow scraping the pavement and throwing chunks of ice and snow against my house? Snow isn’t sticking to the ground, meaning not plowing or shoveling. Yet.
About to head out to Spring Grove to deliver some quilts. Roads are wet but the ridge roads/hills are treacherous and those are the ones I take! AWD is getting too much of a workout!!!
Be careful.
Oh my Gosh. In Finland in May it happens very seldom. On the first May our nearby lake was finally free from ice.
May snowfall in Minnesota is rare also. Yesterday Blooming Prairie, a community about 30 miles to the south of Faribault, broke the state record of 12 inches of snow on May 2 with 18 inches of snow. Unbelievable. I was incorrect on that previous three-inch record. That, I think, was for the Twin Cities and not the entire state.