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I don't know if it was 2014 or 2015 ( I think 2015) but I had to venture to the suburbs of Detroit in January to pick up a car I bought on Ebay (big mistake, long story). Left Virginia at about 6 pm. Cold as can be and a lot of snow (for us) on the ground. Drove through the night and stopped at a rest area on 75 South of Detroit. It was like 8 below zero and the wind was whipping. When I went to load the car on the trailer that morning about 10 there was snow everywhere (at least a foot) although the roads were cleared. I have never been colder in my life. Feet went numb after 10 minutes or so. It was still 4 below at that point. Driving home, the wind on 75 was blowing directly across the highway, pushing the snow onto the road and making the truck and trailer wallow around in a most disconcerting way. I had no confidence driving faster than about 55 and cars and semi's were just blowing past me. That was one of the most stressed driving experiences I've had.

That whole trip was a nightmare. Driving through snow covered West Virginia roads was the icing on the crapcake. :) If that wasn't considered a bad winter (here in VA just a few days of that would make it a bad winter) I don't want to know what a bad Michigan winter is.
This is what a bad winter in MI is. Ground cover was never less than 24” for 3 consecutive months. 120” of snow that winter. The picture with the shovel is the roof of my barn.

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That horse is thinking, "Lizer, get me the hell out of here!" As for the snow.......no thank you. Ughh. That's crazy all the snow on that roof. Did you shovel it all off? That would be a huge amount of work. All day or longer I bet.
 
That horse is thinking, "Lizer, get me the hell out of here!" As for the snow.......no thank you. Ughh. That's crazy all the snow on that roof. Did you shovel it all off? That would be a huge amount of work. All day or longer I bet.
That picture was taken exactly 11 years ago to this day. Weird. 2014 was an awful winter. Worst one of my life, it was just absolutely exasperating. Being just 40 miles east of Lake Michigan we get lake effect snow. You know what though, it’s never done that since. Winters have been warmer and mild.

I spent about an hour cleaning that snow off the roof. That barn had 8 foot sidewalls and it sits next to my garage with a 3’ alley between them. I filled that entire alley with snow right up to the roof and that’s when I stopped. Nowhere else to put the snow! First time I’ve ever been able to walk right off a roof.

Fortunately I’ve got the equipment to move snow and in my new shop (which is now where that barn used to be) it sits at 55 degrees ready to go on a heated slab.

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Send all the snow my way please, I can't ever get enough of that white gold!! And the winter of 2013-14 was one of the greatest for snowmobilers.
 

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Southern Mi in the middle. We have 1" of snow and 4 degrees this morning. Lake effect snow dies before it hits us. That is great as a shovel doesn't fit in my hands very well. I can handle cold spraying pretty well, but I'd really cool the shop if I had to run the booth this morning. We've had a mild winter so far, plowed once so far. I'll take it, the bad thing is I can't remember the last time the sun was out. That's the pisser around here.
 
Last bad winter we had was in 2014, which was awful.
I believe that was '13-14 winter. I lived in West Branch at the time. something like 25 consecutive days temps didn't get out of single digits. I lived at the end of a dead end street right in town. city worker came knocking on my door to inform me I wouldnt have water for a bit as there was a water main break down the road. had to dig down 8 feet. frost was down 6 feet.
lot of snow that year. I had an 18 HP garden tractor that I plowed the 5 or so driveways at the end of the street with. I didn't want to be "that guy" so didn't just push the snow into the road for the city plow. I was running out of room for snow.
fortunately I had an empty lot next to me that the city used to turn around in. plow truck driver stopped one day and said just push it into the road and he'd take care of it.

down in metro Detroit quite a few water lines were freezing and breaking. my niece bought a new house 2013, had a pipe burst, and a bit of a basement flood. company that came to take care of is said they'll get it dry and get the pipe repiared but it was gonna be a bit before they could get in for the repair work as there were a LOT of homes and businesses with the same issue.

West metro Detroit now- commerce twp to be precise. its cold but I'm kinda likin the lack of snow.
 
Lots of lower MI folks on here. Fraser in the house! The only thing I like about the snow is that it seals the air leaks around my garage doors!
 
wild. its sunny but cold cold here. 10 this morning. Good day to spray some epoxy!
 
This was last year about this time, to bad it was basically the only snow we received all winter. My driveway is just shy of 1000' back of the road so I had fun plowing one time last year. I'm up about 30 miles north of Grand Rapids.
 

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I remember as a 9 year old kid coming from Dickinson Texas to Duxbury Mass back in 1980. It was brutally cold for that area. Normally the Atlantic ocean moderated the temps but Christmas of 1980 was one to remember. On the 23rd we had 18 inches of snow (a lot for Duxbury) We had a chimney fire Christmas Eve at about 10 pm. It was 2 or 3 below, and the flame shooting out of the chimney was pure blue and well over a foot high. Made a noise I'll never forget as well. Kind of a roar. My Dad instructed me to get the garden hose and hook it up to the spigot outside. We had just gotten town water and had a pull spigot hooked up at the termination point.

He propped a ladder up against a section of the house climbed up and sprayed the water so it was going into the chimney. How it didn't freeze I don't know. Thankfully (to God) it went out. On the chimney walls on the interior of the house, multiple layers of wallpaper (it was a very old house, built 1740's) had started to catch fire. A few more minutes and likely the house would have burnt down. Only reason it went out I think is God showed some mercy to our family. A garden hose should not have been able to put it out, and in those temps it should have frozen and stopped flowing almost immediately.

Next day (Christmas) the wind was blowing and gusting over 30-45 mph. It didn't get above zero. I shoveled the driveway by hand on Christmas Eve (as a 9 year old) and had to do it again on Christmas because my Grandma was coming, and the wind blew the snow back into the driveway. Woke up Christmas morning to snow on my bed where it blew in around the window. When we sat down for Christmas dinner the wind was blowing so hard, and that old house so drafty, that it blew out the candles my Mom had lit on the table. My Dad prayed his usual long prayer and when he was finished dinner was cold.

To give this further context, this house which had been in my family only since it was built in the 1740's had no indoor plumbing. Try taking a deuce in the outhouse in subzero cold. Although it did help with the smell. And to make it worse, my Dad thought it would be cool to use the wood(!) cookstove that my Great Grandmother used. (She was old New England). My Mom cooked Christmas dinner on the wood cookstove bless her heart. That was a rough winter and a rough adjustment for me. I loathe winter really. Give me a 95 degree day anytime.

PS shortly after this my Mom under threat of divorcing my Dad got him to get a modern stove for the kitchen. :)
 
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We got 9" of snow during the last storm (not counting the freezing rain in between) and now we have from 3" to 6" coming tomorrow. The temps have been way below normal and will be for at least seven days according to the extended forecast. I know for some people, 9" of snow isn't very much but it is for my area.

We don't normally get a lot of snow in the area I'm in (just south of Louisville, Ky.) but ever so often we get blasted like we did last weekend. We might go years without a major storm and then all of a sudden we get blasted. It's been this way all of my life and I ain't no spring chicken. We always get cold enough for snow but things very seldom line up for a big storm.
 
Yesterday, sunny and 50 degrees.
Today:


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We live at 4400' elevation. Tomorrow we need to drive to Flagstaff for my wife's doctor's appointment. That's 2600' higher than we are and 3" forecast for today and up to 3" for tomorrow. :(
 
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