The Colorado Christmas Blizzard of 2006

Keah Schuenemann in Boulder, Colorado

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

I woke up early to give my 8:00 A.M. ATOC 1050 final and there was only about an inch of snow. Mid-final it started snowing again. You could see the upslope kick in out the window and the snow hasn’t stopped. My students informed me that their flights had been canceled for later that day. The whole city is shut down except CU. We're still giving finals with or without our professors who don't live in Boulder and can't make it to campus. Remember folks, this isn't the Midwest, this is Boulder... there's only a few snowplows that are no where to be found and maybe every other house owns one snow shovel, but never uses them. Most of the population comes from warmer climates and aside from the skiers, some don't even know what snow tires are, much less know how to keep from rear ending the person in front of them. Usually big snows here melt within 24 hours, so no one bothers to clean it up. This time things will be different. I'm glad to say I'm here for this. By all meteorological logic, this shouldn't be taking place. The reason? The locations with the most weather weenies usually never get the fun weather. I've had to hear about the big storm of '02 (03?) that buried Boulder in 2-3 feet of snow. Luckily I can say that I was around for this one! The airport is closed and we're all stranded here until Friday. I don't mind... I'm done with finals, grades are turned in, I have my Christmas lights on, and I'm watching the snow.

Movie: Watching the snow

Movie: Watching the snow by the creek

Thursday afternoon. See that median-looking thing on University there? There's actually not a median there, but the plows somehow managed to make one out of snow.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Well it looks like we got about 2 feet total. I woke up at noon because it was my first day off, plus I'm sick as a dog, to a phone call from a friend telling me the airport is closed until noon on Friday. My flight? 10AM Friday. Yes, my flight was canceled. I managed to get through to United and they got me on the next open seat home... not until Christmas night at 7PM. My huge Catholic, Wisconsin family celebrates Christmas Eve at Grandma's and that’s not something you want to miss! I asked if they could get to me to Madison or Chicago instead, everything was booked solid. The airport closed Wednesday at noon and being closed for 48 hours means that they have thousands of people rebooking, trying to get home for Christmas. After calling my parents and feeling helpless, I called a travel agent in WI to get some advice. He said that I probably shouldn't pay $1000 for a flight home because they'd likely just bump me anyways (not that I was about to fork over a total of $1500 just to get home for Christmas). I was bummed. I went through the list of people I know from the Midwest in my head. There's surprisingly a ton of us out here in Boulder. Some were already home, some weren't going. I called Mark (in my program, from MN). His flight was also canceled. Driving had crossed his mind, he'd keep me posted. I didn't want to have a car in WI because then I'd have to drive it back, rather than hopping on my plane back on the 2nd. Mark found a random flight to MN for $193. I called that airline asking if they'd bump me if I bought it. They said if I paid for it, I'd be guaranteed a seat. I bought it. I will supposedly get in to MN Saturday night at 8pm.

I called my brother Tyler, who luckily hasn't driven home for Christmas yet, and he agreed to drive from La Crosse to Minneapolis (3 hours) to come get me Saturday night, then we'd drive home to Fond du Lac together that same night (6 hour drive). My parents rock and they said that they'd come get me if Tyler wouldn't. I love my family.

The funny part of this is that at about noon today in Boulder, the sun came out and began melting some of the snow. Roads are cleaner than they are when we get a few inches, people have shoveled their sidewalks, and the frat boys are out and about shoveling people's cars out of snow banks created by the plows on the streets. Starbucks was closed. Most places are. CU never closed, but is delaying graduation ceremonies by a whole 2 hours tomorrow, even though people still had to take their finals on time when it was ACTUALLY SNOWING.

So why is the airport still closed 24 hours after the sun came out in Boulder? Apparently they still had some flurries this afternoon and the folks that run the snowplows said it's not worth plowing because the snow keeps drifting back onto the runways. Sounds like 15-20mph gusts at the airport currently. You KNOW if this happened in Chicago or New York that the airport would still be running.

For those of you unfamiliar with Colorado... everyone seems to think that I live IN the mountains because I live in Colorado. This isn't the case. Colorado has mountains in the middle and Denver and Boulder are just east of the mountains. Boulder is right up against them. The mountains get snow like this all the time, so it's not a big deal for them. Denver and Boulder get an event like this once every 5 years or so. We usually get snow in the spring time and it usually melts 24 hours later. Everything is shut down. It's rather amusing actually.

I guess I'll dig my car out tomorrow and get some christmas shopping done since I have an extra day.
I'll be home for Christmas!!!
_______________________

Well, here's what REALLY happened after writing that last excerpt. Friday I dug my car out, which took about a half an hour and proceeded to head to the Flatiron mall to get christmas presents. Any road without a yellow line down the middle was 100% unplowed. There were ruts about a foot deep and even with my 4 wheel drive on, I had a hard time steering. I get off the highway to the mall and realize the entire mall parking lot is in one giant gridlock (this mall is massive... maybe on the order of a Milwaukee 2 floor mall). I get off the highway and it literally took me an entire hour just to get around the mall and right back onto the highway. Fun. I guess no one was getting any Christmas presents from me!

Saturday morning my dad wakes me up with a phone call saying that he'd rather not drive to MN in the middle of the night to pick me up and my brother was too busy and tired and sick to come get me. I needed to find a flight from MN to Milwaukee in the middle of the night. I did. I then get a call telling me I need to be at the airport 4 hours early to get through security. I had about 20 minutes to shower, pack, and catch the bus.

On the way to the bus I had to drag my suitcase through the 2 feet of snow, actually fell in a snow bank at the intersection and got my pants dirty, had to work my way around 6 paramedics blocking the sidewalk, but JUST made it to the bus, which was already almost full after its first stop.

I get to the airport and the sun country line was short and the lady asked which flight I was on, I told her the 5:30 one... she acted like I was late and pushed me to the front of the line (it was maybe 1:30). 10 minutes later I'd understand why...

I go to the bathroom (smartest thing I ever did) and proceeded to the security line. Now when I entered the airport from the bus I had noticed this annoying line that I had to walk through to get my ticket, but thought it was a line for lost luggage or something. I go down to the security area and the line is past the roped area, so I figure I'd turn the corner and find the end of the line. I turn left and the line doesn't seem to have an end. I walk and walk, about 1/4 of the way around the airport I start laughing and break out the video camera. The line 1 still hadn't ended when I got to the second security area. Now there were 2 lines, security area 1 (outside line), and security area 2 (inside line). I find the end of line 1 literally about 200 feet from where I started (had I walked right instead of following the line, I would have ran right into the end of it). The inside line ended about 50 feet further and since I knew that it only went half as far, I jumped in that one! The man at the end of the line carrying the sign saying "this is the end of the line" was my hero. Santa was also there handing out candy canes. The line went fast. I made it to my terminal, got a breakfast/lunch/dinner burrito (only meal of the day), and found my flight was delayed an hour. Luckily in my last 30 minutes waiting for my plane, I ran into Mark Seefeldt, who entertained me until I left. Several other friends were in the airport, but at the other concourses.

Movie: Denver airport security line

12/23/06 afternoon. The front of the security line... this gives you an idea of about how large the denver airport is. There are two security lines on either end of the main terminal, both the same size. The whole thing is like a huge rectangle and I'm standing looking over about 1/4 of the rectangle. At this point I didn't realize that the security line actually wrapped around the entire airport beyond these roped lines.

In the security line... sort of. To get the full affect of this, you're going to have to see my video:

Abandoned luggage.

I got to MN with only a 45 minute window before my next flight. I came in on the Humphrey terminal and had to be at the Lindberg one. I was freaking out over the phone to my mom and these AMAZING girls heard me and offered to help. One of them was catching another flight too and needed to go through the same process I was. One of the girls' perfect fiance picked us up after we got our luggage, drove us about 5 miles to the other terminal where we re-checked our luggage, went through a short security line, and power walked to our gates (I swear mine was about a mile walk). I made it with about 5 minutes to spare before my flight boarded and took off to MKE.

Finally I arrive in MKE at about 1AM Christmas Eve and my parents had been partying with all of my cousins, aunts, and uncles at my grandma's before picking me up.... hence the interesting apparel. They even brought me some carrots and dip to eat in the car on the ride home. Mmm.

My parents greeted me there at about 1AM. I had left my house at 12 noon on the 23rd and got home to Fond du Lac around 2AM Christmas eve.

Thank God for my ipod or I think I would have gone insane from all of the noise... you could just FEEL the stress in the air!

Christmas was a good time, so was seeing all of my Fondy friends and family, so was New Years. Seriously though... next time I'm in this situation, I'm driving.

This was the position my car sat in while I was gone for break...

I'm back in Boulder and guess what? While I was gone they got another 16 inches of snow (I think) and my car got ran into at least twice! My front bumper got ripped off half way, pannels dented, and even my tail light cracked. I guess our lot was one big ice sheet and everyone trying to turn the corner at the end of the lot fishtailed into my car or close to it. I'm not too happy, but at least the guy who ripped off my bumper with a Uhaul filed a police report. So I haven't been to a real grocery store since before finals... then I was snowed in... now my car is non-driveable. I've been living off of the organic food store behind my apartment building and am racking up quite the bill!

In the words of Chevy Chase: Hallelujah. Holy shit. Where's the Tylenol?

If after all of this, anyone expects me to leave Boulder before the weddings and conferences this summer, you're crazy. I'm here and I'm not so much as getting on a bus if I can help it.

Forecast calls for more snow tomorrow night. We're currently at about 44 inches for the season. If we continue at this rate we'll break some records for sure.

I believe we ended the season about 20 inches short of the all time Boulder record.