First Winter Weather; 50-Vehicle Pile-Up on I-94; Nobody Hurt

Sunday, November 20, 2011. Sounds like some folks weren't quite ready for winter driving:

"Saturday's wintry weather is wreaking havoc on some of Minnesota's major roads.

"The Minnesota State Patrol said westbound Interstate 94 near St. Cloud closed Saturday afternoon due to several crashes. The closure spread from St. Cloud to Albany and Freeport. The interstate was closed around 3 p.m. and reopened at 4 p.m. ..."
(I-94 Reopened Near St. Cloud: State Patrol," CBS Minnesota (November 19, 2011))

I heard that about 50 vehicles were involved in the Albany-to-Freeport pile-up. Definitely not good. That CBS Minnesota article has more about yesterday's weather and traffic, and says we had 200 crashes in the state yesterday. The good news is that apparently nobody got seriously hurt: or killed.

Remember that photo I showed, last week? The one that showed a little bit of snow from a Thursday-morning shower?


Snow on the ground, Thursday morning: not much; and gone by the end of the day. November 10, 2011.

We've got a lot more than that, now. This isn't official, but I'm pretty sure Sauk Centre got four inches by the time the snow stopped.


Green grass, and folks already have Christmas decorations out? Maybe they heard the weather forecast. November 18, 2011.


An inflatable turkey. There's a joke about low-calorie holiday eating somewhere here: but I can't quite find it. November 18, 2011.

I spent as much of Saturday inside as I could. Which is saying something, since I generally am out grilling burgers around noon on weekends. It wasn't entirely the weather: I'm not a 40-year-old kid any more, and decided to be sensible.


Cat. Window. Snow outside. "Tranquil" - that's the word I wanted. November 19, 2011.


Mid-afternoon in the back yard. It's Minnesota, so we might be using that table again by next Thursday. November 19, 2011.


Walmart parking lot, Saturday afternoon. Between plows and wind, there wasn't all that much snow to deal with. November 19, 2011.

Today was a beautiful wintry day: bright blue sky, sparkling snow, the works. If the five-day forecast is even close to accurate, that's going to change pretty soon. Which is no surprise. It's like you've heard before: In Minnesota, we don't have climate. We have weather.

Synchronizing Sirens in Sauk Centre

Sauk Centre's emergency sirens go off at 1:00 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month. Sometimes they're off by a minute or so: but it's a highly predictable event.

Today's Wednesday, but it's the third Wednesday in November. Which is why I wondered why I'd been hearing the emergency sirens, off and on, through the day.

Another series of wails went up a few minutes ago, and my curiosity got the better of me. I called City Hall and asked 'what's with the sirens?'

There's a perfectly reasonable explanation. They're "synchronizing the sirens," going around town and setting them off: one at a time. I'm not sure why they need to be synchronized, and why that's how it's done: but it seems like a reasonable explanation.

On the other hand, this sort of thing could accidentally train folks to ignore the sirens. On the other-other hand, we're a pretty smart bunch of folks: I figured out that the weather didn't look threatening; and my neighbors probably did, too.

Related posts:

• "Sauk Centre Storm July 10: No Power, No Internet, No Injuries"
  (July 12, 2011)
• "Lightning Strike and an Emergency Siren"
  (August 13, 2010)
• "Tornado Warning and Sinclair Lewis Days"
  (July 14, 2010)
• "Accident Near Wal-Mart, Sirens, and Snow in May"
  (May 5, 2010)