Blizzard warnings for areas of Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa .

yep looks like it could get bad - glad I'm off next two days
Winter Storm Warning in Eastern Missouri

 

I usually don't get further West then day trips to Des Moines but sounds like this was a good time for dispatch to send me down to Kentucky.

 

My second load for today fell thru and tomorrow morning's pick up (the Kentucky run) was ready early so I grabbed it and beat feet. Sitting in a hotel just outside of Lexington right now.

 

We expect high winds here in Arkansas and not really part of the storm itself thankfully. But where we are, the atmosphere is being pulled in with great force to feed this monster moving eastward. And so we will have a few hours of wind enough to knock down big rigs in Arkansas around sunset tomorrow (Sunday) give or take a little bit.

We don't get winds without a storm nearby usually that often. But when we do, that means whatever is to the north of us is a nice storm and not to be fooled with.

I don't mind blizzard conditions. It's when the white outs show up that it becomes a real problem. Thankfully I have had not too many of those in trucking. And only one storm with a powerful Nor'easter that covered a friends 18 wheeler in approx 40 feet plus drift. Took him a better part of a day to get that thing out. Now why would management expect him to get anywhere with it when our region was buried in 60 foot drifts covering two story houses is beyond me. We had three roads opened by front end loaders meaning to reach our town you had to drive between snow walls 10 feet wide which meant a little workaround in two way traffic by taking turns to get around each other.

Sometimes when you have a good storm, find a nice truckstop and settle in a while. Make a new delivery appointment if need be. No need to go out there and endanger yourself, the rig and the load. It can wait a while until this too passes.

 

You have about until 3 am for Ottumwa conditions to become blizzard sunday morning (About 7 hours or so) to get clear of Des Moines. And indeed out of Iowa before this thing hits there.