More extreme weather (updated)

Pretty much everything in Jasper County will be closed today (Monday) and probably tomorrow (Tuesday) as well. The KV School system, the Rensselaer Central School system and St. Joseph's College all announced on Sunday that they would be closed today. There were some other organizations that announced delays, but I will be very surprised if those delays do not get turned into cancellations.

On Sunday the weather was warm enough to get out and see what was happening in the country. The few country roads I saw were mostly OK with patches of snow and ice on them. The east-west roads seemed to be better than the north-south roads, which had more drifting. Mattheson Street had some drifts that were about a foot deep and to get through them, one had to follow the ruts made by previous vehicles. However, this was on Sunday afternoon before the snow of the evening arrived, before the wind started howling, and before the temperatures began to tank. If the roads were iffy when the conditions were good, what will they be like today?

Many of the fields do not have much snow on them--it has blow away as it has fallen. Looking down the railroad tracks you could see how the snow had filled in behind the rail on the left and that there were places along the track that the wind had cleared of snow. It also looked like the snow was covering the tracks further down.

 Stay inside if you can today and tomorrow. The sheriff made an automated call late on Sunday saying that only emergency travel should be taking place on county roads. It is too dangerous to be driving unless you have a really good reason.

Parts of Morocco were losing power late on Saturday. Pray that Rensselaer does not.

Update: Last night the wind was howling so loudly that I had a hard time getting to sleep. It sounded as if it were trying to rip the windows off the house.

This morning we have another fine display of sundogs.

 This is from the City of Rensselaer:

The City of Rensselaer Sanitation Department has cancelled the Monday, January 27, 2014 trash route due to the extreme cold temperatures. The Monday route will be picked up on Wednesday, January 29 2014.
The City of Rensselaer Sanitation Department has also cancelled the Monday, January 27, 2014 curbside recycle route.
The route will be picked up on THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014.