As anyone who lives in the Mid-Atlantic knows, the area received an inordinate amount of snow. Pittsburgh received approximately 21 inches, although outside my door, the snowfall was slightly more than two feet in height. We were actually supposed to receive "only" eight to twelve inches of snow upon initial forecasts, but the total quickly surpassed that. This is actually less than Baltimore, DC, Philadelphia, and other areas, but it's still enough to shut down the city.

My arms are still sore from shoveling yesterday, but I'm glad I was able to move some of the snow yesterday, because between the frigid temperatures and the heavy snow, moving it today over a day after it had fallen, would have been maddening. Of course the roads are so messed up the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania -- and Allegheny county is under a state of emergency for the entire week. The media talking heads are telling us to stay off the roads unless we happen to be first responders, utility workers, or have a genuine emergency. Yesterday, everything shut down, and , and this morning most churches were closed, due to both the snowfall and the frigid cold that followed. For once, I was lucky enough for my electricity to only wane and blip (although my cable was another story). While certain establishments have begun to reopen, with the local public school closures, it's clear that it will be a while before everything gets back to normal.

I'm actually quite bummed by this, because I actually planned to get out of the house shortly before the next episode of Peyton Manning: the Series (a.k.a. Super Bowl XLV). Now, with all of the networks ceding the night to CBS, by default, there's not much else on TV, so I might as well watch the game.

Also, I worry that this is going to have a bigger impact in the snow covered areas than is immediately apparent. As much as the Blizzard of 1993 is remembered, this is as much for wide-berth as its totals. It's easily forgotten that blizzard occurred in March, and that the snow began to melt in a few days. This storm occurred in February, one of the coldest parts of winter. This snow, much of it yet to shoveled, is going to be around for a while, and the weather forecasters are predicting a few more inches to fall Tuesday and Wednesday. Given that this storm was initially only supposed to deposit around foot for western Pennsylvania, I have little faith in these projections.

I laughed at Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow on an overcast day, but the groundhog was right.