Not A Fit Night Out For Man Nor Beast

Sustained north winds of 30-40 mph blast Noelridge Christian Church, 7111 C Avenue NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with snow around 9:45 PM, Tuesday, February 1, 2011. A blizzard was in progress here as it was throughout much of the Midwest, wreaking havoc and costing millions of dollars in damages. Despite the conditions that prevailed--temperatures in the teens and subzero wind chills--I was amazed at how quickly my exposed fingers became painfully numb on my camera's shutter button in the time duration of less than 30 seconds it took to shoot my pictures. The culprit of all this mess was an intense, heavily moisture-laden low pressure system moving on a NE track from east Texas to Ohio. In Cedar Rapids, snow fell from early Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning (Feb. 2), dropping about 13 inches of the white stuff on the city. Trailing the winter storm was high pressure, bringing clear skies, lofty barometer readings (30.50-plus inHg in C.R.) and cold temperatures. By 7:00 AM, Thursday, February 3, temperatures had bottomed out at a frigid -9 degrees F. This image of the church building looks northeast, almost directly into the "teeth" of the wind.