Two weekends ago my friend and I saw a report of Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings being spotted in some farm fields just outside our city, so we drove out to that area to see if we could find them. I saw Snow Buntings for the first time in my life last winter, and I’ve never seen a Lapland Longspur, so I was excited.
As we reached the outskirts of the city heading north I said, “Wow! Looks like a snow squall ahead!” We had just left sunny skies moments earlier.
Our turn onto a county road arrived before we drove into that squall, but now heading west we could see the mini storm storm swallowing up the countryside from our right.
In a little over a mile we reached a country church, and I asked my friend to pull over in the parking lot so we could watch the snow overtake us. Within a minute it went from a cloudy day to a full-on snowstorm.
The wind whipped little mini tornadoes of snow around us as the visibility continued to drop.
Intrigued by this wacky weather and knowing the stretch of road where the birds were spotted was very short, we decided to venture cautiously into the squall.
We were driving about 15 miles per hour and thankfully the stretch of road we were on was mostly flat.
It was so weird to think that 15 minutes earlier we were under blue skies!
When we got to the end of the half-mile-long road, we decided to turn around and go back the way we came because we knew what the terrain was like and we could stop off in the church parking lot again if things got too out of hand.
Five minutes later we were back at the church and visibility was improving.
At least a quarter-inch of snow had fallen in just 10 minutes, and we decided just in case things got icy we would drive back to the better-maintained main highway instead of continuing to look for our birds.
Soon blue sky appeared and you could see the squall from behind.
We couldn’t resist and circled back around to that stretch of road we drove on during the snow squall. It looked a completely different day!
Do you see what we saw? Yes, another squall approaching from the north! We decided one was enough and we headed for home.