The snow began falling early on tomorrow's date and didn't stop for at least 30 hours. Moisture-laden air pouring up from Texas gave the precipitation the consistency of wet sand; when it hardened, it created an armored shell over all it touched. Vegetation near the waterfront started looking like it was covered with icy, dripping candle wax.
Although a total of 30-plus inches is reported to have descended, ferocious winds shaped the snow into massive dunes that quickly eliminated the possibility of travel. Bus service ground to a halt. One Chicago-bound train stalled in drift that's said to have measured 30 feet high.
"Nothing moved except by foot for three days," recalls one Marquette County resident in meteorologist Karl Bohnak's engaging book, So Cold a Sky: Upper Michigan Weather Stories. "The people that came walking could reach the telephone wires with their hands."
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