Over the last couple of days, Chicago received 15-20 inches of snow from a massive storm spread across most of North America. For some great s images of its breadth, go here or here. For the very local view of my front entry, see above. Happily, the snow is really not a big deal for the well since our area has plenty of snow plows that work wonders if everyone has the brains to stay ofdf the roads for a day.
The storm here is a lightweight to cyclone Yasi that hit Australia with 155 mph winds. Go here for stunning images from the satellites, and more data than any one human can digest. Australia certainly has had a tough 2011 weather-wise.