In the DC area we live right at the ice-snow line. North and west of us they get snow. South and east of us they get rain. Where we live we get the ugly, nasty mixture of sleet and freezing rain cutely referred to as “wintry mix.” Heavy ice accumulates on power lines and trees. Sometimes at my house the power goes out for 36 hours or more.
So they didn’t call off school this morning, but they sent us home two hours early. My commute home, which normally takes about 40 minutes, was well over an hour.
Some places get real blizzards, like in this video by a Canadian graduate student. Not us. We get slush. And then a hard freeze.
I want snow. Here in Ottawa it’s only about 4 or 5 inches deep. The ski trails in the Gatineau Park on the Quebec side are pounded hard and strewn with gravel. By now we usually have two feet or so. I heard that Oswego NY got TEN FEET! (can this be true? do they have ski trails?)
Charles, we had temperatures in the 70 degree range (Fahrenheit) in January, and we thought we’d never see any winter weather.
I finally walked outside about an hour ago, to bring in the newspaper (that never arrived). This really is several inches of icy crunchiness. My school district has cancelled classes tomorrow as well (already, before noon the day before).
So I guess we’ve had our snow now.