Winter Wonderland - February 2010

It is quite the winter wonderland outside today! Snow started falling Friday afternoon. We had about 2 inches in under 90 minutes, which is insane for around here. We picked up Luke from school a little early, trying to avoid the rush of people being let go early from work, and hunkered down for a weekend of being confined to the house. Well, not really. We had no intention of leaving the house by car. We weren't going to let that stop us from playing in the snow!

Luke started on the deck, as he wasn't sure about getting down in the yard.



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But we did finally coax him down, with a little help from Daddy.

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We had one happy kid by the time we came in!


You can see in that second photo after the video that the snow was still falling, and it continued to do so for several hours. By the time Luke was in bed, we had this!


That is about 3.5 inches (9 cm) of snow! All those footprints Luke made on the deck in the video now looked like this.


Not much to some of you, but typical snowfall for Atlanta (on the rare occasions that we have it) is 1-2 inches (3-5 cm), so not only is this well above the typical amount, it is also our second snowfall of the winter, which is very unusual. By the light of morning, it looked like a fairy tale outside! Here are some comparison shots of the front of the house:


I like these shots, too. Everything looks frosted, like something out of a movie.


Both the roof and the yard were several inches deep with snow.


And for everyone wondering why Atlanta and the rest of The South freaks out about snow, it's because temps don't get cold enough most of the winter to keep the snow from melting. The roads are too warm! So the first couple of hours of snowfall make the roads wet until they finally get cold enough to start sticking. Then temps fall below freezing overnight, and we're left with a nice layer of ice under all that snow that you just can't see until it's too late (and either your car is in the ditch, or your bum is on the ground). Like this, which is ice under the snow on our deck and the street in front of our house.


Repeat melt and re-freeze cycle for a few days, and the entire city shuts down. We don't have the equipment necessary to treat all of the roads, and I know that Friday night, even the sections that were treated were refreezing. It was a zoo out there! Even my friends in snow country say snow is fine but ice is not. We virtually never have one without the other because it doesn't get cold enough here. Most of the time, I am perfectly happy that it's not that cold! But when it snows, it's a nightmare for anyone trying to drive. I don't even bother trying; not sure if I'm more afraid of my lack of ice driving skills or the other idiots out there.

It sure is fun to play in, though!


Luke and DH made a couple of attempts at a snowman, but the snow was not very cooperative. It kept collapsing instead of compacting. It had been heavy and wet Friday, but I guess temps got cold enough overnight to dry it out a good bit.


We did end up with a Snow Luke, though, as his gloves got wet and snow started freezing to them.


And Luke had his first attempt at a snow angel.

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We thought it would show up better on the black asphalt of our driveway, but the snow wasn't quite deep enough, and it was very icy underneath, so it didn't turn out very well. Still, Luke thought it was fun enough to attempt it a few more times.

And DH did finally manage a couple of baby snowmen, just for Luke!


All in all, quite the enjoyable afternoon! I'm glad we went out in it before lunch, since most of the snow you see in the yard (like the photo of Luke and his tracks through the snow) was gone by evening due to the sun. There's still plenty of snow on the bushes and the houses, but most of the yards are clear. Technically the roads and driveways are clear of snow as well. They're just soaking wet and puddled, and temps are supposed to be in the 20s tonight. Looks like we'll be iced in most of tomorrow as well, at least until the highs kick in. It's supposed to be 45 and sunny on Sunday. Hopefully, the pavement will dry so that the roads are safe come Monday.

Currently feeling: flakey