Winter Storm Pandora

We've got another cold snap here (dramatically named, as above).  Freezing temperatures and 6" of snow during the day on Saturday.  On Friday, temperatures dropped to lows of 1°F (-17°C), with windchills even colder.  They even put out frostbite warnings and advised against going outside with exposed skin!  The weird thing for us is the complete lack of frost, and very little ice, because it's so dry.  Just bitingly cold winds.  (And lots of static everywhere - the poor cats get electric shocks from everything they touch at the moment!)

 

And it's not just the North East of the US affected - the cold spell is almost country-wide, with even Texas suffering from ice and freezing rain.  Allegedly only Florida and Hawaii have escaped the icy cold.  There are lots of photos on the web of beautiful natural ice sculptures, and even Niagra Falls has almost frozen over.  Ironically, Alaska is having flood problems because they have too much rain...

 

Saturday started out clear and relatively mild - a sign that snow was probably due.  It started earlier than forecast too, about mid-morning, and seemed to catch a few people unawares as the roads were fairly busy.  Within half an hour it was settling on the car and the roads were slick and slippery - not fun to drive on.  There's also a strange phenomenon when driving in the (dry) snow - the wind and traffic blows it in undulating waves across the roads, which becomes almost hypnotic at times -  you have to really concentrate on the traffic ahead and not on the pretty patterns!

It continued for most of the day, and by evening there was a good 6" and the side roads were covered.  It looks very pretty across the expanse of our back yard, and is only spoilt by one set of footprints where I've left food for the birds.  Plus there are various animal tracks across the middle - probably the local cat, but I like to think it might be the racoons again!  In the evening, there was a strange half-light all night, presumably moonlight reflected from all the snow-covered surfaces.

 

Waking up on Sunday morning, the snow ploughs had already been out, so the roads were relatively clear again.  Sunday was a beautiful day, and surprisingly mild, even warm if you found a sunbeam to bask in.  Clearing the driveway took a concerted effort from the two of us, but at least made up for the fact that we hadn't been to the gym the day before!

 

I'd like to show some pretty snowy pictures from the local area, but it's just too cosy indoors to venture out very far at the moment.  Apparently there's another cold spell on the way, and things don't really start turning spring-like until at least April...