Wildly Unpredictable Winter Weather

Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again.
-Bill Morgan, Jr.

Having lived in Georgia for the last twenty years, I have learned to accept that there is only one predictable truth about winters in Georgia:

Winters in Georgia are entirely and quite wildly unpredictable!

 

Friday  
Having said that over and over again, even people who have lived here all their lives still do not seem to understand and accept the simplicity of this inerrant truth. This is why I always expect any winter front to be far worse than any of the predictions.

We were told up to three days ago that it might snow and that we might see accumulation of up to an inch on our decks and in the grass, a dusting perhaps. (We were also told that about a week ago and all we got was some rain.)

Two days ago that changed to possibly four inches of snow. The state had all bridges and overpasses prepared ahead of time. Georgia officials stepped up our winter weather preparedness ever since the terrible fiasco in January 2014: When it Snows in Georgia.

In the dark before the dawning day, it started with a winter mix of sleet and rain. I know because my Mishka woke me far too early for his morning outing and we were out in it. There already was some slippery slush on the steps but nothing that was not easily displaced by my low tread garden boots. (Do not let that sweet innocent look fool you. He is a just wanted to jump back into the snow after we just got him out of it.)

A friend in Arizona, who originally lived in Pennsylvania and may be missing those snowy winters, texted me to ask if we were snowed in yet. I texted back that here it is more about being "iced" in, because just few inches of accumulated snow ends up causing serious icy conditions, but I forgot that one should never say never in Georgia about winter storms.

The wintry mix changed to huge fluffy clumps of snow and by the end of the morning we had that four inches, but it was still snowing. The schools decided to end the day before noon.

The temperature was above freezing but the large fluffy flakes outpaced the melting of the fallen come-befores and my little world was blanketed in a wondrous white. We had a power outage for about two hours and then flickering in the power for about another 24 hours. Trees bowed under the unfamiliar weight and many lost branches, split, and fell over exposing the roots even though there was no wind.

The picture above is pointed in the same direction as the one below. You can see that our neighbor's tree split off a large branch. Those types of trees are notorious for splitting even with just heavy rains or a little wind when they are 20 years old. We just cut ours down a few weeks ago. (Yeah, I really have been doing other things when I have not been blogging.)

Since it was just snow and not ice, it probably would have been better if we had some wind that would have blown the snow off of the trees. So if you can imagine seeing six inches height of wet snow catching more flakes on the thinnest of branches, you can understand how amazingly different everything appeared to us. Well, not entirely because...it did not stop snowing at six inches. I measured it at about nine inches at dinner time and it apparently has continued to snow all night.

Saturday
Although my favored husband did make it home the night before, having to make a couple of detours around jack-knifed semi-trucks and accidents and working around vehicles parked on the side or the road or half in the ditch, Mishka decided to let him sleep and put his sweet wet nose in my face to say that I was the lucky pick again for his early morning outing. Mishka has discovered that he loves, loves, loves snow!

 

I measured and the snow was at twelve inches! TWELVE! (That's 30 centimeters for my metric friends.)

The temperature was just at freezing and it was predicted to dip down a bit and then will be rising enough for a slow melt. The sun was supposed to be hidden behind clouds today, but prediction has changed so today the roads will clear mostly and tonight everything will freeze again and that makes for patches of black ice, but for the most part all main roads will be mobile again—getting to them from the side roads is the problem.

This is the most snow we have ever seen here at one time, although I read that in 1993, before we moved here, a blizzard dumped 30 inches.

Why do I expect the unpredictability? If we had a strong relentless northwestern storm come blustering through like that 1993 blizzard, that would be more predictable, but when we have a weakening or stalling northwestern cold front that is just strong enough to slipstream the warm moist air up from the Gulf of Mexico in front of it making the northwest front turn into a southwest draw...well, it is not easy to predict if the moist warmer air will produce rain or the cold will prevail making snow or sleet. Amounts of any one of these depend on how slowly the storm moves east with one part trying to go southeast and the other pulling up toward the northeast making our area a point of turmoil.

Sunday Morning
As expected, after teetering around the magical temperature that turns water into ice, the weather decided to take a plunge into temperatures in the 20s at night. Then allowed some of the snow to melt in with temperatures in the 40s on Saturday to plunge again into the low 20's, so now what areas of the roads that did not dry out during the melting of the day are icy...at least until around noontime. We might not make it to church services, because our street and the roads to the main ones are icy but we will be able to go shopping and pick up my new bunnies around 3:00 since the sun will be out and temperatures are to be in the 40s again.

Typically, such crazy weather conditions are more likely to happen in January, but...Georgia!

I love its wild unpredictable winters.

My Lord, may we always be in surprised by Your creative ways that we cannot predict, even though we keep attempting to do so.

When it Snows in Georgia

Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough. ~Earl Wilson

We did not go out for errands on Wednesday this week, but we had gotten in an extra piano lesson on Monday and Living Science cancelled classes for Tuesday and Wednesday due to the extreme cold and possibility of a winter storm. Good thing too, because of what happened....

First, I have to say that those of us who are originally from the northern states are always amazed at the level of unpreparedness that seems inevitable even when Georgians know a snow/ice storm is coming, but what began Tuesday morning this week went far beyond the worst case scenarios I could have imagined. It really could not have been much worse if there had been an unscheduled bomb drill in the middle of Atlanta that the general public mistook for the real thing. The magnitude of what three little inches of fluffy, white stuff and below freezing temperatures can do to this area is unimaginable unless you experience it for yourself.

It all started with the weather models showing that a storm would sweep across Georgia probably blanketing it with snow and possibly freezing rain somewhere...the best guess was south of Atlanta, because of the jet stream coming up from the south bringing moist air up to the higher atmosphere into the strong winter front moving in from the northwest is the toughest call for meteorologists in pinpointing the dump zone. Even the computer models went back and forth between nearly all of Georgia getting it to most of it hitting south of Atlanta, practically until it was upon us. Having lived in Georgia for well over a decade, I can say unpredictability really should be no surprise to anyone who has lived here even longer. It is just best to expect the worst and be thankful when you are wrong when it comes to winter storms here.

Folks, let me write this again so there is no misunderstanding: We all knew for a fact that a completely unpredictable major winter storm was approaching with temperatures in the twenties and lower from the northwest into Georgia. The only uncertainty about it was when, where, and how much snow and/or ice.

So, here is the Mayor of Atlanta and the Governor of Georgia knowing a major winter storm is coming in for sure, like everyone else, knowing it is unpredictable, like everyone else, but instead of erring on the side of caution in fear of being criticized for overreacting, they keep all the government offices open so employees are at work and all children are in school. The Governor honestly stated in a speech that he felt his biggest failure was in not staggering the time government employees could be released from work...yeah, like that would have made all the difference. Now the school boards are independent and can close schools as they see fit, but since all the rest of the government facilities were up and running....

The morning starts out sunny and bright, but well below freezing. Then snow comes in with the clouds, light at first, but within an hour it is obvious that it was accumulating and the roads began to get icy. Our county school board sent out an alert at 10:30 AM that they had decided to release the students early. The elementary students would be leaving the school at 12:30 PM, with the middle schools and high schools at other times (like staggering) but it was already too late at 10:30 AM when the notice was sent. Many buses could not even get to the schools. Many children here and all over the Metro Atlanta area stayed over night in their schools, and those were the luckier ones, for some were stuck on school buses that could not finish routes because of the ice. Most of Atlanta had about three inches of snow, I think we had more like four in our area, but it was hard to tell as it was dry and blowing off roofs and trees.

The governor stated that what caused most of the traffic problem was that businesses sent people home all at the same time, rather than staggering I suppose, so salt trucks could not treat the roads because of all the traffic, as if Atlanta never has much traffic except during rush hours...but again that was already too late as they should have began treating when the snow started falling.  When I thought about it, why wouldn't businesses send home their workers when their children were being sent home by the schools...?

My husband was working only 45 minutes from home, on the average day, even though I did not want him to go out at all because I just knew this was going to be a bad one. The customer account he was at closed so he had to leave around 1:30 in the afternoon. He had already called around to hotels, but they were full. He made sure he had plenty of gas and headed home. He tried different ways because I-20 was closed, so he was looking for a road not yet closed to get north of I-20 and every time he was met with a road that was closed. The radio stations were no help at all: just people telling their own stories about being stuck in stopped traffic and cars being abandoned because of an accident, jack-knifed semis blocking the road, running out of gas, lack of traction, or the driver just gave up all along major highways and roads, even smack in the middle of lanes, because they could not move them off.

At least my husband and I could talk to each other because he had enough gas and his cell phone charger with him, some people had dead cell phone batteries and could no longer talk to anyone. At 10:30 PM, an hour and a half after we last talked, I asked how far he had traveled in that time: two tenths of a mile. There was not much I could do about it so I went to bed, knowing my husband can take care of himself and praying he would arrive soon. Twelve hours after he started, at 1:30 AM, my husband finally made it home. We were fortunate: in our church, a few husbands working in the city have not been home for two nights, either staying at work or hotels near work.

Would you believe that work asked my husband to fly to Boston that day, while he was stuck in his van all those hours? He simply told them that Delta had cancelled all flights, which was true, and all the highways and roads around the airport, we later found out, were the worst of the worst all the next day as well, for we did not have enough sunshine and the temperatures were still in the 20's.

As horrible as Tuesday was, Wednesday was not much better. It took until afternoon before people could get out at all. While we were all advised to stay home, vehicles were still obstructing driving lanes, so people wanted to get their cars, if they could, because the "magic hour" was ending around 5:00 PM, when the sun would start going down and everything that had somewhat thawed in the sunlight would refreeze. Actually, it never got above freezing as we were still in the 20's all that day, but there were some patches of the roads with good amounts of sunshine that melted some of the ice. Power outages were not the big problem as they were with the ice storm in 2011, because it was a dry snow rather than a heavy wet snow or freezing rain which causes pine trees to snap from the added weight and down power lines.

Today (Thursday), the schools were still closed and some businesses were opening with later hours.  This afternoon the temperature has reached above freezing for a few hours and the snow is melting fastest in the sunlight and most of the ice has melted on well traveled roads, but there is still ice in the road in front of our house and there could still be patches of black ice again tonight. Tomorrow and thereafter, the highs are to be in the fifties and rain is in the forecast, so in a day or two more, this debacle will wiped from the natural earth as if it did not even happen, but with over 900 reported accidents in the area and who knows how many yet to be reported, people will still have some cleaning up to do for many coming days.

My Lord, please help the people of Georgia who were affected so badly by this storm. Thank you to getting my husband home to his loving family, warm food, and bed.

Let It Snow, Snow, Snow!

We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt. ~Sir Walter Scott

Settling back in on the home front, we had an interesting change in the weather.



Before we left home to pick my husband up on Friday, the Princess had made snowmen on our back deck.



It would continue snowing most of the night. The day before, we were warned that computer models were not matching up so we could get any thing from one to six inches. It looked as though we actually got about four.

On Saturday morning, I was reminded how beautiful winters were in my home state of Ohio and I drank it in. I don't think the pictures truly illustrate the splendor just outside our windows.






Here, though, the real problem is that at night when the temperatures would go way below freezing, causing ice on the roads, but thankfully the days have been warm enough to clear off the roads. As I write this, two days later, it all is almost gone...and even the snowmen are nearly forgotten lumps.

Still, she will remember....

~ Thank you, my Lord, for the beauty of the seasons and for this sweet glimpse at a winter wonderland in Georgia. ~

Snow Days!

Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not. ~Henry David Thoreau

I felt the moisture in the air as my daughter and I stepped out through the automatic doors of our favorite health food store. I felt a slight sensation on my hand, cool and wet, just as we were transferring our groceries from the cart to Pegasus, our trusty white mini-van with high mileage and sorely in need of a wash. The temperature was just at freezing and the wind biting. It could have been a tiny wet flake, but all evidence was gone in an instant. Was it finally beginning?

For nearly a week, the weathermen had been broadcasting the possibility of snow. Snow in Georgia. This is not an insignificant event. Of course, children quiver with excitement over the thought of this frozen white stuff for the opportunity to play in it and the possibility of school closings. However, in the Georgia, the real problem is not the snow itself, but ice. For the last few days, temperatures had been dipping into the teens at night and would stay below freezing for the next few days. The wind chill factor would also be around zero degrees so it was unlikely that the ice would melt away the next day.

I had been considering canceling our regularly scheduled piano lesson, but decided to just see how the day went. We had left home early and were done with shopping. I had more time than I needed to stop at the post office just five minutes later. No doubt about it now. It was a very fine, yet wet, snow besprinkling the windshield.

As we traveled north, the snow fall became heavier and the snowflakes a bit larger. Outside of Trudy's home studio, the snow was already accumulating on the ground. The Princess expounded on how this was Rachel Rebecca's first snow. (She picked the name Rachel Rebecca for her newest doll because it means "a bound ewe." In other words, she would be like a little lamb following her everywhere and so far she has lived up to the name well.)

On the drive home, the snow continued as the temperatures began dropping, lighter in some areas and heavier in others, barely coating the ground yet melting on the roads. Traffic was lighter than usual and the drive home went well even as we listened to school closings for the next day. We were soon home and safe.

Today, I awoke to find the lawns looked more dusted with white. The Princess would sled down our slick driveway all giggles.

We watched vehicles struggle up and down the slippery hills in our neighborhood. My husband would not be going anywhere for work today, but we had to return a rented car. The main roads still had icy spots, but we did fine. On the way home we stopped Steak 'n Shake for their Happy Hour, which means we had yummy milk shakes for half price. While we sipped our shared White Chocolate and my husband quickly devoured his Peppermint Chocolate Chip, the Princess would come up for air long enough to read a library loan, Hatching Magic, aloud to us.

Now we are home about to prepare dinner with a flickering light in our fireplace radiating warmth. The ice will continue to be a problem for a few more days and, unfortunately, this cold front is causing problems with produce in Florida also.

~ My Lord, thank you for the changes in nature that remind us how much our lives are influenced by them, how little control we have, how well we can adapt, and make the best with what we have. ~

A Grave Story

Love lies beyond
The tomb, the earth, which fades like dew!
I love the fond,
The faithful, and the true.
~John Clare

My mother passed on a few months ago. It was no secret, no secret at all, that she wanted to be buried next to my brother's grave. Christopher had died tragically when he was nine, nearly 40 years ago, and my mother let everyone know from that time on that her final resting place was to be right next to his.

When we were at the cemetery for a brief service—it was very brief as series of snowstorms left at least a foot of snow covering everything and the bitter cold wind swept over Ohio right then—I looked around at the landmarks I recognized, even so, and I thought that it looked as though we were not quite in the right area. Of course, my brother's grave stone was probably buried in the surrounding snow piles plowed to clear the area for the tent and the tent is usually placed off to the side anyway. I was a bit concerned at the time because the actual burial was not going to take place at the graveside service, but I thought her husband would have told them where she wanted to be buried and would oversee it later.

Because they had noticed, sometime after the snow cleared, that the plot in which my mother had been placed was not right next to my brother, my aunt and uncle made some inquiries yesterday. It was confirmed that my mother had been buried in the wrong plot--not even one belonging to her. So, she will have to be moved, but her final resting place will be exactly where she wanted it. Since it was the cemetery's mistake, there will be no charges.

My concern at this point is not about the moving of my mother's burial vault, but of how this news might be taken by other members of the family. My youngest sister, in particular, took our mother's death very hard and I fear it may be like opening a wound for her. It has been suggested to me that I wait until it is done before I say anything, this is something I need to talk to my Lord about.

No matter what, this reburial must be done. We really have no choice in that, so I am concerned that it would do no good upset my sister about it. My uncle and aunt will be there to oversee it to be sure it is done correctly this time. The main thing is that my mother's final resting place will be next to her son as she always wanted.

Personally, I would not want all this fuss about my remains. Cremate the body and, if anything, have a prayer for those still living who have yet to come to know the Lord. Then celebrate life's journey and my homecoming to my Lord! As the time approaches when we celebrate the empty grave and my Lord's resurrection, my thoughts are: A grave is not a final resting place.

My Lord, thank you that our true resting place is not in a grave, but with You.

Spring, Sprang, Sprung

Happiness is the result of being too busy to be miserable. -Unknown

Last week it snowed, this weekend it is in the 70's. Yellow daffodils have been blooming everywhere for over a week. The Bradford pear trees are blooming in white. Our peach tree is filling up with pink flowers. My dog has been shedding. My daughter is wearing shorts. Tomorrow it will be 80 degrees, but Friday and Saturday the high is predicted to be the mid 50's with rain. Such is spring in Georgia. It is refreshing my spirit and uplifting my mood, even though it brings with so many things to do: gardening, yard work, cleaning up the back deck and front porch, and so forth!

Spring is nature exercising "out with the old, in with the new." As nature's wardrobe changes outside, so must my daughter's. It is time for spring consignment sales, where I get most of the clothes for the Princess. I am preparing the summer clothes she has outgrown to sell in one sale at which I will also shop along with a few others nearby. Typically, these sales are spread out on two or three different weekends, but this year the three main ones I shop are all on the same weekend, this coming weekend.

I will drop off the clothes I am selling on Wednesday afternoon, which is not a little deal because I need our one and only vehicle to do this. My husband is working in town this week, so I will need to drop him off at work and pick him up again, unless he can work from home that day. Thursday, after we return from our errands, I need to go to one sale on the way home and then go to another later that same evening. I am not sure how I will juggle picking up my husband in the midst of it all. Then there is the next day, Friday, with another sale.

I'm not done yet though. Friday night, our church has planned an outing for the children from 7 to 9 PM. I don't know if that will work for us. We may have to not do that one, because there is still more.

Saturday, my pastor and I will be taking our children to a competition sponsored by the district of our church. We will most likely be gone the entire day. The Princess has been entered to compete in piano and art, so not only do we need to spend extra time practicing at the piano throughout the week, but we need to work on a masterpiece.

On a week like this I really feel the pinch of having only one vehicle, but really it is rare for me to need it more than one day a week. I believe the Lord as provided what we really need, although I think I could use just a bit less anxiety when I think about all of it.

Lord, help me to continually be content with what You have provided and never tire of striving to be a better steward with the money and time you have given to us....and the Princess would like us to find some nice dresses at the sales, if You would provide those too.

Foot Prints in the Snow

The future lies before you, like paths of pure white snow.
Be careful how you tread it, for every step will show.
~Unknown

During morning church service on Sunday, it began snowing. It is not common event in Georgia to see nature's soft, white blanket covering all and recording our steps, even if only for a brief time.

How brief is our time in this life. I have been feeling that so much lately.

How many more footprints will I have time to leave? How long will their impression last? Where will my footprints lead? Will I seek the Lord before I determine my way? Will the testament of my life be an inspiration of faith to someone else? Will I have walked a careful path for another to follow?

White, fluffy snow quietly resting on the land. There is nothing like a freshly snow-covered world, so unspoiled, so pure. It reminds me that I can start again fresh, even with all the sins I committed against my Lord, He will forgive me where I am. Like a child, I strain to again make my impressions in the snow; the first imprint tells not only the direction I take, but from where I started. Will I spoil this gift that has fallen from heaven or will my passing give its own beauty to the landscape? Will someone seek the same path or will I alone comprehend the short-lived memorial so soon to melt away?

Perhaps snow seems different to me now. I think the most vivid memory of my mother's burial, just a month ago, will always be the thick blanket of snow covering the ground in my home state. With miles of flat whiteness swept along by the winds, Ohio was bitterly cold and beautiful. I still have not sorted out all my feelings from the trip, but seeing those frozen flakes, so seldom as we do here, was a sweet memory of my Lord's grace—there will always be a snow-white blanket of forgiveness covering my sins. What a comfort that is to me.

My Lord, may I take the path You lay before me. With each step, may I seek your guidance, leaving footprints as a testament to glorify You.