It’s supposed to snow this week. We have had a few days of flurries, which is sort like flirting with winter; but we’ve not had Snow yet. That is what is coming. This is one of those forecasts that keeps oscillating between rain and snow, just on the border of freezing. There is no question that we will be getting heavy precipitation, starting on Thursday and lasting through Sunday. If it stays rain, it will be about an inch over four days with most of it falling on Thursday. If it falls as snow, we could have as much as a foot of snow by the end of the weekend.
The weather prognosticators have not been right on the temperature for a very long time. Oh, occasionally they seem to predict a high or a low purely by accident. Never both. Even the weather almanac data have been wrong more than right. I can’t remember when it last matched what my porch max-min thermometer recorded. These last many weeks, the temperature data have been consistently above the actual temperature lows and highs, usually by about 8°F, which does not sound like the big difference it is, especially around freezing.
So… if they are saying it might be 38° and raining, it will likely be 30° and snowing… though it could also be 32° and freezing rain which would really suck… I think it will probably be 30° and snow. We haven’t seen warmth like the rest of the country is experiencing. We’ve not had any days above 45° in November, and this week is just plain cold. Last two nights, the lows were in the teens.
It could warm up. This weather is part of a massive storm system that is moving across the continent, mixing wet air from the Gulf of Mexico with colder air from up north. It might bring warmer air along with the wet. But it might warm only enough for freezing rain…
I don’t know why I feel all doomy about this storm. I usually look forward to the first snow. I think it’s because we don’t seem ready for it. I’ve not seen one truck with a snow plow attachment, nor are the Department of Public Works trucks lined up in the city lot. I got my shovels out, but I don’t have any salt. I haven’t seen any for sale yet. There is not any obvious preparedness going on around here. My town is still getting over the water debacle. I don’t think they’ve managed to switch gears.
Then, there’s just the pervasive air of oppression and gloom that has been blanketing everything since, oh, about November 5th…
Mostly I think it’s not the prospect of snow, but of heavy wet snow laced with a good deal of ice — which seems the most likely thing to happen. Nobody is ever ready for that weather. That’s the kind of weather that shuts down the power for hours, sometimes days. It breaks things, often people.
Still, I am trying to remain positive. Maybe it will be snowman snow… Maybe it will be pretty ice on all the trees… Maybe we’ll all get a Friday off work… yeah… right…
the snowflake
i held a snowflake
in the cradle of my hand
caught while dancing the winter airs
a delicate tracery of myth and mystery
in cold crystalline glistening
saying none will be as we
i alone beheld this singularity
ephemeral beauty as all must be
a wink in the eyes of deity
and then…
gone
but pulsing the fierce joy
of first snowfall
the falling star shines all the brighter
as it dies
writing across the heavens
to be!
to be is exultation enough
and there lies my snowflake
serenely slipping into oblivion
whispering
i would not miss this dance
for all of staid eternity
Wednesday Word
for 20 November 2024
snow
So what do you feel when you see that word? What does snow do in your life? How do you relate to it? At a remove? In pictures and postcards? Ski trips? Or is it part of your life, a Presence? Think about that today.
©Elizabeth Anker 2024
By My Solitary Hearth 
We are expecting thunderstorms later today: the air is thick and still; the sun is trying to break through the metallic coloured clouds; and even the birds are unusually quiet. There has been no municipal water for two days now, so rain would be gratefully received to fill our catchment tanks.
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Six Inches of Snow
The new year comes
In the new soft snow
Covering our world
With the frozen white blanket
The soft white sleep of nature
Nature’s life harmonizes
With the cold and snow
In the rejuvenation of sleep and rest
That will awaken with spring’s warmth and moisture
Yet for now only the silence of falling snow
The silence of winter calm
Disturbed only by man’s snowplows and shovels
Human knives of steel cut roads to each other
Once too, humans were natural
Human nature, a continuous spectrum
But we no longer observe nature’s harmony
Instead our lives take on their own rhythms
Human activity can no longer observe winter rest
But must surge onward in restless search
For the fulfillment of needs, responsibilities and prior commitments.
So we drag out our massive fleets of snow plows
Ashes, salt, chains and studded tires
Cars that won’t start
And winter becomes a struggle
Because human activity
Has a will of its own.
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It rained all day yesterday and this morning I biked to work with sleet pelting needles against my face. I was definitely awake by the time I got to my desk! Then it snowed for a little while, but it’s been so warm this month it didn’t stick, and now the streets and sidewalks are dry. However, the cold looks to settling in, so next time it snows it will probably stick.
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