Snow....snow.... - VF

As I write this it is snowing outside. I think it is quite beautiful but it has been a most interesting time over the past 2 months regarding the snow situation. Here are my observations:-

• It doesn't snow everyday, but sometimes we have 'flurries' which are kind of comparable to a light rain shower in Auckland - lasting about 15 minutes and then no more all day.
• About 20% of the snow we had just before Christmas (see Blog entry 23rd Dec) was still on the ground when we left for Toronto & Sydney, and most was gone by the time we came back. There must have been rain because even when it is sunny, it doesn't melt because the temperature is way below freezing, it mainly vanishes with the rain. I'm not sure why it can rain without freezing into snow, but Jamie says it is often too cold to snow (I think it might be something to do with what part of the atmosphere is cold/not cold enough to make it freeze and there the snow is formed up there).
• Snow is quite useful - our church provides meals for the homeless and we volunteered to provide a lunch on 2nd Jan. We brought enough lasagne for 80 people but of course the fridge and freezer weren't big enough so I put it out in the snow and piled more snow on top and it stayed frozen for 3 days!
• If I get back from the shops too late, I can leave the frozen food in the boot (trunk) of the car until the morning (but not any liquids as they freeze).
• Weird things happen - I left my little beach shoes in the car by mistake after going to the gym (I wear them in the showers there), they were wet and when I remembered 2 hours later, I went out to the car and there they were frozen solid!
• You have to keep the lid on the rubbish wheelie-bin because if it gets filled with snow it does not melt and is there until it gets emptied next week.
• The snow here is light and dry. It is not wet like in NZ, more like icing sugar (they say powdered or confectioners sugar here), so it sticks to you and you can brish it off rather than making you cold and wet.
• As far as cold (yesterday got down to 4 degrees F - that's minus 22 C!!!!) goes, the days when it is sunny with high cloud are much colder than when it is grey and overcast (clouds keeping the heat in??). The coldest thing of all is the wind, the coldest I have seen on the weather reports is minus 5 F.
• You know that it has been snowing in the night when you wake up at 2am wondering if you left the outside light on because it is so bright outside that it is like a light shining in the window. When you think about it, you KNOW that you turned it off. A peep out the window confirms that there is lots of white stuff all over the ground
• This is the weather page I check each day to know what is going to be happening - it tells how likely it is to be snowing although they seem to be about 20% lower in their snow estimations than the national radio or TV weather forecasts Detroit weather
  
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