We are weather lightweights here in the Pacific Northwest. We have a predictable weather menu: Rain, sun, sun breaks, rain, repeat. When something out of the ordinary happens we get pretty excited. This week has been one of those weeks. After a ridiculously mild December (one of the driest on record) January was cruising along much like it always does - that is until Sunday.
Snow hit. We really like snow here. We don't get much and when we do it usually lasts a day or two - just enough for the kids to get a day off school, sled, build snow forts and snow people - and then it's back to normal. When the weather forecast was predicting record snowfall, most of us didn't believe it. (Well - I didn't believe it) I'm not sure why, but weather forecasting is pretty unreliable in this part of the country. I guess I'm thankful that we don't have tornadoes and such - we'd never know what hit us. Sunday's snowfall was nice, but pretty normal. 2 - 3 inches, then rain. None to speak of on Monday. A few more inches on Tuesday. Then about 1:00 a.m. Wednesday morning it started to fall. It fell, and fell and fell. Seventeen inches worth! What? The weather forecast was right???? Then the temperature hovered right around freezing all day. (OK. The weather forecast wasn't EXACTLY right. It was supposed to rain.) Nightime brought freezing temperatures and then freezing rain. Freezing rain on top of seventeen inches of snow. Yea, we're not going anyplace for a while.
It's been a beautiful week for me. I had a lot of writing to do and this forced snow retreat has been just the ticket. I finally feel on top of things and might actually make a writing deadline without having to ask for an extension! Hooray for snow!!!!
