Thursday, January 30, 2014

"Snow-pocalypse" 2014

You've probably heard on the news about a snowstorm hitting the South earlier this week and wrecking all kinds of havoc there. I can tell you, it is true.

For the past month or so, we've had some very cold temps (a high of 28 degrees during the day is NOT normal down here) but no snow. By last Sunday or so, we knew that some snow was heading our way, but the temps outside were in the 50s (which is tropical compared to the last few months). Monday was another beautiful day, but everyone at school was buzzing with the approaching snowstorm. One of the English faculty even called it the "snow-pocalypse," which my Medieval teacher borrowed in class.

Tuesday came cold and cloudy. I had no school that day so I sat in my room and did homework, constantly looking out the window for any sign of the promised snow. The snow flurries came about two hours earlier than predicted, and they grew thicker. Mandy came down to spend the afternoon with me and Mom while her hubby was teaching. Now around this time, things started getting a bit treacherous. When we went to the store, we noticed a lot of cars on the road, which Mandy speculated was from people leaving work and school early. Ben's afternoon classes were cancelled, but traffic and snow led to it taking him about four hours to make a journey that normally would have been about forty-five minutes to our house. Seth also took well over an hour to make a journey of similar length, as he left work early too.

Now I've seen on facebook some northerners wondering why the South tends to lock up when it snows. The problem is this: when the snow first started falling, the temps were not below freezing though the snow was sticking. As the temp began to drop, things began to freeze, and that is when the roads are dangerous. Because snow is rare down here, Georgians don't know how to drive on snow or ice, and they are unprepared too (few plows, few tire chains, no salt, etc...), which doesn't help. So, when people in Atlanta started leaving the city to go home early, things quickly got out of control as snow continued to fall and the temp continued to drop.

Because the highway was looking too treacherous, Mandy and Ben opted to spend the night with us instead of taking the risk. We went outside for a little snowball fight then built a litle snowman (which Ben called "Winston Churchill" because it had a stick cigar in its mouth). It was a bit tense, though, looking at the news of people being stranded on the highways (we knew a couple of people who were in that situation), and it was a relief when things began to clear up on Wednesday. However, it was still icy and the temps still remained close to freezing so not much had a chance to melt. Thankfully, Ben and Mandy safely made it home on Wednesday afternoon, and friends and family also made it home on Tuesday and Wednesday. Because of icy roads, most schools (including GGC) were closed down, so that gave me a day off from school.

Today, things warmed up, and some of the snow has melted while most roads are clear for safe travel (except for a few icy patches here and there). The temps are supposed to go up, so the snow will probably be gone by Saturday.

So, needless to say, it has been an interesting few days. And it will be even more interesting when we figure out school schedules because we lost a few days.

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