Yesterday we went shopping for a Christmas tree. In our shorts. While we were buying it, people in the line advised us that a “cold front” was coming and “it will be a hell of a storm.” I became understandably concerned because we have an enormous inflatable Yo Gabba Gabba sleigh in the front yard.
By the way, every year our collection of bizarre Christmas lawn ornaments grows. First it was Pooh Bear and Tigger. Then Eeyore. Then an angel. Then the monster sleigh. Then Mickey. Yesterday I look up and Gordon and the kids are dragging a huge Elmo.
We buy the tree and load it into the Green Hornet.
Me: What was your plan for the Elmo?
Kid 2: Heh. Plan.
Kid 1: We saw the Elmo and we were like, let’s get it!
So long story short, we had some wind and a little bit of the temperature drop, down to 37 degrees. In North Carolina it would be considered mild for winter. In Oklahoma, it would be a bit cold.
In Texas, power went out in the entire subdivision. We knew this, because our neighbors had set their house alarm. Fixing the power resulted in it being on and off about ten times and every time it would come back on, it would be on for about five seconds, not enough to turn off said alarm.
5:40 am. Alarm: Wooo-wooo-wooo-blare. Stop.
6:00 am. Alarm: Woo-wooo-wooo-blare. Stop.
6:15 am. Alarm: Woo-wooo-wooo-blare. Stop.
I shudder to think what will happen if snow ever hits this town. It will be like a movie: a snowflake lands on the asphalt and all the cars around it launch in the air, spinning, and dramatically explode on impact with the ground.
Must go write.
Snow in Texas equals Michael Bay explosions? Is that your hypothesis? I’d say power goes out for more than an hour and it get post apocalyptic, by nightfall our neighborhood would look like Fallout 3 or Detroit, which is probably the same thing.
So wait, how is a place filled with mutant people, robots, and bottle caps instead of money more likely than Michael Bay explosions?
I have heard reports of snow in the winter in central/southern Texas. Everyone thinks they can drive in it and very few actually can and many, many accidents result. So if it comes your way, do yourself and your family a favor and just hole up, kk??
I think if everyone had to learn to drive in alaska you woulnt have that proplem most people here know how to drive right but people in anchorage becuase let’s face it their from the states. Last here it snow almost 2 1/2 feet in 2hrs whhen you get that and the next day you have 40 below temp then you can talk
Sorry tipo last year for x-mas it snowed 2 1/2 feet in 2hrs
We lived near soldatna, on the kenai peninsula in the late ’70′s. My mom drove a Datsun bluebird and she still talks about driving that little car, a standard, on the hills of Anchorage during winter. Winter here in Calgary doesn’t faze her a bit now.
We get a little snow here and everyone sort of freaks out. We only have like 1 snow plow in the whole county and when a neighboring county purchased a 2nd one, it was a really big deal.
A few years ago Austin shut down due to the THREAT of snow. I’m serious, grocery stores were closed, lines at the gas station….pandemonium everywhere!!!
People run screaming into the street, hair pulling and tearing, wailing and gnashing of teeth. Fires EVERYWHERE and yet… the snow still falls. After 2 hours of power outages people are sacrificing house pets and speaking of the inevitability of cannibalism.
It will be a Merry Zombie Christmas!
Detroit is worse.
Huh. We didn’t lose power. If it ever does snow (or, more likely, ice), stay home. Traffic is impossible. Took me two hours to get to work one year. It normally takes twenty minutes.
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This is pretty much what happens every year in the UK when it snows. No-one has cars that are snow equipped (chains on wheels etc), as there is no certainty that it will snow (not cost effective), usually, the government’s stores of grit/salt runs out half way through winter, so when (if) it does snow, CHAOS! I generally ditch my car and walk, which says something, since after slipping while ice-skating, breaking and arm and needing a plate in it to fix it, I am understandably scared stiff of slipping up. It usually means schools closed, places of work close, and the whole country loses money, while the kids go sledging!
What part of the UK are you in? I have a friend in Dartmoor, who is saying they are about to get slammed.
We’re having a heat wave here in WNC. It’s been in the upper 30s as a low and the 60s for a high. It’s normally freezing cold and rainy when my family gets the tree and puts up lights. Not this year, which was nice. It does make me a little nervous that it’s so warm. I hope we don’t get hit with a big snow storm later on in the season.
Lol ….I have to laugh at all of the interesting lawn ornaments for the holidays and buying a Christmas tree in shorts…..lol
As for the snow ….we get plenty of cold and snow in the mid to upper Mid-West so I’m used to it…don’t like it but it’s a part of winter – when we get snow I always hope it’s at least 6 inches so that the office is closed and I get to stay home for at least 1 day:)
You should feel lucky … In the UK if we have the “wrong type of rain”… the trains stop running.. If we have leaves on the tracks… The trains stop running…If we have the wrong type of ice on the track… The trains stop running… If we have snow .. We are at defcon 1 and the world will shortly end and has for the last three years… The snow comes…. It is a huge shock… Everything comes to a halt… The snow melts we moan and then pretend it will never happen again.
Sounds about like Florida. We had about 2 weeks where it actually got down into the upper 30′s at night and only in the mid 60′s during the day. Natives (yes, me) were in heavy jackets with gloves and hats. Luckily it didn’t last long and temps climbed back into the upper 70′s and lower 80′s. The snowbirds are loving it. I can remember it snowing exactly twice here in my lifetime. Neither time did we get any that stuck to the ground and it only lasted about 30 minutes or so. And that was like 20 years ago. I spent 1 winter in Kentucky and did the snow thing. I will stick to wearing shorts at Christmas, thanks.
it hardly ever snows (once it snowed an INCH!!!) but sometimes everything ices over, the trees ice over and fall in the road, the power lines ice over and the power goes out, and the road ices over and nobody has to go to work (except for people from the north, who laugh and call us weenies)
once on a Thanksgiving trip to Forth Worth the car iced over on the way and we had to be chipped out when we got there because the doors wouldn’t open
Yes! But who cares what people call us when we can stay home from work!
It did snow in southeast Texas, several years back, while I was still living in Houston. Oddly enough, the only place in the whole country with snow on Christmas Eve was Texas. It was called the Christmas Miracle and some entrepeneurs in Corpus Christi put out a book of photographs about it. re: Texas drivers in snow and Michael Bay explosions, you’re not really that far off. Back in the 90s, Houston suffered an ice storm which resulted in a 200 car pileup on the 610 loop. The overpasses were iced up, and the cars kept sliding backwards into the oncoming cars. Ice, snow and south Texas do not mix.
Always cracks me up when my sister in Texas is the only person in her entire building at work because everyone else went home before the Big Storm! Um, Detroit? Really? It took a lot of corruption and greed for us to get where we are today. Snow just makes it look purty!
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Here in Kansas, we expect cold, wind and a bit of snow. However, we are half way through December, and yesterday was the first day we stayed below 32 degrees for the day. We got our tree last weekend in t-shirts and jeans at a beautiful 65 degrees. Just weird not to be cold and we are almost to the end of the year.
Temps in the 30s? I’m thrilled to have a reason to use the fireplace.
I live near Birmingham and when people here see a snowflake, they close the schools and send people home from work, causing major traffic gridlock that they didn’t anticipate. I understand that one year, maybe 1993, they had a foot or two of snow that lasted several days and people were stuck in their homes. The southern cities do not have snow removal equipment to clear the streets, so they panic when it snows now. I can promise you that if it snows in your area there will be no milk or bread in the grocery stores.
I am shocked you would say that. You mean a pickup truck with a bulldozer blade does not count as snow removal equipment?
LOL No it doesn’t, but thank God some of our neighbors with four wheel drive trucks do go around and help those who are stuck get food and firewood if they need it.
I have lived in Round Rock, Texas for 9 and a half years now. One year on Valentines day it snowed overnight. I say snow but was really just a dusting to those of us who have lived in areas where snow is more common. By 12 most of the snow was melted and you could drive around and find that people scrapped all of the snow in their yards into the shade and built little 2 foot tall snowmen. Coming from Colorado, I found this hilarious.
I miss snow.
And envy Round Rock that really awesome Chinese restaurant in that plaza with Starbucks, some sort of whole foods store, and vintage video game store.
Lol I remember that! We totally built a small snowman.
It was 23 degrees in Oklahoma when I got up this morning. Definitely a big temperature shift! That is so funny about your lawn ornaments. I think it’s funner to be eclectic with decorations. Matching everything is highly overated.
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I totally agree with your last sentence. Gosh! We think alike! *wink*
But on a serious note, even though you might have heard this thousand number of times, I Just have to say this: I’m completely in LOVE with your Kate Daniel Series! You are simple an amazing writer. I had suggested this book series to my friends and even they loved it. I hope you keep on writing novels! (Please don’t plan a career change anytime soon). I’ll be heart-broken.
I should say, whenever I read your blog or get a mail that you have posted a blog automatically there is a smile on my face. You just have that effect on your readers, which I know will continue to be so for a long time..
You just described what happens in Phoenix when it rains. I shudder to think what would happen if snow fell.
Funny you should say that. I went to school in Phoenix at DeVry and it DID snow, once. It was funny, the snow melted before it hit the ground. I was standing on the lower level of a courtyard and I saw white flecks falling in front of my eyes. At first I thought it was someone on the balcony above me smoking and flicking ashes. When I looked up I didn’t see anyone, so I watched some of the flakes closely and about 2 feet from the ground they disappeared and then I saw a drop of water appear on the ground.
wow. snow in PHX. that would be something to see. a couple years ago we had this huge hail storm and people still bring it up in conversation.
You aren’t wrong. I live in Midland, Texas and right before the last cold snap our HEB was almost sold out of toilet paper and bottled water. It’s almost not worth your life to go to work on the day it snows. People can’t drive in it. Luckily enough, we rarely get precipitation of any kind :eye roll:
snow…i wish we had snow here (Israel), heck, even a cold front would do.
My husbands parents lived in Oklahoma when we got engaged and I had not met them. So we arranged for me to come visit them right after Christmas (I lived in Philly, fiancé lived in Ohio).
A blizzard hit the midwest and northern parts of OK got a couple of inches and ice. Besides having my trip take over twice as long as it should have (Tulsa airport closed for a while) they lost my luggage (it went to New Orleans).
Oklahoma does not use salt (it might cause rust!) just sand. Needless to say no one really knew how to drive on ice and it was an interesting visit!
I t has been relatively warm here in Ohio also. Great for puting up decorations but very odd.
In denmark it have been below zero degrees celsius (32 degrees farenheit) and snowing the last week and a half.
except for a few delayed busses and trains everything is just about as it usually are.
Denmark is one of those cuntries that almost never gets really cold and almost never get really hot……… so sadly for us danes, we will not experience wild explotions or cannibalisme and pet sacrifices……
As a native Texan I must point out that the concrete mix for roadways here is different than in many parts of the country that have regular cold weather. The concrete does not allow for deep penetration of motor oils. The result is that even rain causes the oil to rise to the surface. When the temp is below freezing you get greased ice. I was taught to drive on this and have been know to ferry co-workers who hail from states with real winters. It’s tricky and I always hope most people will stay home. The first time I saw snow, green grass was sticking up through it. I love the cold. Everybody thinks I’m nuts. Must be those throwback Viking genes.
Love the sleigh. My high rise balcony is very dull with just lights.
The happiest of holidays to everyone!
Too funny! The first year I lived in Seattle it snowed for two days. It was crazy! People left their cars on I-5. Just locked the door and walked away. The city closed the steep roads going up to Capitol Hill and Queen Anne neighborhoods. People skied, sled and snowboarded down the hills, it was a riot! Everyone was out and about. Restaurants, bars and cafes were packed with neighbors or people stuck because they could not drive home. I loved it!
Miss living in Seattle, I want to move back someday.
Last year I was visiting in Seattle for “snowmaggedon”. The city shut down and the schools closed with only a few inches because they can’t drive on those steep streets without sliding backward. A city bus was abandoned in the middle of the street because it couldn’t make it up the hill. Much more fun than what we have here in Detroit.
I am from Western New York where we get the “lake effect snow” which means in winter if the temps are cold enough we can get snow everyday so people deal with it. I then moved to the west coast and found out that everything stops if there is going to be a snow storm and panic ensues. Philadelphia is where I lived the last four years and they aren’t much better at snow removal at all but now I am back in western New York where sanity and snow is maintained. Finally I want to say I laugh at the stores being mobbed with people buying 18 rolls of toliet paper. People you aren’t going to go to the bathroom more because it snows there is no fiber in snow.
please can we have more photos of your christmas lawn decorations , i am sure it will put a smile on our faces .
In Edmonton (Northern Alberta, Canada) everything keeps going snow or no snow. What stops us is the cold. At -50 Celsius (I googled it, that’s -58 Fahrenheit) is the point at which they can no longer de-ice planes, and I recall having problems with my block heater getting the car warm enough to drive. That was the one Christmas where I thought I’d truly be house bound.
This made me laugh! I grew up in Texas and now live in eastern Oklahoma. This morning my facebook was full of pictures with people captioning them as “SNOW!” I squinted at the pictures…. I’m still thinking it was frost. My husband, born in Michigan, raised in Ohio, just likes to laugh and point. And yeah, when we decorated last weekend in shorts, we sweated our butts off. I work in Walmart, and have had people all week coming through getting ready for the “big storm.” Hey, at least they’re prepared for when it really does snow, right?? Right?? Crickets…..
Oh! Oh! As a former resident of Houston, TX and having lived there during an actual ice storm, I can tell you what to expect if you get real winter weather:
Everyone screams and cries out to the Heavens, pleading with God to have mercy on them. No one knows how to drive of the stuff and people just park their cars at random curbs and find other ways to get home. Oh, and there will be no bread or milk left at the stores. Get their early or you’ll have to settle for hot dog buns.
Today in Northern Virginia, it is going to be in the mid 60′s…I see no snow in our future…..Of course, I have now cursed the region to get snow! When you mentioned loading the Green Hornet, I really am hoping that you do not have the Green Hornet I learned to drive on….My family had a 1975 Green Hornet station wagon….I loved driving it because it had a V-6 engine….now that my daughter is 15….I don’t want her anywhere near a V-6 engine…..
Ah texas, my happy place. We got 3 and some feet of snow yesterday and today the temp is -10. Ah texas, jerk.
In 2008, we had a real, honest-to-goodness SNOW day in Houston; it was a glorious miracle. We even made a snow man – https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=67797271144&set=a.67797021144.87291.540471144&type=3&theater
You will notice, he is well fortified with excess grass and pine needles.
Also, I was soooo cold I wore my hat with the ear flaps and fuzzy lining. Yes, we (meaning I) are wimps in the south when it comes to the cold.
Lol, that reminds me of the time my sister was visiting in California. There was a tiny skiff of snow and everyone was in a panic, buying chains for their tires and terrified to drive. She spent the day in a t-shirt and short skirt
OK…here is my survival suggestions for newcomers to the deep south in winter: Learn to keep 2 loaves of bread in the freezer, a dozen or so cans of evaporated milk(or powdered milk) in the pantry. Keep an extra dozen eggs in the fridge, some non-electrical method of creating heat inside(or a generator outside), water stored for everyone, canned foods that do not require cooking.
Why? Because roads, stores, schools, everything will shut down at the first snowflake. And long before that, the store shelves will be bare. We have no snow removal equipment, and no roads or tires suitable to negotiate them. I know it is sad, but it is what it is.
Isn’t that what you do for ICE? lol. I was soooo disappointed this morning. Was hoping for a little rain– or even ice– to go with the dusting of snow. Alas, still droughty in dfw although the snowy dust was beautiful while it lasted.
I come from region of Canada where most people dont consider it snow unless its up to your waist. Here in Vancouver they barely get enough flakes to cover the ground and everyone freaks out because most folks drive on all season tires pfft. Then you get the idiots in their 4x4s who think they can go twice as fast. Seen a lot of those in the ditch. If you’re driving long distances make sure you have snow tires and/or chains and know how to put the chains on and always have a break down kit in your car including food, water and blankets. Add an hour or 2 to your travel time and take it slow and easy. Stay safe this Christmas
As you can see from my last tweet finger dyslexia still rules surpreme
Can we just get thundersnow again? I really enjoyed watching the weather channel guys wig out over it. That and screaming “Thunder THUNDER THUUUUUNNNNNDDDEERRR SNOOOOOOOOWWW!” around my house.
The cats looked at me funny.
Heh, I live in the DFW area. I’m feelin’ ya with the weather. My family also went Christmas shopping in shorts and tees. >.> We had a Christmas parade last Thursday, and everyone was in shorts, even for that.
And you know, the Scifi Channel would make that movie. I bet they could cast Debbie Gibson for it. Maybe.
Out here in the Fraser valley( BC, canada) it hardly ever snows. But we can get some pretty nasty freezing rain and snow combinations or wet snow that packs to ice under your tires. Personally, my favourite kind of snow is the kind that you go to. Lots of mountains around here that get tones of snow every year
Oh dear god. How would you survive if you got all the snow (and wind) that we got in Denmark this weekend and yesterday?
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Let us know how Elmo fits into your yard, OK?
Best of luck in the upcoming first winter in Texas.
Here in Western Australia it’s like that with rain! After one of our nine-month droughty summers, people totally forget how to drive in rain, so everyone slows to 30 k/ph . . . imagine gridlock & accidents on the freeway due to a light drizzle! I lived in Belfast NI for a few years, & was amazed at the cab drivers belting down the M5 at 70 [miles] in snow; it’s interesting how driving styles differ so much between countries.
PS. are there any other Aussies with iPads out there who can’t find Bayou Moon in the iBookstore? All the other Edges are there . . . waaah wanna buy Bayou Moon eBook! [yes, I have the paperback on my bedside table, so what?
] Ilona’s covers for the UK/Aust. eBooks are diviiine, I think they reflect the characters & mystery of the Edge more powerfully than the artwork on those oh-so-last-century paperbacks.
Amazon has a Kindle version of Bayou Moon . . . I do so watching people drive when the unexpected weather happens . . . I just make sure I leave more than 3 car lengths gap . . .
YAYYY it appeared in ITunes this morning wheeeee!!! Sheer Edgy blissikins. Thank you from Western Australia where it is 35 C & summer hasn’t even properly got going yet. I could do without the 95% humidity though bleeaauurrrghhhhhh . . . & the pollies here say there’s no such thing as climate change *cue kookaburra laughter*
I’m in Georgia. I *hate* the cold. So the temperature finally starts dropping and I pull out all my “winter” clothes. I got my “winter” socks, my “winter” jacket, my “winter” gloves…you get the picture. I roll up to my place of work looking like the Michelin Man, and my friend from Ohio starts cracking up. It was 70 degrees. I don’t like the cold.
My DH and I are originally from the midwest and snow wasn’t considered anything extraordinary unless we got over 10 inches in one event. We also lived in Chicago for many years where it was COLD and windy. We are loving the mild Northern VA winters and although our hearts are in the Midwest, I don’t think our bodies will ever move back!
It’s the same way in Atlanta. My hubby and flew out in a howling Iowa blizzard to visit Atlanta for a job interview. (The kind of blizzard that caused us to throw a snow shuffle in the truck before we went to the airport as we knew we’d have to unearth the car when we returned.)
Atlanta’s forecasters were broadcasting live waiting for one stray snowflake to buzz by. There was a little ice but no big. Now that the climate is changing we actually had snow on the ground (more than an inch) for four days in the last couple years. It’s still hilarious.
Eventually you’ll run out of yard space for holiday inflatables. Or least you should hope so.
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We lived in Austin for 10 years and it only snowed once. My kids were little, so we put baggies over their shoes and sweaters under their jackets so they could go play in it. As for driving, snow wasn’t a problem, but ice was. Every time we had rain, the streets would freeze at night, and nobody seemed to know how to drive on ice. We had bumper stickes that said “pray for me, I drive 183.” Fun? Not!
The one and only time I ever experienced a white Christmas was here in Houston in 2004. And lucky for me, I had to be at work at the hospital very early that morning. None of the roads or overpasses had been prepped for ice or snow and the few cars on the road (at 5:30 in the morning we were all headed to the Texas Medical Center) slipped and slid all over the place because nobody had any experience driving in snow or ice. I can (and have!) driven in tropical storms and hurricanes, but the cold stuff is completely foreign to me. I prefer not to endanger myself or anyone else by attempting to go anywhere on the rare occasions it happens.
The media also feeds the panic by over-hyping the cold weather. Either last year or the year before, they were forecasting a giant snowstorm to hit the area. My friends and I dubbed it “Snowpocalypse!” and planned a party. And as happens anytime the media over-hypes things, we didn’t get any snow. But we still had a party!
I will never understand why people panic about snow–anywhere that is not impossibly rural, and easily cut off, anyway. Or, more truthfully, I don’t understand HOW that panic expresses itself. It’s not like it’s the beginning of a new ice age and there will soon be glaciation, and smilodons or something. And even if it was, how would buying extra tp, bread, or milk at the last possible second help? And yet, otherwise rational people drive around like idiots in blowing snow to do it anyway. Yes, yes, when the smilodons come–or the Zombie Ice-capades, or whatever– I will regret my lack of preparedness. C’est la vie.
In Maryland and DC, we now get hurricanes, snow megadons (with snow of 2-3 feet every few years), and very humid hot summers. We know how to drive and complain. God, I love DC.
I’m living in Moscow Russia.
That’s what I constantly have (from November to April) in the trunk of my Volvo: spade, tow rope, folding snow brush with scraper, WD40, bottle of glass defroster, windshield washer fluid good to -30C, wheel chains (well, have to admit that not a lot of people here have wheel chains in their trunks), not to mention winter tires on my Volvo’s wheels.
What I do NOT have here when snow is falling and temperature drops to -12C (like today) or lower: DAY OFF!
So dear friends, everyone who lives a little bit to the North from Texas, let me invite you for a couple of drinks! We should stop laughing, warm up a little and consider how to help Texas’s drivers to survive upcoming “cold front” and “a hell of a storm”.