Winter Storm - Feb 5,6 - 2010

For the last three decades, we are living in regions that have four three distinct seasons with pronounced winter snows. The last few years were cold, but not snowy. But this year, we had six winter storms already and two of them were biggies with more than 20 inches of snow. The last one on Friday and Saturday was monstrous. Our official total snowfall was 29 inches (72.5 cm). This is the largest snowfall I experienced during my stay here in this country. Normally one inch of rain is equal to ten to fifteen inches of snow. The snow we got was quite heavy with may be 10 to 12 in of snow per inch of water. My estimate was we cleared nearly 1000 to 1500 kg of snow. Snow shoveling is an arduous task. One must never overdo it. Of course, children love snow and eat it too. I was told the story of a mother telling her children to eat white snow, not yellow snow (dirty snow I collected freshly fallen snow once and ate it Do you know, in olden days, emperors used to get the snow for their cool drinks from mountains. Interestingly, ice and snow was exported from Boston to Kolkota in the eighteenth century! Here are some pictures of the acopalypsnomageddon! You may see that two-thirds of the street is covered by the snow and only a narrow strip is left for driving. You may also see piles of snow on the sides (about three to four feet). Beyond the deck is a basketball court entirely covered by the snow. See how the roof is covered with piles of snow. One always worries about the weight of the snow. There have been incidents of roof collapse due to heavy snow.

Update: Tomorrow is a holiday!

However all this will soon become a memory. As the poet says, where are the snows of yesteryear?

Regards! - mOhana