Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Sun Is Up And Lighting Up A Very White North Texas While Snow Continues To Fall

Dawn has now broken in North Texas, with the sun trying to light up the place. Snow continues to blanket the ground.

The current view from my patio door window is now quite white. The flashing camera makes the snowflakes look like twinkling stars.

When I lived in Washington, in the Banana Belt Skagit Valley, where it rarely snowed, I developed an extreme fondness for the rare snow days. Mostly, I suspect, because, if enough snow fell, school might get canceled. That always seemed like a Christmas present.

Sadly, the best snowstorm of my school in Washington years occurred during Christmas vacation. If I remember right, that snowstorm occurred when I was a Junior in high school. That snow storm is the only one I ever remember hitting the Skagit Valley that resulted in snowdrifts.

40 miles north of the Skagit Valley, in Lynden, where my grandma's lived, that area of Washington is in a completely different climate zone from the Skagit Valley. Cold Arctic air comes down the Fraser River Valley and heads out to sea, blocked, usually, from hitting the Skagit Valley, due to a conveniently placed mountain range, but that cold air hits Lynden and Whatcom County, bringing a lot of snow, as in several feet, at times, and heavy winds that cause big snowdrifts, drifts so tall they reach the roofs of barns.

North Texas has no mountains, nothing to cause weather systems to affect one area differently than another, as far as I know. So, I suspect all of North Texas is being quite bright white today. I've not heard, yet, if schools are closing.

I may drag out my cross country skis today, if the white stuff keeps accumulating. Currently, at almost 8am, we are still below freezing and the snow keeps falling.

4 comments:

Jovan Gonzales said...

YEAH!!! Snow!!! It's super snowy here in good ol Sulphur Springs. I love snow. Especially because North Texas never gets it. Supposedly, this is one of the snowiest winters on record for this area. D/FW even has cancelled flights!!! That's how you know we're getting measurable snow, haha, you know, because here we can't handle more than a half inch--and we're expecting 6!!!

Bonus: I don't even have to go to work today!!! I love snow.

Dango, I hope you'll be building snowmen like I am!!! I also plan on making snow ice cream if we get enough clean snow. Do regular skis work like cross-country skis, those are all I have? Skiing sounds like a great idea!

Geez. Can you see how excited I am!? I'm like a little kid. ^_^

Durango said...

I dunno, Jovo, if regular skis work well in cross country mode. But what's the harm in trying. I just looked at mine and there is a bit of delamination going on. This does look like good snowman snow. I'm gonna try and make it over to Miss Puerto Rico's for a panoramic picture from her balcony view.

Why are you still in Sulphur Springs instead of school?

Jovan Gonzales said...

Uh oh! Time for new skis, Dango. I think I'll be trying anyways. I'll prolly look like an asshat, but oh well.

As for being in SST, I've been here, and will be for this whole semester, at least. I'm having to do correspondence courses with the occasional trip to College Station for tests. It's a long story as to why, but I'm still technically in school at A&M as well as being at A&M-Commerce at the moment.

Durango said...

Jovo----
Turns out the skis were fine. I must have confused a nightmare with reality. It'd been years since I had any reason to check on the rarely used in Texas skis.