Thursday, November 15, 2018

First snowstorm, November 15, 2018


On October 21 I observed the first snowflake of the season in Nanticoke - and pointed out that just a week before we had been running the air conditioning. Today we are in the midst of the first snowstorm of the season.

Just over seven inches at 8:15 PM

The snow started around midday, around the time I took my pre-Thanksgiving turkey out of the oven. It was snowing as I picked up our pierogi for Christmas Eve - three dozen each of potato, cheese, and cabbage. The forecast was for snow in the afternoon, followed by sleet and freezing rain overnight, changing back by snow in the morning and ending in the afternoon.  By the time I went outside to take a measurement of just over seven inches on the front porch at 8:15 PM, the sleet and freezing rain had already begun, possibly tamping down the snow a bit.

This isn't just a nuisance snow. There have been major accidents resulting in highway blockages. Someone working near where I will begin working in a little over a week, twelve miles from here, has been stuck on the highway for hours. Another person has been stuck at the exit for Nanticoke for over three hours. Trucks have jackknifed. Traffic is snarled. Camels have been spotted.




I'm tempted to go out and shovel now. But that would mean that the sleet and freezing rain would be falling on bare sidewalks, rather than on snow-covered sidewalks - potentially making it much harder to shovel in the morning. We'll see if I made the right decision.

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