If every television, computer, tablet, and cell phone in your house stopped working last week, you may have missed the giant winter storm that slid through a good portion of the United States Friday and Saturday. When I looked at the watches and warnings for the Deep South on Thursday and Friday, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia were awash with colors showing the possibility of ice and snow. Yet Alabama, smack dab in the middle of those three states, stayed colorless. A low from the Gulf of Mexico centered itself in such a way that warm moisture from the Gulf staved off the worst of the storm for us, although it gifted us with a ton of rain both Saturday and Sunday. The downpour stopped about 3:30 Sunday afternoon.
Even the Gulf low, however, couldn't stave off the Arctic weather we are experiencing now. By the time the downpour stopped on Sunday, the temperatures were already nose-diving from the earlier high of 53. Sunday night's low was 18, and Monday night's is going to be even worse, at 12. In a state where a “normal” winter low is between 30 and 50 degrees, such low temperatures shock all of our systems.
The cold is bad enough on its own, but none of the water left by the rain Sunday afternoon had a chance to run off the roadways into the ditches before the temperature dropped below freezing, so our roads are going to be nightmares today, Monday. Since the temperature today is only expected to reach 33, the ice may not start melting until Tuesday. In a state where a single reported snowflake triggers a wave of closings, ice on the road is deadly. People down here don’t know how to watch for it, how to drive on it, or how to avoid it.
The only upside to the way this storm came through is that we avoided ice accumulations on the trees and power lines. I plan to hunker down until tomorrow, when hopefully it warms up enough to clear the roads.
There is, as always, at least one silver lining. Even if the roads ice over from the standing water, we have power. I can use at least some of the time I spend huddling in my house working on my writing. I am looking forward to it. Now I have to settle the debate on whether to work on revising a finished draft or adding new words to the current WIP. I’ll probably just flip a coin to decide.
Do you like to write when the weather has you cooped up indoors? If not, what is your favorite writing weather?
The weather doesn't affect when I write.
ReplyDeleteThat's great! It did me because of the extra time I got today from being at home - 4 hours I'm not driving to or from work.
DeleteThe storm came through here on Sunday. Certainly not the worst I've ever seen, but it did bring things to a halt. We're also expecting freezing temperatures, so nothing will thaw for a while. My snow-storm go-to activities are baking (I made bread) and cooking a pot roast with potatoes and carrots. I've resisted that so far, but I do have the meat in the freezer, so if I can't get out soon, I'm sure I'll be fixing that. Writing will stay on the regular schedule (or lack thereof.)
ReplyDeleteI love home made bread! Do you make it from scratch, or use a bread maker?
DeleteNo real change because of the weather.
ReplyDeleteI hope the weather didn't affect you too much.
DeleteA positive way to look at things! Hope you get some good writing done!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteI live in MA and there are about 20” on the ground in many places with light snow of another 4” still falling. There is the potential for another storm next weekend but the prediction doesn’t indicate if it will cover as much of the country as this one.
ReplyDeleteThe ice can be a lot worse to deal with than snow if the temperature
stays low.
I don’t understand why some people feel compelled to go out in bad weather. They not only endanger themselves but also anyone else equally misguided (I am trying to be polite in what I really think about them)
When I am watching the snow come down or listening to the plows pushing the snow around, it opens up opportunities for doing things inside, but sometimes you just become mesmerized by the sights and sounds around you.
Yes, here in Alabama, some of us don't know enough about ice to not drive on it. I think an ice storm is one of the worst types of weather to cope with. Much worse than snow!
DeleteStay safe and warm, Nancy. I try to be a postman kind of writer - neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stop me. Try is the key word there, though. It's 0 here and I'm going to stop and make hot chocolate. Brrrrr.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and daughter love hot chocolate when it's cold!
DeleteMy favorite writing weather is right now, sitting in a huge dump of snow. The temps falling to zero every night are discoraging. Dripping faucets, exposing undersink pipes.
ReplyDeleteWe're leaving our pipes dripping too.
DeleteWe're leaving our faucets dripping at night right now, too. Our cut off is a low of 27 degrees. Lower than that, we leave them dripping.
DeleteLeave your kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors under the sink open so the heat can get to the pipes,
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteSo glad you are safe! I live in Maine now, after 40 some odd years in Florida and ice is nothing to be trivialized. I love to write in the night. Don't care about the weather - I love the silent cocoon.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds delightful, but if I write too late at night, I tend to fall asleep over it, and that's a weird feeling.
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