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?
