At noon the snow seems to be changing to rain. It's almost 33 degrees. But earlier today it was all snow and coming down heavily. At my 8 a.m. reading, I had 2" of new snow and 7" on the ground. It depends on where you take your reading because I just shoved this yardstick through the snow on the north side of the house and it reads 6" even after an entire morning's snow. It's accurate for that spot, of course, but I expect on average we have closer to 10".
So, what does it look like here? This shot, taken at the end of our driveway and looking back at the house, shows how deep the snow lies. I have a shovel-width path to the street. It's visible in this picture.
Standing in the same spot as the last shot and looking north on Clayton Road, here's what I see: white which goes on forever. The road has been plowed but there has been little traffic. All area schools are closed.
Another shot looking back at the house. This picture would fit on the front of a Christmas card, I think. If only I sent them.
Below is a shot looking back our driveway. The little dark spot in the snow (almost dead center) is what you can see of my 20" NWS rain gauge. It's sticking up out of the drifted snow ... barely.
This clump of pines is at the northwest side of our property. The two "T's" at the left edge of this shot are our clothes line poles. Beyond is a 40 acre field, alternately planted in soybeans or corn.
A shot of our back porch shows the bales of straw I mentioned a few days ago from a little closer angle.
So at 1 p.m. we are now at 33 degrees and I can see the snow still slowly falling. I suppose additional accumulations will be less for the rain mixed in. Tonight we're to have higher winds, to nearly 40 mph, so I expect tomorrow morning to be a true winter wonderland. If the drifts pile up as I expect, we won't be going anywhere soon.
