Saturday
Jan302010
Report from Sleigh Ride Hill
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 09:41AM ;)
Jack Frost on horseback, 19th-century lithograph -- click on image for larger versionThe snow got started late in our part of the mountains, but once it began, it stayed and made itself t'home. Maybe 3 to 4 inches so far and still snowing at a modest but steady rate. The reports have deeper snow on the ground to the south and southeast of us and it looks like we'll get only about half of what we were promised, id est, around 6 or so inches total. Darn!
The street where we live is known locally as Sleigh Ride Hill. Nice and steep. The snowplow has to creep up the avenue behind us and come down -- can't make the grade up the hill in icy conditions.
tagged snow in daily blog, nature, weather
snow in daily blog, nature, weather 
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Reader Comments (5)
We were blessed with less than 2 inches which fell quickly yesterday afternoon...then came the sleet. It's wet, mottled and miserably grey but above freezing. I suppose Blue Ridge can consider this good fortune as we are not snowed in. My reaction...? Darn!!!!
The weather has a tendency to jam against East River Mountain and doubly bless Bluefield until it runs out of precip or gets loose. We've got 8" of the fluffy stuff---better than Dec 18, when we had---horrors--to walk up our hill for a couple of days.
Sent Hayek/Maynes video to my lad Christoph Heilmeier, writing a thesis about mass news outlet portrayal of postwar American conservatism for his advanced degree in NOrth American studies at the Freie Universitat in Berlin. "Herr Heilmeier! Amerika calling!!" Good stuff!!
The weather has a tendency to jam against East River Mountain and doubly bless Bluefield until it runs out of precip or gets loose. We've got 8" of the fluffy stuff---better than Dec 18, when we had---horrors--to walk up our hill for a couple of days.
Sent Hayek/Maynes video to my lad Christoph Heilmeier, writing a thesis about mass news outlet portrayal of postwar American conservatism for his advanced degree in NOrth American studies at the Freie Universitat in Berlin. "Herr Heilmeier! Amerika calling!!" Good stuff!!
Light snow began here in Hanover around 5 AM judging by 1/2 in on leaves at 6:30 when I got up to check out of curiosity. Back to bed until 9:30 -- Wow! What a difference: 6" & coming down hard. Went outside at 11:30 to clean 8" off walk & car. Coming down at better than an inch an hour. I learned in No. Michigan to clean this off a little at a time while it's fluffy so you don't have to lift so much at once!
Filled feeder & scattered scratch feed & mixed seed on walk for doves & juncos, sparrows & titmice & chickadees. They were all waiting about 10-12 ft away. Broke trail 1/4 mi out to county road (not a chance of that being plowed until Monday, if then) & shook snow off the boxwood hedge so branches don't break. By the time I came in an hour later (1) I was wet inside out from sweat & covered in snow, (2) couldn't see thru fogged up snow-spattered glasses, & (3) there's another 4 in. on my car. We may get as much here as we got in Dec.The birds are tame as chickens, coming & going all the time I was working.
I love it. Wish I had snow shoes to go thru woods. Too brushy for skis & too deep for me to bushwhack. Hope you all don't get too much ice and stay warm & well.
SLOICE! Just walked the dog and can report that we now have a genuine Virginia Mountain Highlands SLOICE sandwich in the making. Here's how it's done: start with about 1/4 inch of sleet. Follow with about 3-1/2 to 4 inches of dense snow -- good, snowball-packing quality stuff. That settles on top of the sleet, which... is partially melted by residual heat on pavement, and . . . stops the melting. What is falling now looks kinda like snow, but it isn't -- it's ice. White, Sno-Cone quality ice, settling in on top of the snow and beginning to pack it down further. So: SLeet + snOw + ICE = SLOICE. Great stuff for toboganning, attempting to walk, and -- best of all -- driving. Predicted overnight low = 10 degrees F, which means any rock-salted SLOICE will re-freeze by morning. Okay -- it's back to the couch and the warmth of the gas logs to resume scoffing at the weather.