Snow!!

For the first time since 2004 - Christmas Eve, actually - we had some snow.

Not much on my side of town, altho the rooftops and parked cars had the white stuff all over them. I'm probably about the only person in town who owns an ice scraper, but my baby was safely tucked away in the garage - the rest of the folks would have had a slight problem unless or until they figured out that all they had to do was grab a hard plastic spatula from a utility drawer in the kitchen. That works pretty well.

The 10pm news was full of shots of snow falling - not terribly heavy, no accumulations to speak of, but it was enough to create a winter wonderland scene at the outdoor ice skating rink downtown and cause a car accident or two.

There were worries, because we have literally hundreds of overpasses in Houston, of the wet roads overnight becoming like glass resulting in a nightmarish rush hour this morning. And they would have (and probably some were in the hours between 10pm and midnight), except that the temperatures did not continue to fall into the 20s as predicted. Rather, they held fairly steady from 9pm on (when we were right at the freezing mark) and even rose three or four degrees.

Currently, temperatures are ranging between 33 and 36 degrees with winds either from the WNW at 8mph or NW at 10, 11, & 13mph, depending on where you live in Houston. Those figures are different from those of an hour ago. They're significantly lower.

The skies are clearing, which is bad news. With no cloud cover the temperatures will continue to drop. If the roads are still wet, we'll have those icy conditions. Not good for the morning commute. I'm glad I don't have to be out this morning. It's not my driving I'm afraid of. It's all those other idiots out there!

[OK. It's now a little after 5am. Just did the latest weather check, and it would appear that we are out of the woods. The skies are all now 'clear' and 'fair', wind speeds range from 7-16mph, and the lowest temperatures are up a degree to 34. Good news all around, it would seem. I'm going to go into the other room in just a sec to see what they're reporting on the news. If there's anything of interest to add, I'll let you know.

Well, too bad. I was being too much of an optimist. Accidents everywhere. Many overpasses are difficult if not impossible to negotiate safely. In fact, accesses to some are being blocked off. The glare of ice can easily be seen from Transtar cameras. Temps now at the freezing mark. Nightmare commute. Glad I'm inside.]


Christmas is just around the corner. If we get some significant snowfall between now and then, I'll do a post on Christmas in 2004. In fact, I might just do one anyway! It's worth talking about.