Layers of White --- Up Close

The storm continued to blanket the Ozarks all through the night. Just before 10:00pm our power went out so I figured it would be a good time to hunker down under extra blankets, grab my book-lite and read in the quiet of a winter's night. The only sound was the snow brushing against the window on its way to the ground. We were lucky; our power was out for less than four hours. Thirty miles to the south Arkansas towns are still without power and look like war zones. Power lines and trees lie on the ground, still bearing the inch-thick ice that brought them down. Shelters are open; stores and gas stations are closed. Yes, we are very lucky here.

The snow was still lightly falling this morning. I was up earlier than normal so I got dressed to spend some time outside cleaning off the walk and driveway. The going was very slow and fruitless. The top layer was about an inch of soft snow, hiding the barrier of ice below. Scraping the ice from the driveway wasn't worth it since I didn't need to go out anyway. The garage door wouldn't open because of the ice holding it down, so I did chip that off. Below are a couple of photos of a chunk that was against the garage door. I didn't think to put a ruler against it for the photo, but the bottom layer is over an inch of ice. On top of that is sleet that is crustier than the layer of snow that I had already scraped off.

Then to the back deck where I could take in acres of untouched snow and ice-coated oak and black walnut trees. The sky didn't completely clear all day, but the snow did stop falling. Melting won't happen for a couple more days so I can enjoy this view awhile longer.

Now, no matter how bad things get we can always find someone or something that is worse off. The pictures below were on Baba's blog this morning. They were taken near Geneva City Switzerland. How about this for ICE?