Family,
I know I am not getting any sympathy from you Utah folks or Colorado exiles, but we missed 2 more days of school last week because of snow, and are potentially going to have another snowstorm overnight that might cancel school again.
Now before you start calling us weather wimps (even though we may deserve it), let me give you some information. First, the snow up here is wetter and heavier than in Utah. Part of that is because we are lower in elevation (close to sea level), and we get the moisture right off the Pacific, making the humidity higher. That's one of the big reasons I gave up skiing. Trying to night ski in the rain wearing a garbage bag (I'm not making this up) in snow that feels like wet cement, is no fun.
Second, since it snows so rarely, there are almost no snowplows or sanding trucks, and what few there are get focused primarily on the freeways. We have never seen a snowplow within two miles of our house here ever! So the snow falls, cars drive on it, packing it down and squeezing the extra moisture into hard snow they call compact snow, not quite ice, but easily polished by car tires, and slippery as snot. And it stays there until the gentle warm rains melt it away. We've had no gentle, warm rains since last weeks two snowstorms. Also, since most of the unplowed streets are shaded by tall evergreen trees (except for the thousands that blew down in the windstorm), the sun, if it does come out, doesn't hit most of the side streets, only the freeways that have already been plowed. So you can't count on a sunny day to clear the streets.
Finally, the only people up here who know how to drive in the snow are Kate and I, and I am not that sure about Kate. Kate has pointed out to me that when it snows, it's not a good idea to go out driving, especially since I am not as good a driver in the snow as I used to be. To which I point out that while she might be right, I am still better than all the other stupid drivers here. When it gets slippery, the only can think "If I just push on the gas pedal (or brake) harder, the extra force will make things better". So if you start to slip a little bit as you start to slide down a hill, the natural thing that most Washington drivers do is to stand on the brake, locking up all four tires, and losing all control while they bounce off cars until they hit the bottom of the hill. Same problem when you lose traction going up a hill, just switch to pushing on the gas pedal more. Did I mention there are a lot of hills here?
Not to mention that it has been unseasonably cold. Can you believe that it gets down to 20 degrees at night, and only 34 during the days? Can you imagine that?
Well, now you have some picture of what our life has been like here the last week or so. Kate and I did go for a walk in the middle of the snowstorm, though, on Wednesday night, and with the snow falling, the streetlights, and the crunch of snow, it reminded us of Utah. It was beautiful.
Finally, why the snow days at school. Take all of the things above, and then consider that all the schools are built on the tops of the hills, and you get why they close schools for snow days. The bad part is that now, with four snow days (and counting), one wind/power outage day, and we won't get out of school up here until the 27th of June in Kate's district, and the 1st of July in Carrie's district. We probably won't have to make up the wind day, as it became a federally declared emergency, but the snow days have to be made up. Who knew?
I'm sure that some of you will think this is trivial and try to top our stories, you whining wimps! Go ahead, we dare you!
Kevin
I know I am not getting any sympathy from you Utah folks or Colorado exiles, but we missed 2 more days of school last week because of snow, and are potentially going to have another snowstorm overnight that might cancel school again.
Now before you start calling us weather wimps (even though we may deserve it), let me give you some information. First, the snow up here is wetter and heavier than in Utah. Part of that is because we are lower in elevation (close to sea level), and we get the moisture right off the Pacific, making the humidity higher. That's one of the big reasons I gave up skiing. Trying to night ski in the rain wearing a garbage bag (I'm not making this up) in snow that feels like wet cement, is no fun.
Second, since it snows so rarely, there are almost no snowplows or sanding trucks, and what few there are get focused primarily on the freeways. We have never seen a snowplow within two miles of our house here ever! So the snow falls, cars drive on it, packing it down and squeezing the extra moisture into hard snow they call compact snow, not quite ice, but easily polished by car tires, and slippery as snot. And it stays there until the gentle warm rains melt it away. We've had no gentle, warm rains since last weeks two snowstorms. Also, since most of the unplowed streets are shaded by tall evergreen trees (except for the thousands that blew down in the windstorm), the sun, if it does come out, doesn't hit most of the side streets, only the freeways that have already been plowed. So you can't count on a sunny day to clear the streets.
Finally, the only people up here who know how to drive in the snow are Kate and I, and I am not that sure about Kate. Kate has pointed out to me that when it snows, it's not a good idea to go out driving, especially since I am not as good a driver in the snow as I used to be. To which I point out that while she might be right, I am still better than all the other stupid drivers here. When it gets slippery, the only can think "If I just push on the gas pedal (or brake) harder, the extra force will make things better". So if you start to slip a little bit as you start to slide down a hill, the natural thing that most Washington drivers do is to stand on the brake, locking up all four tires, and losing all control while they bounce off cars until they hit the bottom of the hill. Same problem when you lose traction going up a hill, just switch to pushing on the gas pedal more. Did I mention there are a lot of hills here?
Not to mention that it has been unseasonably cold. Can you believe that it gets down to 20 degrees at night, and only 34 during the days? Can you imagine that?
Well, now you have some picture of what our life has been like here the last week or so. Kate and I did go for a walk in the middle of the snowstorm, though, on Wednesday night, and with the snow falling, the streetlights, and the crunch of snow, it reminded us of Utah. It was beautiful.
Finally, why the snow days at school. Take all of the things above, and then consider that all the schools are built on the tops of the hills, and you get why they close schools for snow days. The bad part is that now, with four snow days (and counting), one wind/power outage day, and we won't get out of school up here until the 27th of June in Kate's district, and the 1st of July in Carrie's district. We probably won't have to make up the wind day, as it became a federally declared emergency, but the snow days have to be made up. Who knew?
I'm sure that some of you will think this is trivial and try to top our stories, you whining wimps! Go ahead, we dare you!
Kevin
1 comment:
It has been so mild this year in northern Utah, cold but little snow or precipitation, that I won't make any effort to top your winter stories.
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