More Snow

Well, old man winter keeps grinding forward here in WV, and it's becoming challenging to keep up with it. The tree in the photo looks really pretty arched over my driveway like that, but it typically doesn't look like that, that's just from the weight of the snow on the limbs.

There's a set of stairs that head downtown that run near my house. The other day, I tried walking down them and nearly feel four times. One of my roommates wasn't so agile--he fell seven times walking down those stairs. They were snow covered, but now they are packed snow and ice.

It has served as a reminder to slow down and simplify life, and it has limited my personal travel over the last few weeks as well. Most of my travel these days is on foot. The snow is coming down at just the right pace to make the roads near my house pretty treacherous. The main roads in town are staying fairly clear, but any other roads are becoming challenging to manage. The great thing amid this challenge is that most locations in town are within a 40 minute walk of the house.

Things are looking like there will be a break soon. Another 2-4 inches are expected by Thursday morning, but then the weather should be reduced to flurries . . . at least for a couple of days. I bet there is some great skiing right now somewhere . . .

As I was watching someone slip down the stairs near my house this morning, I came back to my computer to find this article about the snowfall in Preston County. I have a few friends who live out that way. One told me that there were 5 foot drifts across the long driveway leading to their house.

Be sure to pray for those living in rural areas who may be snowed in. Hope you are staying warm, wherever you may be.

Winter Morgantown Views

Well, we received an additional six inches of snow in Morgantown this week, but as of today it appears people are starting to be able to move their cars. On the streets around my house there's only about two inces of crushed snow and ice on the roads, and there are two grooves that go down to the pavement in some places now. We are expecting snow for most of the next week, but nothing on the scale of what we have experienced this past week. It's just really cold and that makes it difficult to see this snow disappear.

At the same time, there has been a quiet over the city as fewer people are on the roads, and people are realizing that driving around on icy roads in a city built on a hill is probably not the best idea. It's quiet, and the views have been really stunning as I've looked around this town in which I live. The photos in this post were taken from my neighborhood, and as I walked to Starbucks the other day to get internet access, I snapped them to capture the moment.



I'm grateful for the fact that my house has had power over the last few days, and we've been able to stay warm. We've also been fortunate that we can travel on foot to most places we need to travel. There are still people without power as a result of the storm. Remember them. Our federal government closed for part of the week because of the snow that has fallen in the greater DC area.

Hope you are staying warm wherever you may be as we prepare for the next few days of snow here in West Virginia.

Lookin Out My Back Door

This past weekend (as many of you know), Morgantown received a heap of snow. I have heard a varied range for total accumulations, but I feel like 16" is a safe bet. Before the initial snowfall, there were several hours of rain and sleet that became a layer of ice in the early evening hours Friday night. While the snow covered the ground and seemed to cleanse the area with a mat of soft quiet white wonder, it also did a fair share of damage.

Much of the region was without power over the weekend, and some locales will not have electricity until this coming Friday at the earliest. At the house, we only experienced a cable outage for the weekend, but it came back in time for the superbowl. Oh, and the internet was out until this afternoon as well (so I'm writing this blog from Starbucks).

The snow shut down most of town, and the University is going to re-open tomorrow at 6AM. Interestingly, while I was writing this blog, I heard reports of an additional 5-9 inches of snow are to be expected tomorrow, and snow is in the forecast every day for the next ten days . . .

Hope you like the photo, and and I hope you are staying warm wherever you are!

Snow in October

Snow in October, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

It is snowing in Morgantown. Leaves are still green on the trees in my yard. Every fifteen minutes I hear the crack of another branch as it breaks and falls somewhere in my neighborhood because of the weight of the snow on the still green leaves. The tops are broken out of most of the trees in my neighborhood right now. Powerlines are down, and the power goes out for a few seconds every half hour.

I hope this is not an early indicator of the severity of the winter to come.

Last night I left my class around 9:45. As I walked home it was snowing a little bit (it had been raining earlier). Twenty minutes after I got home, my roommate calls me outside. The ground was covered with snow.

And it is still coming down this morning. . .