Yesterday we had rain that quickly changed to sleet in the morning. Last night it changed to freezing rain in a lot of areas, and then early this morning it changed back to snow. To the west, a lot of snow fell (16 inches in Columbia), and to the east, a lot more freezing rain fell. About 500,00 people in the St. Louis metro area were without power (including my parents in Kirkwood - thankfully they just called to tell me it was back on). It was, even by St. Louis standards, a freak storm. Beware of storms that track north and south - they pack a wallop. We've had thundersnow here before, but I think this is the first time we had thunderfreezing rain. Actually, we got so much rain at my house it all didn't freeze - part of my driveway was washed clean of snow and ice by all the runoff last night.
Yesterday I was sick at home with food poisoning; today I didn't go in after my wife and I watched our neighbor give up trying to get up the hill out of our subdivision. What a difference a day makes.
Since we didn't lose power here, I could admire the beauty, and took a break from shoveling my driveway to do so:
You can see my house and partly shoveled driveway. All of the tree branches are weighed down with snow and ice - one of them on the dogwood in my front yard snaped.
The view down my street -- I think it's pretty any season, but I don't get to see it this way too often (thankfully). They didn't plow here until mid-afternoon. My son spent the day sledding on a locally famous hill (no, not Art Hill - by locally, I mean locally. I spent the day shoveling, and visiting my parents.
My neighbors across the street lost several large limbs out of their silver maple (word of advice - never plant a soft maple). This one first landed on their roof before winding up in their driveway. They were happy Brian's truck wasn't parked there as it usually is. I think just about everybody had a tree that dropped a limb. On the way to my parents one street was closed, and another had a lane blocked by a huge limb that came down. We even saw a pin oak bent over double with the top in the street. A couple of doors up from my parents a tree limb pinned a power line leading to a neighbor's house.
I have to admit, it sure was a winter wonderland around here today. The bradford pear in this picture is missing a half due to this summer's freak summer storm that left half a million without power.
Shelley has several posts about the storm: Icicles, Again, one of the lucky ones, and Let's talk about the weather.
Gateway Pundit has a post, St. Louis gets slammed with ice.
And Jim Durbin has power but no propane.
It's a strange juxtaposition of beauty and destructive power. At least two houses have been condemned in Kirkwood because trees fell on them. I got that directly from the city's deputy building inspector today.
I actually feel a little bad about the propane comment when people are without power, but a man has to have his salmon cooked all the way through! It's not like you can pan sear salmon on an electric stove and have it taste good.