Winter Storm

Winter came suddenly over the past weekend. It has been glorious here through November, but on Saturday the temperatures slid into the minuses and there was a snowfall during the night. Yesterday was sunny again, but today, after a beautiful sunrise, clouds moved in, the wind picked up and late in the afternoon it began to snow.

The headlines in the online Globe and Mail this evening say "Snow hammers East, West faces deep freeze" and "Eastern U.S. hit by blast of winter", so I guess we're merely the next locale in the path of this particular storm... but it's my first Maritime blizzard and I'm agog. My house is snug; I had no idea the wind was blowing that hard until I stepped outside... into an enveloping roar, the howling wind combined with the crashing of waves on the beach. In truth, about five hours into this storm not much snow has accumulated and it's a balmy zero degrees outside, so it's hardly threatening weather, but it feels absolutely... totally... wild.

Clearly Maritimers are very business-like about this sort of thing. Earlier this evening, the radio promised extra newscasts into the evening to keep us posted on the storm. Lists of event cancellations were broadcast and full listings were to be posted on the Internet. The plows have been out on the main roads... Spit spot; it's just another blizzard.

I'm glad the locals know what they're doing. Me, I'm sitting here listening to the driven snow needling against the windows and watching the lights dim and flicker. And thinking about the forecast which promises us +7 degrees tomorrow!