Ice Storm

I've been coming out to MD to do work at ARL for the last 3 years or so. Several of the trips have been during winter snow storms, causing the entire area closes down (including canceling church). Every time there is a storm and stuff gets canceled I wonder why everyone out here is so afraid of the snow, till now. Earlier this week we got a few inches of snow with intermittent rain and hail. This combination turned the snow into fairly solid ice. I can walk around our back yard on top of 4 inches of snow and not leave any foot prints!

All this ice makes driving a real pain. Before we can even think of going some where we had to dig the 1-2 inches of ice off of the car windows, which takes about half an hour. After finally getting into the car we found that the roads, including I-95, were not fully plowed. It took them about a day after the storm ended to get things cleared up!

The rain didn't just freeze to the ground. Some of the windows on our house had some very pretty and elaborate ice crystal growths on them. The trees caught a lot of the ice on their branches and like to throw it at anyone who happens to walk by. Some of the trees that have lost all of their leaves look pretty with the sun bouncing off their ice covered branches. Combine the shimmering trees with smooth unbroken glistening white covering the ground and you get some pretty picture opportunities. I hope I can get out and take pictures next time.