A First Coastal Wintery Experience

I am keeping this post which was written during our third winter on the coast. It was our first encounter with coastal snow. We have now come to understand that we see snow or ice at least every three years and if we get a cold winter, we might get two or three tastes of it.

Fortunately it usually disappears quickly and does not hang around to torture us like it did in some places that we have lived.

As I am moving these old posts, we are enduring our second ice event of the winter of 2013–14. Things are coated with sleet and ice as you can see from the picture of the marsh grass. Still we can remain hopeful as there is a lot of rain in the forecast which should make all the frozen stuff disappear. Now for the post about our first experience with snow on the coast. The following was written January 23, 2009.

I have been through a range of emotions with this snow. First it was disbelief that snow could find us in the paradise which we had chosen as a place to hide from snow and ice. Then I was a little irritated at the whole thought of snow here. Finally when it started accumulating a little, I became resigned to having to deal with it.

It was only when I figured out that the snow was not going to stick to our driveway or most of the roads that I started to enjoy it. Snow triggers all sorts of emotions in ex-Canadians. When we lived on a farm in New Brunswick, snow often came with such a vengeance that anything left on the ground was hidden from sight for six months or more.

In Roanoke, Virginia where we also lived, snow usually meant a quick change to ice and lots of slippery driving. If you did not clean your driveway completely, it could turn into a skating rink.

I finally decided that snow on the coast is so ephemeral that it is hardly worth any worry. It was gone almost before we got a chance to see much of it.

It did bring some ice which created a mystery behind our home on Raymond’s Gut in Bluewater Cove. In the end I decided that ducks were the answer instead of flying saucers.

The snow has actually been a welcome topic during a slow month for writing. I managed to get a couple of articles from it for the Crystal Coast Living Blog that I do for Bluewater GMAC Real Estate.

This afternoon when we went to take pictures, the snow was almost completely gone. The temperatures had warmed to nearly fifty degrees Fahrenheit so all the ice behind our house melted.

Tomorrow we are supposed to get temperatures near sixty degrees Fahrenheit. I guess I can be happy about one snow storm every six years.

Given that we have great weather most of the year, a little snowy diversion will not hurt.

This is a link to some pictures that I took of today’s sunset and some gulls near the Cedar Point Wildlife Resources Ramp. I took a few more photos of the ice on January 22. Our little snow did not even completely cover our yard as you can see from these shots.

The tiny amount of snow and extreme local reaction to it prompted me to write an article, Faulty snow fails to meet Canadian standards, about the inadequacy of our coastal snow.

Actually I am pretty happy the snow did not have to be shoveled and did not stick to the roads.

That is the best kind especially if you are living at the beach and do not have a snow shovel.

If you would like to read more about the Crystal Coast and why we are living here, you will find some helpful posts at this link.

More information about life here can be found at my Crystal Coast Life blog. This is the signup link for our monthly newsletter about the Crystal Coast.