Brrr! What a cold several days starting with Sunday, January 25! I recorded the whiteness (mostly ground level) in the morning after the previous night's sleet. Also recorded the next three days, skipped the fifth day, then recorded the sixth day.
The sixth day was thawedful in front, but still icypatched in back. This freeze was forecast/forewarned by weather people starting the previous week. There had been dire warnings that 245 million people, over half of US population, could be affected by the severe weather.
The stocking up of groceries by so many shoppers! It was like grocery shopping at a holiday eve--all cash registers operating, and several shoppers deep per register! We had gone the day before the actual eve, anticipating that going the night before the freeze would be REALLY unwise.
My first recording shows Sunday, January 25 at 7:32 AM. It was 17 degrees. I ventured out onto the front porch, then gingerly stepped onto the back patio a few feet. Crunch, crunch. I ventured as far as the far end of the patio bench.
The next three days of recording the back was through glass of the storm door. I skipped recording on the fifth day. On the sixth day, the front was totally thawed. The back was almost totally thawed, enough that I wasn't chicken to step onto the concrete.
We're expecting another couple of days of freezing weather, but no precipitation that could freeze and weigh down and break tree branches as in 2023. No power outage this time around, as had occurred in 2021 and 2023.
