After all the nice weather we had in early January, we got sucker punched today with a light dusting of snow.
Yesterday, when I saw a high temperatures of fifty-six degrees Fahrenheit, I was questioning whether the weathermen could possibly be right.
This morning when I got up the temperature was still at forty Fahrenheit, but as I wrote on my Crystal Coast blog, it fell to thirty-two degrees by 11 AM.
The snow started about the time President Obama was sworn into office at 12:30 PM.
Given that the temperature has dropped to twenty-seven Fahrenheit at 10 PM tonight, my guess is that there will be some icy spots on the roads in the morning.
We actually got something less than one inch of snow.
In most places on earth this would not register as a snow event much less require a state of emergency. Here many things closed down this afternoon when the roads were only wet.
To the west of us, there were areas that got three to five inches of snow. Even Nags Head got three inches.
One place managed seven inches, but I cannot recall the name. It was to the north and west of us.
If you have to endure some snow, the best kind is that which you do not have to shovel. That is what we got.
I have written about the necessity of keeping a clean driveway unless you want to be slipping on the same ice all winter.
Certainly that does not apply in Carteret County since melting will happen soon. We will be back to fifty-nine degrees Fahrenheit by Friday.
I suspect that will preclude the necessity of any chains for my feet like I often needed in Roanoke, Virginia.
It was only ten days ago on January 10 that I took the boat out on the river.
It was warm enough then that I was fine with no coat and just a long sleeve tee-shirt.
I took these pictures with a camera mounted on my console. After the trip, I was hopeful that I would be fishing in a few days.
Then we headed up in the mountains for the weekend, and I got a feeling that we were in for trouble.
We saw lows of two degrees Fahrenheit on both Friday and Saturday mornings. It definitely got me in a winter state of mind.
It that does not work, I will focus on these summer pictures when we beached the skiff on small island in Bogue Inlet.
I know that we are going to be back to warm temperatures soon. Given what others are facing, our cold hardly deserves the name cold.
One place in Maine hit an all time record of minus fifty degrees Fahrenheit. With that it mind, it is hard to believe that January 11, the day after I went boating, we drove around Swansboro taking pictures of flowers.
We used to call snow like this free fertilizer. That is about as nice a name as I can think of for coastal snow.
Yet I know from experience that a little snow will not stop the spring flowers.
That serious February sun will be here soon, and on its heels will follow March which sometimes brings us strawberries as the first fruit of spring.
Hopefully this snow and cold is all that winter can throw at us.
From all the calls that I have received from around the country, including some as far away as Montana, I know that people, especially those in the Northeast, are ready for some milder temperatures.
While I doubt the Northeast will get those warm temperatures soon, we will be glad to enjoy some warmth for them.
I keep remembering that it was only the third week in April 2007 when friends from Boston came and waded in the surf.
Let us hope we can beat that date this year and banish all memory of this winter stuff around our homes.
Update- Jan. 21, 2009
Most of the snow has already disappeared especially over on the beach.
You can read about it on my Crystal Coast blog.
Why we love it here?
It is hard to say that any place is perfect. There always a balance between what you like and what you don't like. That also changes as you age. At one time I was close to homesteading in Newfoundland.
Today I would steer you to my articles, Ten ways Carteret County met our needs, Why I love living in Carteret County, and to the Crystal Coast Electronic Village Homepage as answers to why we have chosen this area.
From that reading it is easy to understand why we enjoy living in a small subdivision called Bluewater Cove near Cape Carteret. It is what we were looking for in a place to live. It's close to services and close to the beach but not on the beach. We have a dock behind the house and are close to some great trails. I can ride my bike in the neighborhood and not face a lot of traffic.
I also use my kayak on the White Oak River and have learned to love exploring the river and surrounding waters with our skiff.
This area also has some great festivals like the Newport Pig Cookoff, the Emerald Isle Saint Patrick's Day, and the Swansboro Oyster Roast. We were also impressed with the Emerald Isle Christmas Parade.
It is a friendly area with a great future. So right now it is the spot for us. I often write about the area in my other websites. If you are a very avid reader, you might find some content on multiple sites, but usually the content is fairly specific to the sites.
View from the Mountain
Ocracoke Waves
Crystal Coast Living Blog
Crystal Coast Blog 09
Crystal Coast Blog 08
Some archived articles
More Crystal Coast Info