We have had a mild winter – even for the south. Yes, we’ve had some cool/cold days, but we’ve also had many days in the seventies. Any chance of snow this year seemed like a pipe dream. I was wrong.
We went to South Carolina last weekend; our kids found a house they were interested in and wanted our opinion on it. We visited the house on Saturday, then spent time visiting with the kids and discussing options. (Note: my definition of the word “kids” includes the two I birthed, their significant others, the grandchildren, and a few others I didn’t birth, mostly my boy’s friends from their school days.) While we were talking, we received a notice from the National Weather Service that our area of the state was expecting snow on Sunday. Say what? After a brief discussion, Kenn and I decided to head home Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday as planned. While the predicted snow might not materialize, we weren’t sure what the roads would be like between South Carolina and home.
As you can see from the following photos, we got snow! We only got about an inch and it was gone by 12:30pm, but it was pretty while it lasted.
I thought the unexpected snow was a one and done. I was wrong again. Since Tuesday of this week, state meteorologists have been in “this is not a drill” mode. It looks like there is a good chance that we will have an ice storm this weekend – and not just any ice storm, possibly one of historical proportions. The last forecast I saw predicted over an inch of ice for this area. We live just far enough south that we usually miss out on snow and ice events, even when the towns fifteen to twenty miles north of us are impacted. It has been several years since our last ice storm. Ice storms are never good and it doesn’t help that the pine trees endemic in the south are exceptionally bad with ice. Pines have shallow root systems and since they are evergreens, they quickly get weighted down, give up the ghost, and fall.
We have done all we can to prepare. We’ve laid in a supply of groceries. We have underground utilities, which means we won’t lose power as quickly as some areas, but it it still a possibility. We have propane and can use the stove in the camper to cook if necessary. We also have a wood-burning stove and enough wood for a couple of years (no, I’m not kidding) so, we should be warm.
Kenn says I am no longer allowed to tell people that we’ve had a mild winter, LOL. How is the weather were you are?
Linda Lou's Life 
Such pretty video of snow! Good luck with the storm this weekend–your prep will serve you well! Stay safe and expect a weighted blanket of cats at night.
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Thanks! The colder it is, the more cats on the bed.🤣
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We are in storm mode today, too. It is still nice enough Randy made pancakes on the deck. Our ice will be here tomorrow evening and throughout the weekend. We will see what happens next.
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Stay safe! It’s now looking like we may just get rain instead of ice here.
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Cold AF here. No snow expected this weekend, but we have plenty on the ground to remind us that it is, indeed, winter (as if the subzero temps didn’t make that obvious enough). Ice storms are the worst; I hope you miss out!
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It looks like the storm has shifted far enough north that we’ll miss out on the worst of it.
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Whew! Good news for you. Not good news for people north of you.
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I wish you the best Linda and no, ice storms are not to be trifled with. A fellow blogger in Arkansas is also in line for bad weather and Michigan just sent a convoy of linemen to Arkansas to help for the next two weeks. I hope you fare well. The snow is pretty in the video and I’m glad you took a photo of the dinosaurs as I was trying to see if they were in fact dinosaurs in the video. I like the selfie of you two enjoying the flakes. We have had snow every other day it seems, but overnight we are going to between -20 to -25 real feel and air temps down to -10 and staying that say til 10:00 a.m. Saturday. It is worrisome to get that cold, but no ice storms on the horizon that they’ve mentioned, just more snow (4 inches) Sunday, which is why our energy guys are on their way to help our Southern neighbors. Stay safe!
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I’ve always appreciated how the power companies don’t hesitate to send crews to other states. At this point, the storm has shifted far enough north that we’ll miss the worst of it. We may have some icing overnight on Sunday due to all of the rain, but that’s more manageable. Temps like you are experiencing are unfathomable to me.
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Well that is good news for sure Linda. When we had our bad ice storm in February 2023, we had linemen from the South come to help in Southeast Michigan. We had no power for four days in our city. The guys that worked on the downed wires in our city were all from Tennessee and many of the residents were so happy to see them pull up in their neighborhood, they took out hot drinks, baked goods and snacks. 🙂 They felt badly since they weren’t used to our cold and snow. Because I live alone and have no family, I bought a standby generator in 2022. So, I had power which was great, but the ice storm took down my internet for four days. I was still working remotely at the time and the storm hit Wednesday night, so I had a mini-vacation from work for two days.
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It’s cold-ish here in Western NV, high 40s and low 50s are the highs, low 20s and 30s are the lows. We got one snow – about am inch that lasted just for the morning. Enjoy the pretty scenery and stay safe of there’s an ice storm! Sounds like you’re well prepared!
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Those temps are what we’ve had in between the warmer spells. It now looks like we’ll miss the worst of the ice storm; we should have mostly rain with possible icing overnight.
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