Friday, December 14, 2007

Mother Nature's Wrath


Mother Nature’s wrath was in evidence yesterday. The ice storm that pelted Roundtop was a big one—not the worst I’ve ever seen but certainly in the top five. I lost power in the late afternoon and despite promises from the electric company that it would be back up in 2 hours, I didn’t get it back for nearly 12 hours. I’ve come to the conclusion that their projected times for power to return have no basis in fact. I think they just give you a time that’s 2-3 hours from whenever you call.

The cabin stayed warm-ish as I closed the heavy curtains and didn’t open the door again except for a moment to take the dogs out. And when we were outside, I didn’t stay outside very long. I could hear limbs and branches falling with a crystalline shatter all around.

Just before I got up this morning, I heard what sounded like a heavy rain outside. Oh, great, I thought, more freezing rain. I got up to take the dogs out and dressed for rain. It was coming down hard. But then I looked up at the lightening sky and saw a star. That’s funny, I thought, a star out during a rainstorm. Then I saw more stars and realized the sky was nearly clear. That’s when I realized the "heavy rain" was the melting ice falling off the trees. That’s how much ice there is on the trees.

And Saturday, I will do it all over again—maybe. I was hoping for a snowstorm, but instead it may be a repeat of the ice storm. And in other news—forecasters locally report that the long range forecast for the winter is that after this blast of wintry weather, the long range forecast for January and February is for much warmer than usual weather. I’m reporting that now simply to see if they are right or wrong about that. Last year, December and January were warm but February brought a return to more normal weather. There’s nothing to do but wait and see. The last photo of my driveway was taken after I'd cleared all the limbs from it.

6 comments:

Kat said...

OH, I'm so sorry you lost power for so long. That must have been awful. I guess it's a good time to get caught up on reading, providing you can keep warm and enjoy yourself a bit. Still, the waiting game to have the power come back on is always unsettling. Hope all is well.

Jennifer said...

There are, I suppose downsides to winter... Hope you are well... and... Tag! You're it!

http://winterwoman.wordpress.com/2007/12/15/seven-random-facts-meme/

Chris said...

WOW! Ice storms are so dangerous, even so, your first picture is wonderful. Stay safe!

Anonymous said...

We had cleared all the ice off our back porch and then at 4 pm the wind kicked up and it rained ice from the big maple over the porch through the night. The loss of electricity is never a good thing.
Vern

KGMom said...

We live about 20 miles from where you are--and got hit hard too.
We lost branches off of 6 trees--all evergreen. One magnificent Douglas fir lost 4 branches, all on one side, so I fear it will look odd.
This was the worst ice storm I have every seen in this area.

Carolyn H said...

All: I'm back and thankful for all your warm thoughts. And I thought this storm was bad. Boy, when I'm wrong, I'm really wrong.

Carolyn H.