SNOWMAGEDDON

Sunny St. George - The Dixie of Utah

     Palm trees, hibiscus, no mosquitos, low humidity, closer to our children and grandchildren, and beautiful weather!  It seldom gets very cold and only has a light dusting of snow once every 2 or 3 years.

       The winter of 2011 lived up to that description but the winter of 2012 saw the temperature fall to 12 degrees one day and we had a light dusting of snow TWICE!  Therefore....the winter of 2013 should be pretty mild!

December 3 - 8, 2013

SNOWMAGEDDON!!!!!!!!

ROUND ONE

December 3rd:  It was snowing in Cedar City when I went to bed the night before.  Really no surprise as Cedar City is north of us and at a higher elevation.  It is also the stepping-off point for Brian Heads Ski Resort.  They frequently get snow and all we get is a little rain. 

That morning I peeked outside around 7:30am to read our thermometer and did a double-take!!!!

from our door toward the pool/office complex

looking left.......

.....and right!

I WAS STUNNED!

         I had seen snow a couple of times
                but never where I live! 
The children played in the snow and although there was not much they managed to scrape together some snowmen.  No one owns snow shovels so we adapted and just knew that in a few days it would be melted and just a memory.
 

Round 2

           More snow was predicted that weekend  but it couldn't be nearly this bad and would only delay the melting of what we already had.  TWC said it would start around 10am and last all day but what do they know.....it doesn't seldom snows in St. George!

At 10:20am on December 7th.......it started snowing!!!

this was my first time being actually IN a snowfall!

Katie loved having the snowflakes land on her face!

 .....and snowing.......

around 1:30pm

 ......and snowing......

just after 3pm

 .....and snowing!

Sunset on Saturday, December 7th.

      We were effectively "snowed in" by Sunday morning!  Snowfall measurements ranged from 6" to 8" depending on where you were in St. George.

Our maintenance staff tried to clear the walkways but no one had a snow shovel!

 Our friend Scott is the supervisor of maintenance and he and his wife had flown to New York for 2 weeks and arrived back the morning after the first snow. Although they flew into Las Vegas, HIS luggage had gone to California! All his winter clothes were in the bags and they had not yet been delivered.

No one in St. George had either a snow shovel or de-icing crystals to sell. Eventually the manager of the complex found some crystals for sale in Cedar City and brought back 200 pounds. By the time Scott got around to clearing the sidewalks, the bottom layers had melted and refrozen into sheet ice (a couple of times). All they had to work with was a round point shovel to break the ice and a square edge to scrape it up. With 200 apartments, something had to be done for the tenant's safety.

by Sunday afternoon we were able to walk around the complex.

Church was cancelled!  This picture of a cabana and palm tree at the kiddie pool area also shows (right side center) the road up the ridge to our chapel.

Only those with  4-wheel drive had a chance of making it to the top of the ridge.

Our main pool area

the main entrance from the office facing the street

Friday, December 13th ....Post Snowmageddon

It's been 5 days since the snow stopped.  Daytime high temperatures have steadily climbed to reach above freezing and our daytime high today reached the 40's.   Although still cold by St. George standards, it is much better than last weekend when our low one morning was 3 degrees.


in some areas, subject to sunlight all day, the snow has started melting...

in other areas that are in the shade, like the front of our apartment, progress has been much slower.



maybe in a few days I'll be able to finish putting out the Christmas decorations!