Ah, For a Good and Proper Snow...

The morning began with that special grey light filtering through the curtains that this time of year simply shouts "snow!"  Indeed, by the time Beth and I had gotten out of bed and set out on the morning chores of pet and human breakfasts, showers, and the like, we'd a nice dusting of a half inch or more of snow on the ground.

Yet like so many of the snow showers in the Washington, D.C., area the past several years, no sooner had that snow fallen than did the precipitation change over to rain.  Back in January, we got several inches of snow, but before long, freezing rain turned the surface to ice and ensured the snow would stick around well into warmer weather and well after it had lost its aesthetic appeal.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's been several years now since we got a good snow that was just snow, and not something which had layers of sleet or ice laid down atop if within a day or so.  2005 or 2006, perhaps?  I know in 2007 we had a quick but intense snow storm around Didi's birthday weekend (February 26th) given we went to the Metropolitan Washington Area Papillon Specialty dog show (and brought home Chance; the two played quite a bit in the back yard in the snow)... but even that one might have had a coating of sleet within a day's time.  Hmm.

Growing up, I was used to several good real snows a year; we typically got at least two or three multi-inch accumulations which gave us several days to play outside and miss school.  Now, schools still close with the sleet and ice, but the snow is just not the same it seems.