Sometimes we get a decent amount of snow down here, but if there is even a hint, businesses and schools close and people make runs on the grocery stores for milk and bread. Most of the time, a hint is all it amounts to.

This time we got a little sleet that changed into snow. A little slush accumulated on streets, and there was a light dusting of snow on the fields and forests. It started at about 11 am, and by around noon, most of Huntsville, Al, where I work, was closing down. I was at a meeting on Redstone Arsenal when the word came that the arsenal was closing, supposedly in stages to prevent a traffic jam at the gates. But that plan didn’t really work. As soon as everyone heard that the arsenal, which includes the Marshall Space Flight Center, was closing, they left. There are about six thousand employees at Marshall, and in the thousands on the rest of the base (I’m not sure how many — a lot). Most of them left at the same time. I took this picture with my iPhone while sitting in a line of cars exiting the base. Don’t worry; I wasn’t moving at the time.

This is the worst of it — I had to turn on my windshield wipers

That was about the extent of the snow.

If you look closely you can see a line of cars on a cross street. Traffic was backed up a couple of miles trying to get through the gates and off the base. Just on the other side of the gates, the highway crosses I-565, which has five westbound lanes at that point leading out of the city. It was bumper to bumper as far west as I could see. It looked like everyone in the city was leaving. I think it would look about like this if we had been told there was going to be a nuclear strike on the city.

But Huntsville is not a huge city, so the traffic jam was over pretty quick. And so was the snow.