Wednesday morning was the intermission between Act I and Act II of our winter storm. The headlines and the Atlanta TV stations were calling it a catastrophic storm, and it may actually be that. According to the news, a lot of people lost power. The Atlanta TV stations have concentrated on the interstates inside the city, so all we know about what’s going on in Rome is what we can see from our deck, and that’s not much.
The temperature hovered around freezing all day. When I walked Zeke around 10 AM, there was a light mist falling. There was about 1/16 inch of ice on the trees and a little slush here and there on the road. At the bottom of the mountain there was no ice on the road and little ice on the trees. The light precipitation (freezing rain, sleet or possibly grauple) continued all day, and by late afternoon there was about a quarter inch of ice on virtually every surface. The trees were beginning to droop. Apparently a quarter inch of ice is enough to interfere with the signal for satellite television. I had to pour hot water on the dish to get a signal.
By about 7 PM, when I was getting ready to take the dogs back out, Leah said it was snowing again. And it was snowing lightly. All the ice, slush, and melted and refrozen snow were covered by about an inch of new snow. Everything was white, including the roads. Unfortunately, the new snow was making the tree limbs sag even more. As of 9:30, there was still light snow, enough to soften the footprint I made when I took the dogs out an hour and a half earlier. I have to admit, a completely snow-covered scene like that is pretty.
Icicles formed on the roof overhang early in the day. They have continued to grow.
This is our front walk. It’s elevated, so it cools quickly. The first snow shoveled off fairly easily. Then the freezing rain during the day made it so slippery I went in and out through the garage. Now the snow has made the footing safer, at least temporarily.
It will be interesting to see if the next wave gives us more snow by morning.
The low tonight is supposed to be around 30. It’s supposed to clear by Thursday afternoon and reach the 40s. And then it will be over.
We have kept power so far, just a few little flickers yesterday afternoon. I don’t think we’ll get much more. Ended up with just under 3″ total depth measured this morning (1.6″ liquid), but it was almost all ice pellets. Very little freezing rain in our immediate area, but lots of ice pellets and sleet. I guess that’s what saved us from outages but it’s going to be just about impossible to drive on. Looks like the precipitation type was extremely variable over the northern half of Georgia.
If it had been snow we’d have had a foot of it.
We lost power Wednesday night. There are multiple outages all over this area so no way to know how long it will last. With no power no water so even though we have heat we won’t be able to stay very long. We also have limited firewood.
I just read your comment above and am sorry that you are experiencing a power outage there. When we lose power here, we also lose our electric well pump. So, no power means no water. Roger did figure out how to disconnect the well pump wires at the circuit box and splice them on to something that he plugs into the generator. That way we can weather out the power outages at home with water. The power companies don’t want people doing this because it is dangerous, but Roger knows how, so he does it. I hope the power is restored there ASAP.
Just walked down Fouche Gap Rd. There are trees blocking down into Texas Valley but it’s OK down the “front” side into town. The sun is out and the snow and ice are dropping off the trees. A neighbor says all the roads in town are clear. Apparently we are just high enough that we got a lot more snow and ice than the flatlands got.