Atlanta Snow in the New Year

It snowed in Atlanta on Christmas Day 2010. It was the first time since 1882 (see my post here.) By the time we came back from Nashville the snow had almost melted and within another day, it was gone. It snowed again, this time in the New Year 2011, early on Monday 10th of January. It continued snowing a bit. The snow has not melted yet. It was a heavy snowfall for Atlanta – between 4 and 7 inches. It paralyzed the city and the surrounding areas.

Click on pictures to enlarge

We in the Deep South are not prepared for such weather – Atlanta has only 8 snow plows and the small towns around the city have even less. In our county, Cobb County, there are just two road graders and six sand-and-salt trucks for 2,400 miles of road, so our road was not sanded. When it snows we usually wait one day or two until the snow melts. Not this time. On that Monday morning when we woke up the snow was soft and brilliant under a timid sunshine.

I just went outside briefly to take a few photographs.

Click on collage to enlarge, then click on each picture to biggify

The next day, Tuesday, there were some passing snow flurries. All schools and many or most businesses were closed too. The schools stayed closed the whole week. No mail. At Atlanta's airport, the world's busiest, nearly 2,000 flights were canceled for two days and many the next day . The newspaper said that around the metro Atlanta area hundreds of jackknifed tractor trailers littered the highways and hundreds of vehicles had been abandoned on the roads. This created monumental traffic jams. Some truckers were on the Atlanta highways, without moving, from Monday morning till Tuesday night or even later.

(photos courtesy the Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Removing the snow cost the state of Georgia $2 million a day – the budget has been exhausted now and we are just starting the New Year. Some ice on the road in front of our house did melt but large patches of road stayed encased with thick, slippery sheets of ice – still there on Friday night.. All the black areas on the pictures below have iced over.

On Tuesday we bundled up in warm clothes (although I could not find a hat or gloves) and walked behind our barn and down the hill to our neighbor’s lake. It was chilly, around 29 F (-1½ C) which is quite cold for us since our average daytime temperature in January is 50 F (10 C.) There was no sun. A sheet of ice covered a large area of the lake.

The little stream though was not frozen and looked pretty with the snow on its banks.

We walked back to the main road and then a few hundred yards down past the two old barns. I took many pictures of these old barns, until my hands were frozen. The following days (on Wednesday and Thursday) we walked again on the same route and I took more pictures of the barns. I have 40 pictures of the barns and it is hard to decide which ones to show. I’ll assemble a small mosaic and you can click on it, then again on each photo to enlarge it.

Click on collage to enlarge, then click on each picture to biggify

Then we walked another 100 yards or so to the farm. It is a couple of houses past ours. Again I took many pictures of the field. The first day the snow was soft and a couple of cows were out. We left when it started to snow again. The snow is visible on the picture below showing Lost Mountain in the background (bottom right.)




We went back home, had a nice cup of tea, then I tried to take some pictures of all the birds coming to our bird feeders. As soon as I came near the window they flew away so I used the telephoto on my Sony camera. The pictures are not very sharp but you can still make out the birds. Apart from the cardinals, blue jays, doves, I am not sure what kind of birds they were.




We placed black tubes on the feeder posts which are supposed to prevent the squirrels from jumping on the feeders, but they still do. They scatter the seeds all over the ground to the delight of the little sparrows. I knocked on the window to scare the squirrel. He looked at me then turned his back to me while his mate was busy picking up the seeds on the ground.



There are a couple of pretty yellow birds coming all the time to our feeders and I finally found out that they are called “Pine Warblers.”

About those pretty birds below – they also come to snack at my bird restaurant every day, do you know their names?

This little bird with a red top on its head is in the garden all year long. I saw a picture of a “Flicker” on the web but its beak was much longer.

There is a large gray woodpecker that comes often; he is as large as a dove. The little fellow below comes also all the time. He has a lovely striped pattern on its back and a bright red head. I wonder if he is a “small” woodpecker.




It’s easier for me to take a picture of our stationary “bird” sitting on the window sill. A little bird came out of the snow to take a look at him.




On Thursday we went to see if the ice on the lake had melted. It had – just a little. The resident ducks were gingerly walking on the ice, sometimes falling in.




On Friday we managed to get the car down the driveway even though it was very slippery. We drove to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, not far from our home. We tried to walk on the road going to the top of the mountain but it was treacherous – ski poles were helpful for walking as this intrepid hiker demonstrates.



A heavy glaze of ice had hardened on the surface of the snow – it was ¼ to ½ inch thick. You could walk on top of it, it was just like an ice skating rink – your footstep would not even dent it.




We just walked a few hundred yards to the monument and turned back.




The snow looked very shiny, just like whipped cream with a heavy ice glaze on top. The footsteps made earlier in the soft snow were still there but even my husband in his big boots could not now pierce the surface of this snow.




I had never seen snow frosted with a glassy coating like this before. I tried to take photos to show this glossy effect – trees and shadows glistening on the snow. The Inuit people from the Arctic have at least 67 words to describe “snow.” I wished we had a dozen or so as this snow was not your plain everyday snow – certainly not in the Deep South.




This New Year snow gave us a week of beauty. The snow blanketing our landscape was enchanting and peaceful. For people who live with snow most of the winter this might not be such an event, but for us in Georgia, it was a fairy land.

TO THE NEW YEAR

With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley
your first sunlight reaching down
to touch the tips of a few
high leaves that do not stir
as though they had not noticed
and did not know you at all
then the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning

so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible

– W. S. Merwin, American Poet born in 1927
2010 United States Poet Laureate