Today was one of those rare, beautiful days in Washington in which it snowed all day long.  In fact it snowed very hard all day here in Hoodsport.  While others to the north and south of us had only light smatterings of snow, our little town ended up with 7 inches by sunset.  It continued to snow most of the night, but didn't add up much, since the snow became very heavy and packed down pretty good.  All of this led to roads and highways that were quite treacherous along Hood Canal.  I made an attempt to drive 1/2 mile up to Endicotts but had to turn around.  So I just walked up later on.  The sled run there is in perfect form however.



Here the snow plow is plowing Highway 101.  Those of you living in areas where snow is a regular part of Winter travel would be surprised at how treacherous the highways are here, even after being plowed.  For one thing the don't start plowing until there is at least 3-4 inches.  They never use salt (which is a good thing for the cars) and they use rubber blades which don't damage the highways, but also don't scrape the icy stuff very well.



Many people were without power due to trees falling on lines.  While I was out taking photos, I head a sizzling sound and smelled smoke.  Here you can see the reason, an electrical line touching a snow-laden tree branch was sparking and smoking.  It might have caught the tree on fire if it had not been so completely soaked with snow.  Our snow is very heavy and wet, unlike the delightful powdery stuff folks up north get.



This picture was taken at about 1pm, when the snow had just started.  I never did venture out to get another picture at the peak depth.  Although I had several things I planned to do today, they all involved driving somewhere.  Needless to say I just stayed home snuggled by the warm fire, listening to Christmas music and getting organized with my Christmas cards.  I think it took this snow for me to realize that Christmas is really almost here and I'd better get moving.

Tags: weather
Current Location: Hoodsport, WA
Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: A Piano Christmas by Stan Whitmire