Sunday, February 22, 2015

Winter Arrives At Almost Heaven South – Lots Of Photos

After some pretty mild weather the first part of February with six inch tall daffodil leafs, winter storm Octavia finally touched us in the worst way on Monday.  As the storm moved east, it provided snow to its north, rain to its south and freezing rain in the middle – we are in the middle.  In case you are not a Weather Channel watcher, the freezing rain often begins as snow at the cold, high altitude, then changes to rain as it passes through a warm layer and shows up that way here.  Unfortunately, with the outside temperature in the mid 20’s the rain freezes after landing.

This had several impacts for us but most importantly it glazed any untreated roads and made them totally impassable and it stuck to trees and power lines.  I originally didn’t know what caused the problem, but our power went off about 10pm Monday and fortunately we got to use that generator we bought a couple of years ago – it now seems worth the money.

The RV is definitely angry at us for leaving Florida as the rain turned to ice all over it.


Our fine feathered friends kept busy at the feeder even though it developed icicles.  


It looked even worse Wednesday morning and this is the look before I broke off the icicles - only the small birds were getting in.  The birds can hang on the icicles and walk around the icy dome with no problem.


Strong preference for thistle seed at the other feeding station. 


So far we’ve identified the following visitors to the feeders and the ground beneath them: Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gold Finch, House Finch, several Sparrows, Wren, Cardinal, Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, Rufous Sided Towhee, Pine Siskin, and Dove.

I walked around the yard on Tuesday and got a few shots of the ice coated vegetation.




When the roads cleared, we had to make a run to town and got these shots including the one creating our power outage.  The ice laden pine trees were snapped off everywhere, including three across our road, fortunately our neighbor with the big tractor had it cleared in short order.





This one was across the road when we returned.



Fortunately we were set to go after a propane tank refill (for the generator) and 25 gallons of diesel for the RV heater just before the power came on after an 18 hour outage – it was off several days longer for some.  So we just settled it and waited for the snow showers on Wednesday - we got less then an inch but the RV is even angrier.




The sun came out on a very cold Thursday and the trees glistened like they were glass covered and many now had icicles from the sun hitting them.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to set my camera up to catch the real beauty of them so I lifted the last shot from my friend Kathy's Facebook post as ours looked just the same.







Even the weeds glistened.


By Friday this very unusual event happened - our cove was frozen over.  Looks like a little trimming will be required to access the dock, but at least no trees laying on it - whew.



Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

2/16 - 2/20/15 event dates

23 comments:

  1. The cold and deep snow we have is bad enough but the freezing rain makes things almost impossible, But some very wonderful pictures of the ice formations.
    It is nice to be prepared for the power outages so that you are still pretty comfy there.

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  2. I grew up with ice storms and they are "some kind of awful." Great photos Larry, but listen to your RV next time and stay in Florida. The temps dipped down low at night here, but they days were very nice and the cold only lasted a few days. Quite tolerable compared to the rest of the East.
    Sam

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  3. In Montana we were lucky when I was growing up - we didn't get ice storms just feets of snow. You just can't do anything except admire the beauty of the ice. And your pictures are just wonderful. Your poor RV sure is wishing it was here in our beautiful warm weather. Maybe you need to listen harder when it speaks.

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  4. "several sparrows"???? Get that book back out! The way the ice formed on that dome feeder is like art. Very cool. And wow, what a storm. The damage to the trees is sad. Ice storms around here are few and far between, but I do remember some doozies in Kansas. Thanks for sharing all the photos. We were wondering about you guys.

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  5. Larry, Nice photos... Rte. 444 through the village looks much like East Lakeshore Drive does with lots of downed trees and hunks of wood that have been cut back and removed from the road. Nasty little storm...but I'll take it over the winters in Chicago! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  6. Larry, you got hit harder than we did, that's for sure! Your photos are lovely!!!! Can I feature them on my Monday Morning Musings post with links back to your blog? My camera went on the blink and all of my photos, except for my cell phone came out in a blur! My daughter in Knoxville enjoyed a full week off of teaching to play with her 1-year old. I'm totally jealous. We only got one day off. I love snow days in the South! Gives me a chance to catch up with stuff around the house and listen to the quiet of winter! Generators ROCK!

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    1. Hi Larry,

      I hope that you like the photos that I shared on my blog! I LOVE the shot of the tree/shrub limbs frozen inside of the ice!

      Stay warm, more is on its way they say,
      Roz

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  7. OH --so familiar!!! You got your storm on Monday and we got a little one on Monday (nothing as bad as yours), but then we had snow on Wednesday and then the BIG ONE hit us on Saturday. Our power was out for 50 hours ---and the ice was at least 2 inches thick everywhere. Trees down/limbs/branches everywhere... I could step out on the deck and hear the trees cracking.. Scary!!!! Luckily, we had had our trees trimmed a few months ago around our house --so luckily, nothing hit or fell on the house (other than tiny branches).. SO---overall we made it through... We have an all-electric house ---so we definitely have learned some things to be better prepared. I've never gone through anything like this before. AND--they say we may get some more snow showers/freezing rain TONIGHT... Please --NO! Cumberland County schools are out at least through Wednesday. The county is a mess. I read that there were 300 power poles down... Gads... Guess we are lucky not to be without power longer than we were....
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  8. Burrrr, that sure looks cold and the RV definitely does not look happy.

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  9. The pictures from your yard and neighborhood look a lot like the scene at our house from Friday night's storm -- except we have many more broken branches and tree tops on the ground. I hope both of us can now look forward to an early Spring.

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  10. This has certainly been a rough winter for many! We are used to snow and roads are salted and cleared quickly but ice storms are the worst! We just returned from a week in California where the weather was in the mid to upper 80s and came back home to wake up to -7 this morning. Ouch! Great photos!

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  11. Your photos are great Larry. Those ice storms are hard on the plants - your poor rhododendron looks pretty unhappy! Love the branch photo - very nice!

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  12. Thank goodness for generators, Larry. I don't know what we would do without one, especially when ice storms hit here and we lose power for up to 5 days. Stay off those roads and stay warm. This too shall pass. ;)

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  13. Dan had the same, but didn't lose power. Fortunately, all of our workers are relocated Yankees, so they didn't get into a tizzy over this weather. Those are some great photos, even if the RV didn't like it. (Our pond froze, too.) Oddly, I have not had to use my generator despite a couple of ice storms this year.

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  14. Wow...it has been a long time since I have been in weather like that....I know it is cold and miserable but it is beautiful at the same time. Amazing that the cove froze over....

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  15. I'm sorry that you were hard hit by the ice storm, Larry. This has been a hard winter for so many of us. We had one a couple of years ago that did a real number on the apple trees in our orchard. When large branches and trees came down it sounded like canons going off. Thank goodness you have a generator. We have a whole house generator and it is worth every penny we paid for it. When we move to Vero Beach we will have one put in at the new house…just in case of hurricanes.

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  16. So sorry you were so hard hit Larry. Can hardly wait to find out how our Lake Lure Cottage is weathering this storm. I have a feeling we will have busted pipes and possibly worse. You were smart to buy a generator. Florida may be in your future for winter. We are selling out house if you are interested. LOL.

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  17. It may be super cold for you but it makes for beautiful photos Larry! Great shots.

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  18. The weather is crazy this year almost everywhere. We have had a very mild and dry February and trees are starting to bud out. A late freeze can be devastating to the farmers so we have our fingers crossed we don't get a late spell of cold weather.

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  19. That was officially the worst winter storm(s) I have seen in my life. Of course I lived in Florida for most of my life so that isn't saying a lot lol, but for the past 15 years in TN, nothing has been worse than this. Trevor was out of school for 10 consecutive school days. Glad y'all were equipped for the power issues. We were out for 2 hours for the longest outage at any one time. Lots of 5 and 15 minute short outages but nothing like yours.

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  20. I thought your snow photos were just gorgeous, but the shots of the ice are truly amazing. I'm amazed that the birds were still able to get around the icicles and use their feeders! Glad you stayed safe through the storms. Here's to spring being on her way to you at last! (Not that I'm anxious for any warmer weather here in Phoenix. I'm enjoying every last moment of glorious weather this winter!)

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