Snow in downtown Raleigh

[mnhtnbb]

It is not unusual for us to get one or two snowstorms each winter here in the Triangle. This is my first living in downtown Raleigh.

I took a few shots through my windows before it was light.

Looking north across the street



Looking northwest across the street



Looking east across the street



And from the open door of my 5th floor balcony looking at the snow covered trees in the park across the street

[Siwsan]

1. My nephew in Mills River said he was skeptical that the storm would be bad

Seems he was probably really wrong. I just checked the Duke Energy outage map and they are now without power. I'd call him but I don't want to use up any of his phone's power.

[mnhtnbb]

2. It's wet snow. I've seen some photos from people in Chapel Hill

and if it stays on trees long enough, branches will break and power lines will be down. Trees were very late losing leaves this year. You can see those big trees in the park across from me still have lots of leaves.

It's also windy. Blew over my little live potted Christmas tree out on my balcony.

Hope he gets power back quickly.

I remember an ice storm we had in, I think, 2003? We were without power for almost a week in Chapel Hill. Houses here lose heat really fast when it's that cold outside. Luckily, I booked us into a hotel that had power coming in underground from the University the morning after the storm so we had a nice warm place to sleep! Had to board the animals at the vet's. My youngest son and I walked to the vet--he had the dog on a leash and I had a cat in a carrier on each of my shoulders. Then we had to walk from our house to the hotel in town dragging suitcases in the snow. It was quite an adventure! My husband was out of town. My oldest son couldn't get home from school because the roads were impassable. They eventually both made it to the hotel about two days later and we were all holed up in one room until we got power back at the house several days after that!

[Siwsan]

3. Our 2013 ice storm knocked me off the grid for 6 days

It was so cold, in my house, that I didn't even lose any food in the refrigerator! I closed off the den, kept the fireplace going, and spent as much time as possible wrapped up, with the cats, in down comforters. My only priority for the generator was to keep the sump pump running because, despite the cold, water was rushing into the sump hole. Before they brought that generator over, for two days I had been lugging buckets and buckets and buckets of water from the basement to empty out where ever I could find. Including the bathtub, so I could use that water to flush the toilet. And I was doing that every 45 to 90 minutes, around the clock.

Most miserable week of my life.

[MontanaMama]

4. That's a big deal down there.

My family business sells our product to a company based in Raleigh. I was talking to the controller for that company on Friday about an order we are shipping and she told me she was taking her laptop home with her because this storm was expected and that she anticipated not being able to make it to work on Monday. That makes us chuckle up here in Montana but it isn’t really that funny. They laugh at us when it’s 100 degrees in the summer and we’re crying about it.