Storm Photos - Mike Hollingshead

Gorgeous photography from stormchaser Mike Hollingshead.

(via Black Eiffel)

Hail

On my way to work yesterday morning, driving down I-10, I got walloped by hail. Now, my poor little car is all damaged and very unhappy. The guys at O'Reilly (where I went to get a do it yourself kit) said to just trade it in after I make a claim, that it probably won't even be worth it to me to get repaired. So sometime this weekend, if I have time, I'm going to have to get an estimate for my car and see about getting it repaired. Whether paintless dent removal (which may be expensive since there are SO many) or take it to a body shop, it seems it'll probably run around $750-2,000. I'm not even sure if its worth it. I wanted to keep the car for several more years, but that may not happen now.

This is so frustrating that it had to happen my first week on the job so I don't have the time, the money or the energy to deal with it. I wish I could chalk this one up to a stupid tax, but unfortunately its just an act of nature I had no control over.

(I wish this was an April Fool's joke, but unfortunately, it is not.)

Fog advection

As I was driving home from work today I was completely shocked by the beauty of the North Shore mountains... the same ones I see almost every time I drive north on Main Street.  However, due to the fog that has laid seige to the city the past week or so (see photo above taken yesterday from Grouse Mountain on the North Shore), I had forgotten (how is that possible?) how beautiful that drive is.  I love the mountains surrounding Vancouver... one of the many things I love about this city.

(photo from the Vancouver Sun)

One hundred words for snow

It's a popular urban legend that the Inuit have a hundred words for snow.  In fact, they have about the same amount of words the English language does.  Our most basic word is, of course, snow.  But then we have things like blizzard, slush, sleet and flurry which are all ways that provide further explanation of the same concept: snow.  

According to an article at State of the Canadian Cryosphere:

[Boaz] claims Inuits have four distinct root words for snow: aput "snow on the ground", gana "falling snow," piqsirpoq "drifting snow" and qimuqsuq "a snow drift".

So all those hundreds and indefinite amount of words relating to snow are derived from the four basic roots, same as most languages.   Further reading here.

Environment Canada: "No snowman-making weather with this kind of snow."

Today I got stuck in the snow.  Twice.

It all started when I had to be at work at 5:30 am to let in another girl.  Getting out of my apartment parking was fine... while driving I did a little slipping and sliding but luckily the snowplows had made at least 1 round and there weren't many other people around.  The problem was when I had to park.  Vancouver got 26 cm of snow yesterday.  That's over 10 inches... almost a FOOT of snow!  Well I got stuck.  As I ran into the shop, in tears, Ease was already there and helped me shovel and move my car so it wasn't blocking the alley. 

That put me in a terrible mood.

Since it took Ease and I almost 45 mins to get me in a legit position to leave my car, we opened pretty late.  I didn't have to bake as much.  Which meant I got to go home earlier...  when one of the delivery guys showed up he taught me the best way to get my car un-stuck.  Since he grew up in Ontario, I figured he knew what he was talking about.

But, I couldn't get my car out.  Finally, after another 20 mins of shoveling, hot water and manuevering (luckily I wore my rain boots today so my feet weren't soaking like yesterday), I was able to move.  Then I got stuck getting out of the alley.  FINALLY I made it to Main St. (the snow plows had been riding up and down all morning dropping salt) and made it home without further incident.  

I've seen snow, and driven in snow, but never THIS MUCH snow.  To help me make my point of exactly how much snow there is lying around, I bring you Gordon, my foot tall Texas garden gnome.

Here is the snow on my balcony outside my room:

Here is Gordon hanging out in the snow:

Close up:

That, my friends, is Gordon in 9 inches of snow.  On my balcony.  It's not much better outside in the alleys, side streets and the like.  Here are two pictures of it snowing outside my window.  The first is from the first snowfall since I've been here, from last week, and the second is from yesterday.

The first is fairly light, the second is fairly heavy.  Also, yesterday when I came out from work, my car was covered in between 3 and 4 inches of snow.  That was fun getting that off.  Its supposed to be a picture perfect white Christmas here... maybe I will venture out on xmas day and take photos, maybe not.  All I know is that for now my car is NOT leaving its garage!  Even if it takes me 2 hrs to get to work and home this next week.

It snowed up until 9 or so this morning and will start again tomorrow.  People are shovelling sidewalks like crazy, but we're running out of places to put the snow.  Melt please?

Holiday snowstorm

Winter rolls in coast to coast with blustering snow, high winds, severe cold

The Great White North is living up to its name.

Winter debuted Sunday with boisterous displays of heavy snow, powerful winds and numbing cold across the country. Forecasters are predicting Christmas will look much the same.

"I would dare say if you're in a satellite looking down on Canada, it would be white from coast to coast to coast and it would be frozen," said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada.

"There's no area that can say that winter hasn't really arrived."

(. . .)

In Vancouver, snow began falling Saturday night and continued into Sunday, with up to 20 cm of snow expected in some areas by day's end.

(. . .)

Those dreaming of a white Christmas will get their wish - mostly.

While Yuletide will likely be a rare postcard perfect in Vancouver - with more snow expected on top of what is already on the ground - forecasters said it was possible that parts of Ontario and the East Coast may get an influx of slightly milder temperatures and even rain.

(story from the Canadian Press, photo from the Vancouver Sun)

6 inches of snow??  This is crazy!  It does NOT do this in BC.  Add on top of that the fact that I have to be at work at 5:30 am tomorrow (as I did today) and am not looking forward to that at all!  Today was rough enough, but tomorrow will only be worse... luckily I am off on Tuesday and close on Wednesday... hopefully the buses will be running by then, and have Christmas day off.  I really am not a fan of this snowstorm.  Hopefully it will come to an end soon.