Light 'N' Fluffy

We've had snow on and off for the past week. Today I awoke to a beautiful virgin blanket covering the outdoors and the absolutely perfect amount of snowing was in progress. Medium size flakes, floating to the ground as they softly succumbed to gravity. The temperature is in the low 20's (ºF) so it's light and fluffy. Not like when it is warmer and a wet heavy precipitation results in a slushy mess all the way around.

With the thermometer just above 0 (ºF) for the past seven days I was surprised we got any snow at all last week. For those of you in warmer climes, it usually doesn't snow when the temperatures are so low. I'm sure there is a meteorological reason for this...I know this from life experience not any inside knowledge I possess. But last week we had a really unique snowfall. The snow was coming down quite heavily all day but there was not considerable accumulation. The flakes we so small it was like a fine mist of rain whose beads of white barely covered the ground.

Next time you're outside when it is snowing or shortly after a nice snowfall, take a deep breath and notice the aroma. It's hard to describe the smell of snow. Much like it is hard to describe the smell of 'crisp' that we experience here in the autumn. You don't know what it smells like, just that it does, and we take it all for granted. I just assume that snow is nothing but frozen water so I don't know what would contribute to the smell. Then again, rain has a unique odor too so perhaps its the same thing — only colder!