Thundersnow

So it's 6 AM, and I've been woken up by the blizzard of 2006, which is currently in its full throes of blanketing the city with snow.

Some odd things about snowfall lately:

1) It only seems to hit NYC on weekends, so we never get snow days off anymore. Even last year, when it did fall on a Sunday night into Monday in sufficient quantities to cancel work, it was President's Weekend...

2) Lately, it's been the fluffy confectioner's sugar type of snow, which means storms have hit us from the west (and not dumped much snow). In the northeast, the really bad snows are the ones that travel up the coast from the south. This seems to be hitting us from the southwest, so should not be as bad, but the ones that form over the Atlantic tend to drop loads of snow quickly (which this one is), with high winds (again, here), and the really heavy dense and wet snow that breaks shovels, backs and hearts. This is the classic nor'easter snow pattern, but something added to it makes me suspect this is not a true nor'easter.

3) I hadn't noticed it much when I was a kid, but we seem to be having many many more thundersnows. Today is no exception (which lends credence to the fact that this is not a true nor'easter.) The worst of the lightning has settled in overhead, and the sky lights up every so often in ways that it does not during a thunderstorm. The snow reflects it and bounces the flash everywhere.

In a couple of hours, I'm heading out to do battle with the snow. Got my brand spanking new $13 ergonomic shovel, a pot of hot coffee, my winter boots, my Oakley snow goggles, and despite any concerns about my heart or my newly-torn quadricep (I ran for a bus and tore open an adhesion from an old baseball injury *shrug* Who has time for pain anymore?), I'll be out there clearing faster than it can snow.

UPDATE: Well it's nearly 3 PM and I seem to be nearly done. One last shovel and my sidewalk should be cleaner than John Kerry's reputation (pre-Swiftboating, of course). The photos I took above are from a fence on my block that had this unusual snow formation on them. As you can see, a LOT of snow fell. I estimate 2 1/2 feet.

New York City, snow, thundersnow