Long day. Its finally stopped about 11PM. 12" here, and probably very close to that at National Airport. Still lots of wind and blowing and drifting, but the skies are now clear. Yesterday, up until about 4am it was a "warm storm" with temps around 32. Its been below 20F since about 8am here. The snow held and held and held on for longer than expected. This was definitely the storm of a lifetime, EVEN IF we had not had the 2 feet here last weekend, just the sheer conditions this storm produced, especially the whiteouts, and the near hurricane force winds along with 4-6 foot drifts, countless downed trees...etc. etc. etc. was a once in a lifetime event here in the Mid Atlantic. However, since we did have 2 feet on the ground already, it was just all the more historic. TZ7, Be safe! I hope you guys dont get it as bad as we did here, especially in terms of the winds. Many of our streets look like the photos you posted, and some were with downed traffic signals. Post more pics if you can! Suffice it to say, all of my palms, including the large trachy in the pot wrapped in plactic and xmas lights, are buried. The in ground palms were buried as of last saturday, and now they are under 3 feet. My smaller trachy unfortunately had spear pull, although that may be more attributed to the fact I left the xmas lights on it one day when we hit 49, and the palm cooked to well over 100F im sure. It somewhat dessicated after that, and has not looked good since. I think these storms just pushed it over the edge. Well see if I cant get it to come back. Ok Im going to bed. Ill post more photos tomorrow. Night all! Be safe.

Holy Mackeral! I feel like we're living in a snow globe here, 80kms north of Toronto. McPeg: I agree! We are paying BIG for the tropical Dec we had last year. To quote Nancy Kerigan, "WHY, WHY???" We have 2 indoor cats who attempt to escape to the great outdoors every time the door opens. So, this am we opened the door to put up a wreath (the front step is knee deep) and the two of them went running out the door like mad hatters. They came to a screeching halt as soon as their precious paws hit the snow. LOL! You shoulda seen the look on their faces. They looked like they finally got the golden canary then it quickly changed to a look of "Wha the bloody h---??" Okay, we're bored and have nothing better to do than torture our kitties. Note: No cats were harmed during the making of this post. Just a little dose of of what the outdoors is like in Dec. Should keep them from trying from trying a Kitty Run for a while. :~) BJ who should be baking or wrapping gifts or something productive.

We started a kitchen remodel in February, which I'd try to avoid at all costs ever doing again. On the day they demo'd the kitchen, a cold spell began with temperatures in the single digits, leaving a giant freezing cold corner of the house. (Thankfully, our kitchen had a door to the outside, which meant workers could come in and out and have the rest of the house sealed off by plastic sheeting.) Kids didn't mind much at all, but in hindsight, it would have been so much nicer to do the remodel in warmer weather when you could fire up the grill and eat outside, rather than dealing with a makeshift counter and microwave and hot plate in the living room.

There are no issues here -- forsythia wasn't even out yet (it's beginning right now). But certainly non-native yard stuff that's always too early for its own good was burned by the cold/snow in the Hagerstown area to the east. As far as true economic damage, I don't think any orchards were blooming in the nearby Cumberland Valley to the east, before the snow/cold arrived, but not sure.