Two instances of snow

On the last day of October, we had the first snow of the season. The season in question is Autumn, and it is not supposed to be snowy in Autumn.

Autumn is the season of cooling afternoons, sipping tea from a thermos on a plaid rug under a blazing red tree. It turns out that here in Chicago, Autumn is also the season of having your face blistered off by sharp snow and falling off your bike on the slippery icy roads.

I am told that there are at least twenty words for drunkenness in Serbian, and that there are more than twice that number of words for snow in Eskimo.

Qanuk - snowflake

The snow that landed on 31 October 2019 was a sharp, wet snow. It started in the dark hours of early morning, and by the time I got up, the snow had blanketed the gardens and front lawns all around my apartment building.

I put on my jacket and went on a trek to Jewel Osco to get some ingredients for coconut pie.

The snow was pretty. It was like a little cap of icing on the bushes. The flakes were large and visibly, delicately crystalline.

But it was relatively warm, so as the snow landed on the concrete pavement and asphalt roads, it melted away into a liquid slick. It was also windy, and on my walk, the ice crystals swept right into my nose and made me wince.

The snowflakes were so large that my phone camera was able to capture them.

The day after, I took my bike for a ride down the lakeside towards the pottery studio. Some trees had clearly taken a fright from the overnight snowfall, and dropped all of their greenery, leaving them looking vulnerable in their naked branches, their leaves strewn around their roots.

Have you ever seen such an unusual sight as a snowy, autumnal lakeside beach?

My rating: 4/10 A bit pretty, but mostly a hassle when the ice crystals embed into your mucous membranes. Still cycling weather.

Nutaryuk - fresh fallen snow on the ground

The weather forecast for 11 November 2019 said that it would stay below freezing temperature the whole day, and that the snow would start at midnight and last until late afternoon.

I woke up to snow determinedly drifting around in the sky, and a thick carpet of snow across all external surfaces, including those that were only vaguely horizontal. The bikes had frozen over so we took them inside into the bike room to thaw. The snow on the roads had turned into an icy slush, and made commuting by bike near impossible. I say near impossible, because it was impossible for us, being on a side road that hadn’t been ploughed yet, but there were other people still cycling around on the main road.

I went outside for a walk to the cobbler, then took the bus back to Walgreens. In the less trodden neighbourhood streets, the snow was pristine and squeaky underfoot. I could barely see the demarcation between other people’s lawns, the pavement and the curb, so I placed my boots carefully. There were a few people outside clearing the snow with large shovels. The snow drifted down in a light powdery dusting.

As the man on the bus told the driver, “This my kind of weather. It’s a pretty as scene!”

I turned the corner to walk down the main road, and I got a first hand look at why people said that snow was disgusting. The dirt of traffic had turned the snow into ridges of brown slush.

My rating: 6/10 Very pretty snow. It is not uncomfortably cold yet if you have a big down coat and a hood. The snowfall is light enough to be unobtrusive. Points deducted for not being cycling weather.

This is what I look like at the moment. When Winter finally comes, I will be nigh invisible under all the goose down.

This jacket might be North Face, but it only cost me $25 from a rummage sale.