A Georgia Girl in Germany

Last week, we had absolutely beautiful weather: sunny skies, high temps near and at 60-degrees. Then last weekend, just in time for our local Spring Bazaar, the winds of change hit...literally. It was windy and cold, and almost miserable to be outside. By Monday afternoon, it was snowing! Shortly after lunch on Monday, I took MacKenzie and Benjamin to the clinic for their sports physicals (both are looking forward to the upcoming soccer season), and during that time, the heaviest snowfall hit -- it looked like a blizzard outside. Fortunately, most of that hit while we were inside the clinic waiting for our appointments. The remnants of that weather event (as the staff meteorologist called it) didn’t stick around, and had essentially melted by Tuesday morning. This photo was what we saw on Monday before their appointments.
Wednesday was the first day of Spring, and I think Mother Nature and Old Man Winter were in serious dispute over that fact. The weather literally changed every 15 minutes! I ran to one of the other installations over lunch for an errand. It was sunny when I got there, but when I left 20 minutes later it was snowing big, puffy snowflakes. The snow stopped during my return drive, but started back up as I came through the gate. I stopped by the house for a quick lunch before heading back to work, only to discover a quarter-inch coat of snow on everything and near-blizzard conditions (this photo shows a mere 15-minute accumulation on my van). Thankfully, I’m intimately familiar with the path to work, because I had to keep my head buried in my jacket, only glancing at about three-feet-worth of sidewalk directly in front of me. By the time I completed my five-minute trek, I was completely covered in snow...and couldn't shake it all off before getting to my office on the third floor! About that time, the staff leadership declared mission-essential personnel only and sent people home (which I didn't discover until later). When I next stepped outside -- 40 minutes later -- it was clear and sunny, and most of the snow had melted. But, an hour-and-a-half later, the precipitation had changed to sleet disguised as snow (white, but bouncing), only to give way to sunny and blue skies an hour later. So much for the first day of spring!!

Which brings me to Friday--today. We were told to expect up to half-an-inch of snow overnight. When we awoke, however, there was significantly more...and the radio was announcing a two-hour delay for school and work. So, we took our time getting ready (MacKenzie and Benjamin slept in a little more than usual). Zachary looked out the window before getting dressed, and suddenly cried out, “Wow! I just saw a snowflake ‘this’ big,” as he held up his hands to indicate the size of a large grapefruit. About five minutes later, I saw the same phenomenon…as I noticed an even larger clump of snow fall from the roof! When we all headed out the door for the delayed start to our days, Benjamin was armed with a ruler to check the depth of snow along our path. While he found several clumps of snow that easily measured 11 and 12 inches, it’s safe to say we had a good six inches of snow accumulate overnight. Talk about one last Winter Wonderland before Spring truly (hopefully) arrives.

Labels: Benjamin, MacKenzie, Zachary