January has been an unusual month for us, weatherwise. We live in Apex, NC, and most years we only get a little bit of snow or ice during our short winter (January to February, mostly). Sure, we’ve heard about how they got a record 20 inches in 2000, which was before we lived here, but most of the time we only see a few inches of snow. And we’re more likely to get ice than snow.
Our first bad weather of this winter season set the stage. We broke a record during the beginning of January with nearly a week of subfreezing temperatures. It snowed a little, but just enough to ice up and keep the kids home from school for two days. It was so cold one night that the pipes in the attic for the hot water heater froze, and we woke up to no hot water. Luckly, they didn't burst, and we were able to thaw them by running space heaters in the attic for a couple hours (the kids and I supervised, reading and surfing the internet with our coats on).
Everything thawed out for a week or so. And then the snowy weather returned, in earnest. It started deceptively slow, but by the end of the day we picked up five to seven inches. Some areas nearby got as many as twelve inches! Businesses shut down for two days, while schools were closed for three, plus they postposed the planned Saturday makeup day from the previous event.
Snowman in a neighbor’s yard
However, the kids had an absolutely wonderful time. This wasn’t our usually powder or ice. This was the heavy, wet stuff that makes great snowmen. We couldn’t go anywhere, but our neighborhood looked like New England for a few days. It was really pretty.
We’re glad to be back to normal winter again - 50s and 60s. But who knows what February will bring!
Check out these fun pictures:
This was early into the storm. Denali is testing out the fresh snow.
Rolling a large snow ball to make the walls of a fort
It looks more like a bail or rolled blanket, doesn’t it?
Surveying his progress
Denali and her friends worked on a large snowman in the back yard
The day after the snow