Quite a bit different from these, taken just earlier this month. Still, not bad compared to what others of you have been experiencing.
When I went outside for a closer look, I discovered that our driveway was almost on it's way to becoming an ice skating pond.....
If the ground hadn't warmed up over the past several days, it would have been frozen solid. As it was, the ice was just a layer on top.
A closer examination showed that the white stuff on the ground was not snow, but ice crystals....
Very pretty to look at and photograph, but in our part of the country (southeastern US in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains) the ice can become unbearably heavy and do this...
This poor crepe myrtle just can't take the weight. If the ice gets too thick on the branches of larger trees, the danger is that they'll fall on power lines and we'll lose electricity.
Currently it's still raining and the temperature is barely above freezing. Hopefully this means that the ice accumulation will be minimal. In the meantime, it's a good day for staying inside and completing my seed order!
Winter Storm photos & text copyright January 2010