One week before Christmas, Boone and the rest of the High Country received a big snow dump. At the house we got 15 inches. Other areas nearby got up to two feet of beautiful snow. It was said, by those who know such things, to be the biggest single snow event in over 20 years.
Christmas eve freezing rain moved into the area. When it moved out it left broken trees, downed power lines and and a landscape coated by a half an inch of ice in its wake. Three counties were without electricity for the holidays. No heat certainly made cozying up to your relatives a lot more attractive. Our electricity was off for about 30 hours. We were lucky. Some others went several days before the crews got them back on line. It was the worst power outage since hurricane Hugo blew through in 1989 the paper declared.
On New Years Eve the wind picked up; the temperature began to drop and kept going down. The wind from the northwest howled through the trees and set them swaying. And so it will go for the next week. It's to be the longest cold spell (It's 6 this morning with negative wind chill.) in, you guessed it...20 years according to Ray's Weather Site.
I'm beginning to see a pattern here. I'm not looking forward to mosquito season.
