"Types of Snow"

Yes, I've heard that the Inuit have lots of words for snow.  Although we may not distinguish them in quite the same way, being a New Englander - I've got some classifications for snow.  I know I'll miss a bundle of them, but I expect a fair amount of email about this....  Here we go...

SNOWBALL SNOW - this is a wet and heavy snow that can easily be formed into a snowball.  A Good HARD PACKED Snowball.  This is one of the favorite snows of the young and young at heart.

SNOWBLOWER SNOW - This a light fluffy powder that the snow blower turns into a beautiful ROOSTER TAIL as it spits it high into the air.  You want this snow to be accompanied by a strong wind so that doesn't fall for 30 - 40 feet.  It is this snow that makes snowblowers things of beauty.  ** This is what we got last week in Connecticut.  18 inches of snowblower snow with a really strong north wind.**

CRUSTY SNOW - is the type that has lots of powder down first - but at the end, the storm drops freezing rain.  It looks pretty - because the ice sparkles on the crust - but it's an SOB to move...

SNOWFORT SNOW - this snow is dense and able to be used as to make walls tall enough to hide behind.  Snowfort snow is the stuff that makes home ownership horrible.  You can snowblow (or shovel if you're under 50) this snow - UNTIL - you get to the end of the driveway where the snowplow has turned this snow into GIANT BOULDERS that a snowblower can't chomp and a shovel has to turn into a pickaxe to break the dang thing up before you can move it.  This is the snow that allows you to get 95% of the driveway clean in 10 minutes while you labor an hour at the last 5 feet by the road.  

TUNNEL SNOW - this is not naturally occurring snow.  This is SNOWBALL or SNOWFORT snow that has been pushed by a plow into a strong compact state.  This snow is one of my favorites as a kid.  After the driveway was plowed, and all of the snow from that driveway was pushed into a huge snowbank, my friends and I would tunnel into the thickest parts of it.  A couple of times there was so much snow we had tunnels and rooms that we built into the snowbank.  We were like Hogan's Heroes keeping the tunnel and rooms hidden by burrowing into the back side of the snowbank.  The rooms were only big enough to allow you to crawl into them.  You couldn't stand up or anything - but the excitement of having built your own snow dwelling was - simply amazing. 

QUIET DRIVE SNOW - is a powder snow that has accumulated to about three inches or more - and it's virgin snow.  No plow has touched it.  No car has gone over it.  When you drive on it - every sound of your auto goes away.  You don't know how much noise comes from the tires and the engine until you drive on this snow.  It's almost like you're gliding gracefully down the beautiful white path.  

SLIPPY SLIDEY SNOW - when there's ice down first because the beginning of the storm was freezing rain or really wet snow on a warm road that then freezes... You get to experience this joy.  It isn't the same now as when we were young because back then - all the cars were REAR WHEEL DRIVE.  When a rear wheel drive car was on slippy slidey snow, the back end would swing to one side or another.  We all learned how to navigate this in the day.  It was almost an art form to feel that back end start to slide and gently turn the wheel to correct it.  It comes naturally to those of us who learned to drive before front wheel and all wheel drive came along. 

NO SCHOOL SNOW - this is ANY type of snow that results in a school closing.  Delays don't count.  We're talking FULL CLOSING for the day.  These were awesome days when you could stay in your PJ's and watch "SNOWBOUND THEATHER" on Channel 3.  That's right - they turned their whole schedule around when the kids were home for the day.  Snowbound Theater was usually Laurel and Hardy or the Marx Brothers.  It seems they did another one in the afternoon that was usually a TARZAN movie with Jane and Boy and Cheetah.  It was during these movies that we learned how to speak ELEPHANT with words like :  "Ongowa" and "Onk". 

 
Unless you live in Connecticut - you have probably never heard THE VERY BEST SONG of winter.  Every time I hear this song I laugh out loud.  If you grew up in a town or city that had to close schools because of snow - you have to hear it!   My good friend Doug Clydsdale Comstock found the YOUTUBE for it and posted it last week on Facebook.  It's called SNOW DAY! by Michael Kelly Blanchard.  Go listen to it HERE.

There's a Special Message for anyone in Robert Middleton's Tribe who just subscribed last week.  Please read it HERE.

Happy Winter!