Snow Day

We had a snow day today, but looking outside now, you'd have to wonder why. Not that I'm complaining.

The weather was actually really bad. Things seemed fine yesterday morning. It was starting to get cold, but the skies were still blue. But out in the distance, over the mountains, you could see the clouds rolling in. By about noon the clouds looked really dark and gray and ominous. It started to rain in the afternoon, and by 2:00 or 3:00 the rain turned into snow. The flakes were big and fat and they were falling fast. They were also falling sideways. The winds were really starting to pick up. A few people who live in the Denver area left right away so that they could avoid the traffic problems on the freeways. Even a few people who live in Boulder left early. At that point it didn't seem so bad. Because it's been so warm this week—it was almost 70 degrees on Monday—the roads were still warm so the snow melted right away. I took some work with me and left around 4:30. At that time the snow was falling fast and hard, but it was that really heavy, wet snow. I had to clean off my car before leaving, but by the time I started to clean off one side and move to the next side, a new layer of snow was already covering my car. The roads were wet, but they weren't that slick or icy. The worst part of the drive home was that the driving snow made it difficult to see. I made it home safely without any problems, but some of the people who live farther away spent two or four hours on the road. Thankfully I live only three miles away!

It snowed non-stop all night, and because things were getting so bad school districts were already closing down. Our office rule is that if the Boulder Valley school district closes, we also close. So, because the school district closed, we did too and the announcement came out late last night. When I woke up this morning—at my normal time—I was watching the news and they kept reporting on how bad the roads were. So I was glad that I didn't have to get out and drive to work. I had plenty of work to do for most of the day and I was able to check e-mail. The snow stopped around noon and the sun started to come out. Right now, at around 4:00, the skies are blue, the sun is shining, the snow is melting fast, and the temperature feels quite comfortable. It's actually really nice outside.