Unexpected Weather for Your Average Family of Weather Weenies

Sparkle's first snowball fight ever happened within 10 minutes of the first flake. Check out that folow through.

Did you you hear that this past Friday, 49 states had snow? According to the Associated Press at dawn on February 13, more than two thirds of  the United States’ land mass had experienced a least a dusting of snow. The lone holdout was Hawaii. Surprisingly that state’s Mauna Kea volcano, at 13,800 feet, usually sees a fair amount of snow throughout the year; it just happens that on this past Friday and Sunday there wasn’t any.

According to the article, Patrick Marsh a Phd candidate in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, put out a call that he was collecting photos of snow on the ground in all 49 states. He was immediately inundated. If I’d known about it, I would have sent him several of the 500 I took from South Carolina.

“It just shows that deep down inside, all of us is a weather weenie, a weather fanatic,” Marsh said. “This is just an awesome weather event.”

I come from a long line of “weather weenies.” Using our nation’s newfangled weather speak, my mother has been known to call me across the span of several states to warn me of approaching “cells.”  I try to play it cool, that I am some kind of exception to cultural influence and genetics, but truth be told I often  take it upon myself to wise-up friends and loved ones with similar notifications of encroaching dire weather weather phenomenon like  “radiation fog,” “correlated shears,”  and rapidly  approaching “supercells.”

Dave, Sparkle and I were in Charleston this weekend to experience the rare coastal South Carolina snowstorm. My not-so-inner weather weenie got unusually excited when I saw an even more rare weather happening called “blue lightening,” followed by the sound of what I think were electrical transformers popping. We didn’t lose power, but did lose cable in the middle of the Olympic’s opening ceremony. It  may have been a blessing in disguise of sorts, because it occurred in the middle of the second hour of dancing Indians, but we got over it and went to bed.

Snow didn't stick around long on Charleston's East Battery

Tiny mystery snowmen appeared on top of cars throughout the city overnight.

... and on park benches. It was like playing, "Where's Waldo?"

Snow on flower boxes and palm fronds looked a little strange...

... but kind of dreamy on the camellias which bloom this time every year

But my favorite thing about our weather weenie weekend was  definitely this:

Whenever possible Sparkle continued to break into snowball fights for the next 20 hours

I know most of you non-weather weenies, or at least those of you who have had so much snow this winter that you’re ready to melt Frosty with a blowtorch, will forgive me for this gratuitous and enthusiastic snow post. The guests at our bed and breakfast from the Washington, DC area seized the opportunity to enthusiastically tell us we were nuts. They tried to pretend as if they weren’t weather weenies at all anymore. Frankly I didn’t buy  it.  They couldn’t help but reveal their inner weather weenies by repeatedly saying things like, “you better get some dry gloves on that kid, QUICK,” as if her fingers were about to crack off right there on the oriental rug. Or my favorite, “This is nothing! You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen 36 inches in your driveway.”

I’m sure they were simply angry that they came all the way to South Carolina just to see more snow. But Lord knows that weather weenies we all are, we would have still probably talked about the weather. We just wouldn’t remember it.