Winter Wonderland

November 17, 2011

Winter has arrived in the Okanagan, my friends.  And like the winters I remember growing up in Chicago, it came on like someone had flipped a light-switch.  One day, it was in the 60s (F) and the next, it was snowing, and since that first snow, it hasn't gotten above 40F here, with this last week being in the low 20s.  Having spent the last 10 years living in Florida, Las Vegas, and Portland, Oregon, temps like that were extremely rare.  Even in Oregon, the winter average was in the 40s, with snow being a (maybe) 3 times a year event.  Though, in Portland, even 1/16th of an inch would cause the city to literally shut down.  Since it rarely snowed there, there were only 3 plows for the entire county, and it appeared that there was only one person who actually knew how to drive them.  So the reporters would all gather on the top of Sylvan Hill (the highest commuter point on the highway system) and coverage of Snowmaggedon would commence.  These reporters would stay up there until they saw a single flake of snow, and then, they'd click into panic mode, warning motorists that certain death awaited them if they drove.  Schools shut down, as did all city and government services.  And the local tv stations showed nothing on air, for the entirety of the day, but those intrepid reporters camped out on Sylvan Hill.  All for 1/16th of an inch of snow.

This being Canada, and Kelowna being sandwiched between the Cascades and the Rockies, we knew we'd be getting snow up here.  We had been told, though, that it was a more mild winter area than most of Canada, and that we'd have a winter more like Portland than Chicago.  But in the last 10 days, we've had 5 days of snow, my awaking this morning to a full inch on the ground.  The temps are in the teens this morning (F) and the snow is thick, packing snow - meaning that as people drive on it, it will turn icy and slippery.  Considering how fantastically flummoxing an excursion in a car can be here in perfect weather, I shudder to think of what happens when Kelownans drive in the snow.  So, instead of venturing out among the toque-topped Canucks, I'll just stay home and take in the exquisite beauty of the Okanagan from my back porch.

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