Boxing Day Storm

Depending on where you live, you may or may not celebrate Boxing Day. In Canada, it is a day off for most.

Until now, we haven’t had alot of snow. It snowed on and off both Christmas Eve and Day. We ended up with 4-6 inches of snow. Sometime early in the evening, it decided to start snowing and overnight decided to snow in earnest. By 11 this morning the plow had been by twice and the bank at the end of the driveway was about 2′ deep. Because the wind is blowing the snow around it is hard to tell how much is out there. By now we have well over a foot.

I took this picture outside, but it is pretty much what you would see if you were to look out one of our front windows.

Our house finally has the look of Christmas.

I can remember while growing up that I would often be outside working for the afternoon. The best season to cut wood (in the forest) was winter. Snow and ice made possible going places that were inaccessible to machinery in any other season. There were a few times that we would be out working in a day like today and my eyes would freeze shut. The thing was that they weren’t entirely closed. I would have them closed enough to keep the snow from landing on the surface of my eye, but open enough that I could see between the eyelashes. The other strange thing that would happen is a layer of ice would form over my face about 1/8″ from the skin. It would freeze onto the hairs (which were standing up to help keep the skin from freezing). It would proably take about 2 hours for a whole skin of ice to form. The irony is that even though the layer of ice sounds cold, it meant that we could stay out for hours with being terrribly concerned about frostbite. The ice served as a layer of protection and insulation. The start of the ice looked something like this (Andrea manages to snag some amazing pics btw).

Here is the weather forecast I looked up this morning (30 cm = approx 1 foot, 80 km/hr = approx 50 mph). Time to snuggle in and enjoy indoor things

Blizzard warning for
Miramichi and area continued

This is a warning that blizzard conditions with near-zero visibilities are expected or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.

An intense low pressure system will move slowly northeastward over Nova Scotia later today. Snow at times heavy is expected today and tonight over northern and central New Brunswick with total snowfall amounts 40 to 60 centimetres possible by early Tuesday morning.

The rain over southern regions will change back to snow overnight with snowfall amounts of 20 to 30 centimetres possible over southeast New Brunswick by Tuesday afternoon.

East to northeast winds will also continue to increase during the day causing blizzard-like conditions over the Acadian Peninsula as well as the Bathurst and Miramichi regions.

Northeasterly winds gusting to 90 km/h will develop over eastern New Brunswick early this evening resulting in large and potentially damaging seas to the gulf coast of New Brunswick tonight and Tuesday with somewhat elevated water levels. Minor flooding is possibly close to the shoreline as is the possiblity of coastal infrastructure damage and coastal erosion. The areas most likely to be affected are from Miscou Island to Shediac bay.