Despite a week’s delay, the inevitable has finally occurred: last night we had a few inches of snow dumped on us, and it is here to stay.\u00a0 Two weeks ago we had our first snowfall in temperatures which barely got above 1 or 2 degrees, and we woke up one morning to find an inch or so\u00a0covering the ground, and I drove to work to find cars on their roofs, bent around trees, and in passionate embrace of others.\u00a0 But by lunchtime it had more or less gone and the next week saw the temperature stay around 8 to 10 degrees during the day and only about 0 or -1 at night.\u00a0 For November, this was very unusual, or so spaketh the old and wisened of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.\u00a0 Indeed, even on Thursday it was about 7 or 8 degrees in the evening.<\/p>\n
But things change quickly in Russia, and\u00a0Friday evening saw\u00a0those 7 or 8 degrees stripped off the thermometer\u00a0and the temperature plunge to the low minuses.\u00a0 There was snow in the air, but not too much.\u00a0 Then yesterday at 5pm I left a bar where I’d been meeting a client to find the snow coming down thick and fast in flakes the size of 10 pence pieces (or quarters, for my US readers).\u00a0 A strong wind kept the stuff blowing about, and by late evening an inch had fallen and\u00a0settled.\u00a0 This morning there\u00a0are a couple more inches and powdery snow still falling.<\/p>\n
Apparently we will not see the ground again before May,\u00a0the four feet of mud and slush in April notwithstanding.\u00a0 I got my winter tyres fitted just in time.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite a week’s delay, the inevitable has finally occurred: last night we had a few inches of snow dumped on us, and it is here to stay.\u00a0 Two weeks ago we had our first snowfall in temperatures which barely got … Continue reading