enuja

Yesterday's surprise snow squall was, well, a surprise. Apparently, it showed up on weather forecast models around midnight, and the possibility of a snow squall was not well known in salting and snow shoveling circles, nor to the rest of us. Many people woke up to blizzard conditions out their front windows, or got caught unprepared while running or walking or driving. The cities' salt trucks, which are usually out well before a storm, were not out and about until well after the squall.

Just as a summer thunderstorm squall line can be difficult to predict, so can a snow squall.

Normally I like commuting during snow, but I'm super happy I finished my pedestrian commute before the snow squall hit yesterday morning. Because I hadn't yet used them at all this winter, I did not have my Yakx Trax in my backpack yesterday. My walk home was slow because all the sidewalks and the streets were very icy. That's what happens when nobody salts before the snow comes.

For my pedestrian commute this morning my, I did have my Yakx Trax on. And that made me able to not just to walk swiftly, but even to run, because I was, as usual, running late.

I have talked recently about how when the whether people say travel conditions will be hazardous and one should avoid travel, they are not usually thinking about walking. The visibility one needs to safely walk is much lower than the visibility one needs to safely drive, because driving is so much faster. But I read an anecdote on the internet about a runner who had to put their hands in front of their eyes to shield their eyes so that they could see well enough to get home.

We have more snow forecast tonight, but everybody knows it's coming, so the salting and shoveling will be much better.