Southern Snow
Sunday morning, first of February, in the year of our Lord, 2026.
6:30 am, 12 degrees Farenheit, but feels like 7 degrees.
Currently clear skies but still an hour before sunrise, so Sandlin Mountain and Oglethorpe are dark on a dark horizon.
For those unfamiliar with the location of Georgia on a map, the state itself is fully in the southern region of the US, east coast of the Mississippi River, bordering in the East, the Atlantic Ocean, the North, both Tennessee and South Carolina, to the South, Florida, and to the West, Alabama. Our home, North of Atlanta, is roughly 34 degrees North by 84 degrees West and since we live up a little ways on a mountain, we are about 2,000 feet above sea level.
While our mountain home has afforded milder temperatures in summer and many cold winter days, this weekend has hit record lows, bringing snow, ice and crazy cold to our area.
Some contrasts - this morning in Denver, CO it is 26 degrees, 46 degrees in Olympia, WA, 35 degrees in Bozeman, MT, and in places one would expect harsh winter conditions - Juneau, AK = 35 degrees, Bismarck, ND = 33 degrees, and Newfoundland = 18 degrees.
For a family recently uprooted from the tropical regions of the West Indies, (where it is currently 79 degrees), it is almost unnecessary to point out how little we are truly prepared for anything truly cold (as in, outside without heaters for several hours). Thankfully, our cabin, though poorly insulated, has a solid roof, strong walls, and a working HVAC pumping out warm air to keep us comfortable day and night.
The circumstantial changes of our lives in the past 12 month period are most starkly displayed in the children’s pastimes over the last 24 hours.
The last day of January, 2025 saw us completing bookwork at the dining room table, windows and doors open to what tradewinds would blow through, observing golfers on the green across the street, eating meals on the veranda, listening to birds chirping, and perhaps complaining briefly in the morning about how cold it was (not likely under 68 degrees).
The last day of January, 2026 saw me fixing hot cocoa on the stove, making up warm-ish meals, reading books, crafting, completing housework and entertaining Walter inside while Curtis (the only one who owns true winter gear after years of ice climbing) and the kids played and explored outdoors. Due to our truly Southern and even tropical wardrobes, the kids were in and out, especially when the snow came down in what my seven year old described as a “blizzard.”
While outdoors shoveling and sweeping snow, building snowmen, castles and mountains, and just running, they wore an odd assortment of layers, sporting multiple heavy sweaters, rain coats, ski caps, socks for hands and even pajamas as a base layer.
What an adventure we had! Even the baby watched through the picture window in the family room as the snow came down in soft white drafts, with the occasional puff as piled snow was windswept off of the roof.