me too *hugs*

Sending good thoughts and vibes your way. Hope y'all will be safe.

(My sister was living in Metarie(sp?) when Katrina was coming. She had packed a couple days before landfall, and attempted to drive to Dallas. But there was so much traffic that she ended up turning around and going to a friend's parents' place. (They lived in Maryland. Traffic was a lot smoother heading that way.)

I remember her talking about how many folks in New Orleans didn't have cars, and when she was driving out of N.O., there were several folks walking along the shoulder of the freeways, with some stuff packed up in shopping carts or kids' wagons. (Like those Red Rider Wagons or the Little Tykes wagons.)

Sigh.

Good luck to you. Sending hugs.

Eep! Take care! I'm far north enough that hurricanes don't usually get this far but even the tail ends of the storms pack a wallop. Will keep my fingers crossed and add my hopes that it misses you!

Heh. Funny how these things work. I'm guessing from the comment that you're in Mississippi? I'll keep an eye on the weather reports and you in my thoughts, then. Stay safe!

(I'm up on the Canadian east coast. Usually by the storms get there, they're tropical storms or depressions at best. The very few times we get anything at hurricane strength, everyone freaks right out.)

Ah! I wasn't sure if your brother was in a different state. Clearly so! And Jesus, yeah. I can see why category three and above would prompt a freak out! Will definitely be wishing you well as the storm approaches, then.

On a slightly related note, Louisiana is on my list of Places That Would Be Neat To Visit Someday. My family's Acadian. Laziness/lack of funds/lack of free time will probably keep it from happening but a girl can daydream. :)

Awesome! :D Which national park did you visit? And sure, I'd say it counts. Though you should totally come back and visit for longer sometime!

That's got to be a relief. A storm is bad enough but a storm with added evacuation stress would be awful. Well, and flooding being pretty awful in and of itself.

Ha! Yeah, that would be kind of a turnaround. I live in Nova Scotia and a good friend of mine lives in a neighboring province and they always get hit harder in the winter than we do despite being pretty close, geographically. Drives her a bit nuts.

Oooooh! I'm a bit jealous. That'd be a great place to see. I've flown over the western half of Canada but I've never had a chance to visit, really. I've been through and lived in places in the southeastern part but One Of These Days, I'll get to see out west. And up north. I'd love to visit up north.

Ha. Good for your mom! I can't lay claim to the highest part of the city but we do live at the top of a hilly area. Well, all of my city is hills, really. But we live at the top of a great big one.

Really? I've lived most of my life in Canada so snow was just part of the seasons for me. I always find it really neat to talk to people that have had different experiences. I worked with some Australians at one point - nearly got stampeded in their rush to get to a window to see snow falling OMG! during the first snowfall of the year.

And to answer your question, pretty much! Though not quite as severe as a hurricane, particularly in terms of wind speed. You mentioned you've seen some snowfall? So basically you've got regular snow, which is just the fluffy white stuff falling in place of rain drops. You're probably familiar with that. In a snowstorm, it falls much more thickly and there's usually wind blowing it all over the place. Stings like hell and makes driving difficult. Blizzards are actually pretty nasty and lead to fun things like whiteout conditions, which are exactly what they sound like. Snow falling heavily enough that you can't see through it, whipped along by the wind so that everything is just a mass of whirling white. Also, blizzard snow tends to be smaller and sharper than the fluffy white stuff.

Have you ever had the misfortune of experiencing freezing rain? That stuff is wicked.

(I'm one of those odd birds that actually likes winter so go ahead and ask whatever snow questions you want. I don't spend a whole lot of time in it - net junkie hermit, here - but I like it!)

Neat! You're a bit of a rarity, then. Most of the people I've met/spoken to that hail from warmer climates hate winter. Not to mention a lot of people I know who live here! But good on you! Snow is awesome. :D

I live in a pretty temperate part of the country. Our summers get into the 75-85F range (humidex adds a number of degrees to that!) and our winters range anywhere from about 20F to -5Fish in a cold snap. I grew up in southern Ontario - my dad was military so we moved around. Ottawa used to hit over 100F in the summer and went down to -40F in the winter. That...kind of sucked sometimes.

I've heard that! The first time I caught a news report about southern states shutting down due to a couple of inches of snow, I went, "Are you serious?" at my dad...until he pointed out that you guys don't have a) the experience of dealing with or driving in snow or b) the municipal infrastructure to deal with the clean up. It was kind of a paradigm shift moment for me. Up here, we don't shut down for a couple of feet of snow.

Freezing rain is a bitch. Sleet is bad enough - that's rain and snow mixed together in an icy mess - but freezing rain is liquid rain that freezes into glaze ice upon contact with the ground. Everything gains a slick layer of solid ice. It can be very pretty but oh my God, it's terrifying to have to move in. Pitiful traction, on foot or on wheels. Basically, your car gets to go skating and your feet are not going to stay under you. (If you're curious, go google "Montreal Ice Storm" and check out the images. That's a pretty extreme example but some of the pictures are impressive in a scary sort of way.)

We very rarely get rain that heavy but when it does fall it's scary as hell. We got caught in one such rainstorm a couple of months back, driving home. Between the rain and the wind, we couldn't see anything. And the crazy drivers! Speeding along like it was a clear summer day! I was sitting in the back seat and I was white-knuckling the door handle.

Edited at 2012-08-28 04:37 am (UTC)

I hear you there. I love spring and fall because, among other reasons, the temperatures are neatly in between the summer and winter extremes.

Oh, agreed. I tend to forget those aspects because I don't do the shovelling and I don't drive. Snow's a lot more fun without those two considerations.

Now that's just not fair!

::looks at icon:: this is me,blowing the storm back to sea.

Please, please keep us up to date hon. I'll be thinking about you and your family. <3

*hugs* and good thoughts.

Me too. Hope you and your loved ones stay safe!