Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Huntsville Snow 2010

For the entire Houston area, this was the second to the latest snowfall in our history. March 12th is the latest on the record books. 2010 ties the record for most snowfalls in any one year - three in 1973 when 1.4 inches was measured. That means it is not out of the question to have another snow in this remarkable winter.


There was significant snow in Huntsville on Tuesday. I went to Huntsville State Park to photograph what I thought was going to be three inches on the ground. That did not happen, but there was more than three inches that fell there! At first rain drop, it looked like there was going to be no snow at all.

Then the slush started. Nothing was sticking until about 3pm. Then the snow became pure and fell rigorously for about almost two hours before it slowed to flurries. Then about 530pm, the intensity again increased to a moderate+ level. It was beautiful and stuck to the ground.  

I took a hike for three hours in the falling snow there in the park, surrounded by birds and the forest. Late in the evening, I heard a couple of deer crash through the brush but never saw them. 

For the most part, I stayed dry with all the gear I was wearing. Keeping the equipment dry was a challenge in the wayward snow flakes that sometimes even traveled upward in the wind.

Although disappointed that the big snowfall did not occur, I was delighted with the beauty that the limited snowfall did provide. Snow lines cropped up in various areas of the forest, causing interesting effects.

In general, the accumulated snow acted as the icing on the cake for the forest. It dressed the forest floor up considerably, providing white where it once was brown, revealing birds that were difficult to see, adding colors to dead tree limbs and providing a variety of added color richness to the forest.

In some cases, the snow accumulated on trees, especially the Holly trees and on some of the smaller pines.

There were few cars in the park, but this one revealed to me the amount of snow that had actually fallen. The temperature was above freezing, so the snow that did stick to the ground was slowly melting.  I did see cars with more snow than this on them, coming into the park at about 6pm.

This dead tree has rusty colored lichens growing on it. Although that is colorful on its own, adding the white to the mix proved to be beautiful. I have several photos of this and will share them in other articles or via Twitter or Facebook.

A birdhouse in the park looked much better than normal with the added snow backdrop.

I would suggest looking at the photos a little closer to get the effects. Just click on them for a full sized view.

So what is the heaviest snowfall on record here? hint - it was a long time ago.

The snow line on Wednesday, indicating the remaining snow on the ground can be seen on the map at this location, courtesy of ABC13 news. Huntsville showed nothing but I bet there was remaining snow on the ground there, not visible from satellite. Huntsville reported 3 inches of snow officially.    

2 comments:

  1. Your snowfalls may not be spectacular in the south, but they are a sight to behold when they happen, I'm sure. Our cardial is not so easy to capture with the camera. I was lucky that day. He came up onto the porch to feed for a few minutes and I happened to have the camera in my hands.
    Thanks for visiting and saying hello :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oop...that should be cardinal.

    ReplyDelete

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