We got snowed in (and iced in) while on holiday in New Zealand but otherwise we've had no experience of this. It just doesn't get cold enough in Australia, for ice storms. We've seen film of ice storms though, and I don't envy anyone having to deal with THAT. I just hope you've laid in a lot of supplies of firewood, batteries, non-perishable food and warm clothing. And drinking water, for when the pipes freeze.
My sister spent three years working in Canada in t he 60s, she sent us photos of ice storms and one fascinating series of photos of firemen trying to put out a fire, in temperatures way below freezing. The water in their hoses was freezing almost as soon as it hit the air - it was falling as ice, she said. Didn't do the burning house much good. When she finally came home after spending yet another year away from home, in England - she said she never wanted to see snow again!
Here, it's not a lot like summer, either. I've had to wear a cotton jumper on and off the last couple of days, it's been about 20C and damp. We get the occasional splash of real rain but mostly it's like fine mist. Out west they've been getting a lot more and we got more overnight and over the last few days up in the hills, so we're now flooded in (as distinct from iced in). I've got to drive easy child 2/difficult child 2 to see her specialist and we're leaving early because we'll probably have to drive the long way around. The road floods about 30 km away, but to drive there, find it flooded - another 20 km to get around it, then 40 km to get back home afterwards.
The sea temperature is 21C, which is warmer than the air temperature!
The forecast is for continuous stormy/damp weather with an occasional clear day. This means we're likely to have a summer of floods. But at least the dams are getting water, too - Warragamba Dam, Sydney's main supply, is back to over 50%!
Every so often the sun burns off some cloud and I take my cotton jumper off and change into shorts. Unless the rain is really bucketting down we don't bother with umbrellas or raincoats - I don't, anyway, because I only have one spare hand (the other uses my crutch) and my spare hand gets too tired to carry an umbrella. Wearing a raincoat in an Aussie summer makes you feel like you're sitting in a sauna. The rain here is warm, we don't worry about getting wet. husband wears a hat (Aussie Akubra). easy child 2/difficult child 2 will deliberately go out into a warm summer rain just to cool off.
Today is our designated day for watering the garden, after 4 pm. I don't think we'll be needing to, at last.
The school year is winding down, maybe on Friday when we have a break in the rain forecast, I can take difficult child 3 to the beach for a swim.
I wish I could teleport myself over to you guys for a visit, and that I could teleport you guys over here to give you some warm respite. I think you would even enjoy our warm rain. We still have a lot of spring flowers and the fragrance is heavenly; a mix of frangipani, jasmine and orange blossom smells, from the Murraya, the Star Jasmine, the lilies and, of course, frangipani. The gardenias are all flowering too, thankful for the rain. For me, they're the smells of Christmas.
Marg
