February 03rd, 2026

The above picture of the weather map of the  US's most recent winter storm.  Yikes!  Looks like a serious booger doesn't it?   That's because it was!  The green bits are suppose to be rain and cooler temps , the blue parts suggest snow and cold temps and the purple parts indicate ice and freakin' freezing temps!  Talking to friends and family all over the country and seeing photos and video footage, especially traffic cams just about had me shaking in my sneakers.

And usually, that's where it ends, when these sorts of things happen.  While the rest of the country is shoveling out and huddling together to stay warm, wearing 32 layers of clothes and drinking medicinal Toddies, normally us Florians are wearing shorts and sandals, squinting into the sun and relaxing on the beach, right?  That's what all the cartoons indicate so it must be true!  

We in point of fact, sometimes it is true which is why people vacation in Florida during the winter.  But this past weekend was winter weather insanity everywhere, including Florida. We were not spared.  This past Saturday and Sunday, New England experienced what we used to call a real N'or Easter which is to say, extremely cold temperatures, high winds and ice and snow pelting down with no remorse.  While that was going on up there, down here was a what could only be called a South Easter!  

Unusual for us, we had Cold (for us) temps in the 20's and 30's, Extremely high winds and rain hammering down.  The wind was so fierce that Tim took down the sail shades in the courtyard and brought in the windchime so that we didn't lose it.  Trees dropped all sorts of branches and fronds and leaves, anything not strapped down rolled, flapped or flew away and some places even saw snow.

Yes, I said that.  Snow in Florida. In THIS part of Florida. Which is shocking.  Not all that long ago I, stupidly, said that this part of Florida NEVER sees snow.  In fact, I think I had the hubris to declare that not only had we never seen it, but we never would. tsktsktsk.  Pride goeth and all that.   At 4:15 am Sunday morning, just a few miles from here, on the East side of Venice Ave (we are the west side) somebody was up recording snow flurries in their yard. Insane!  What is going on?

I saw other videos and accompanying reports of flurries just south of us in Englewood and North Port Florida so we weren't the southest point of the flurries. In fact, in Englewood there was snow on the ground. On The Ground, folks!  Not a lot of snow granted, but still officially snow on the ground. don't believe me?  Well here's a photo Joy sent to me:

That's not sand, it' s freakin' snow in Englewood Florida on Manasota Key.  What???  The world has gone mad.

And while there was no snow on the ground at our house, the water in the birdie water dish partially froze so it was that kind of cold.  I went outside with the intention of cleaning the water dish and refilling it only to find:

Yes, yes, I do understand that our little piddly windy cold day and tiny bit of flurrysnow was nothing compared to the untraversable roads and massive piles of snow and cars doors frozen shut and power outages and various winter storm related nightmares that people suffered in other parts of the country and my heart goes out to them. I've been there done that!  What I'm saying isn't that this is worse, or even the same. What I'm saying is that it's unusual for us. Crazy for us. Unprecedented for us. And it's a little hard to wrap our brains around.

Also, I had forgotten how much extra laundry is involved in winter weather.  All those layers!  Thicker fabrics! Long sleeves and long pants!  Just an observation and isn't it funny how I had forgotten.  After a little trial and error, I finally remembered how to properly layers clothes for warmth without bulk, thank goodness.  And once again, so happy that we brought our down comforter with us here to Florida from Colorado even though everybody else thought we were crazy.  Well, we are crazy but also smart enough to have defied everyone else's advice and shipped it on down here. Thank goodness!

I don't know if we'll ever see snow down here again but I'm glad I was around to see it this time!  Hope the rest of you have your power restored, your cars dug out and your roads cleared!  Looks like winter isn't letting up anytime soon.

Thinking of Spring!

Hugs all 'round