Snowbow! Or Rather Snow Halo!

We have a lot of snow here...and more is coming. When people say Ohio, they think midwest and they think a lot of snow. However, in south west Ohio, we don't get so much as we're about 3 hours from the Great Lakes. However, we were the originators of the storm which blanketed DC and the mid-Atlantic states. The moist air from the Gulf came up and met the cold air coming down from Canada...and that point of hitting is usually at about the intersection of Interstates 75 and 70...about 10 miles from our house. Anything north of I 70 gets a lot more snow than south of I-70.

For the last four days, my daughter has been out of school. I have about 2 feet of undrifted snow in my fenced in back yard. The drifts in the front are fairly prodigious. Because we are so flat and so much of the area is farmland, drifting on north-south roads causes problems.

One thing I like about living here is being able to watch the ever-changing horizon and sky. On the way home from my weekly quilting gathering, imagine my pleasure when I saw a snowbow. It isn't a very good picture I'm afraid, as I had to get to a place where I could safely stop the car, and by that time, it had faded a bit, and certainly the Church of the Nazarene wasn't exactly the most photogenic of buildings (its a modern cinder block constructed church without a lot of grace or elegance...purely functional).

Snowbows are winter rainbows. They form just as rainbows do, light is reflected off ice crystals in the air. You don't see them too often though and that's why I was so pleased to get this one for you. NOTE: Ok...so snowbows is what we always called them....I double checked and discovered that they are actually called "snow halos" and are seen when you are facing the sun. Rainbows reflect light off the rounded water droplets and usually have the sun BEHIND you when you're facing the rainbow... Sheesh. Whoda thunk? Here's more on Snowbows and Snow halos

This is what our driveway looked like on Saturday morning....before we got an additional dump of about 8" to 10" of snow.

It was fairly treacherous as it stared as sleet and very wet, slushy snow, then the temperatures dropped. The wet snow clung to the trees and then froze, creating wonderful diamonds and permanent snow cover on the trees. Usually in this area, the snow is very dry as it is cold and the air is dry. We laugh as we often just have to sweep the snow off our driveways rather than use the snow blowers.








A shrub in my back yard with icy jewels.



















A silver maple which is truly silver on our neighbor to the west's property.