Madrid Snow 11 January 2010

It literally snowed all night long last night but stopped by this morning. Enough fell to cause countless traffic jams and icy roads. I witnessed several cars sliding down hilly streets and people using cardboard to scrape off the snow from their windshields. The sun came out by noon but was still cold enough to keep much of it from melting.

Of course, the topic of the day was the weather. A few people in the bar this morning (where I had breakfast) were saying how they hadn't seen so much snow in 10 years. I didn't want to remind them that twice as much snow fell on Madrid City just January of last year. But the truth is, in my 4 years here I have never seen so many days of snow in one winter - and we're just getting started!

Schools were not closed but students were advised to stay home - although many were seen, by me, in downtown Madrid today throwing snowballs at one another. They were happy to have a free day on the first day back from Christmas vacation.

Seeing snow at any time in Madrid is, for me, refreshing. Back in Ohio, USA right now, surely there are several feet of snow in some places so this little "dusting" doesn't bother me. It does make me miss the snow more from the Midwest. I don't miss, however, the inevitable slushy, grimy aftermath. When I hear Madrileños amazed at this snow I just think, "This ain't nuttin', son." How many dozens of winter days in Ohio (each year!) did I have to walk through snow past my knees just to go get the mail?!

Here are a few of my mobile and normal digital camera photos taken today.