My first big snowfall - July 20-22, 2019 (2013, days, city)

[sanfel]

Hi all.

It's been a while since I wanted to share what happened to me on July 20-22 this year. That was the first time ever that I had been in a real snowfall: It lasted almost 3 solid days in a row, with only one short-lived interruption towards the end of the third day.

To give you some context, I have lived all my life in a place where snow is basically non-existent. The first time I had ever seen snow was when I was 17, back in September 1994, in Bariloche. But that was only seeing it on the ground, at the ski resort. Then, the second of my encounters with the snow was in July 2007 here in BA, right at my doorstep, when I saw snow falling for 5 hours. That was epic! The third was in August 2013 in Bariloche, a very short-lived snowfall in the city, and then at the base of the ski resort a huge snowfall that blanketed everything. That was a big-time snowfall, but in the city proper it was raining, so when I left the resort and came back to the hotel, it was like 'bye bye snow'. Then the fourth time was in January 2018 in New York City, but just some flurries that left isolated patches of snow on the ground in parks and green areas.

And finally, the big event:

On July 20 to 22, 2019, I had been for three days in Villa La Angostura with rain practically non-stop. Of course, I wanted to see snow, and I was already resigning myself to leaving the place without seeing snow. But then in the morning of the 20th, the rain turned to sleet, and then to snow. To sum it up, it was a fantastic experience.

These were my impressions on an event that left between 60 and 80 cm (24-31 inches) of snow where I was staying, and much more in higher places:

- Walking on the snow is very tiring.
- Just going out means you have to ‘get dressed’ everytime go outside, which means you’d better not leave something at home.
- Waterproof shoes are very important from the very beginning, and I learned that first-hand.
- Driving in the snow (snow chains and all) is a new thing entirely.
- The experience of seeing the same place without snow and then buried under snow is so strange. Once buried in snow, I wasn’t able to recognize the place where I had had a meal before the snow.
- Slips are something to watch for.
- Every now and then, big chunks of snow fall from trees and rooftops, making a loud thud.
- Some trees (the smaller ones) simply fall to the floor since they don’t stand the heavy weight. One of those trees barely missed my car, which luckily was covered in snow anyway.
- The silence there is when it snows.
- We collected snow from the ground and heated it in a pot. It takes ages to melt and when melted, the amount of water you get is ridiculously small compared to the original snow chunk.
- Snow chains for the car are very inconvenient (very noisy and uncomfortable) if the road has no snow on it.
- I didn’t feel really cold when it snowed.


Here are some pics I took:

[AJ1013]

Cool story. Snow is awesome.

[annagurl333]

Nice story! Reminds me of when I moved from Fl to North Dakota having never seen snow. All the locals were unhappy when it snowed and I was outside gushing like a little girl! ... until a few snows down the line when it was -10°F and my car broke down and stayed 30 min outside while a coworker tried to get the vehicle to work. Haha. .. But otherwise I still love the snow!

Your pics are nice!
Getting a snow-walk workout is fun! Man those thighs and calves get a workout!
Oh and you should hear a train after heavy snowfall... it echoes the train and you can hear it for miles!

Take care.