One day last month, just after a light dusting of snow (and I do mean light), a little girl ran up to us on our walk and squealed excitedly, “It snowed!” I looked at her with contempt and sneered, “That’s not snow.” No, of course I didn’t; I scrunched up my shoulders like hers and squealed back, “I know, isn’t it fun?”
Today Scout & I headed down to Scapa Beach (dead seal count: 2. She sniffed both and rolled in neither – this is progress). It was very windy, we walked the length of the beach, and on the way back it started to snow. Well, not really snow. I’ve realized something – I have not seen a single snowflake on this island. Any snow we have had has really been teeny, tiny bits of hail, and has arrived horizontally. I don’t know if Orkney has ever experienced that heavy, gentle, silent, fluffy snowfall that we get back home, big fat flakes that you can catch on your tongue, or that rest on your eyelashes. It may be that it doesn’t get cold enough for that kind of snow here. It’s February and we’re hovering around the 4° – 7° Celsius mark (the wind chill brings it down to a frosty -1°C) – combine that with the ever present wind, and maybe hail is all they know?
with winter almost over, any update on the snow? have you had any snowflakes, or has the whole season been hail??
Honestly, just needle-like fine hail.