Man, the weather here has been CRAZY. It started off with a beautiful light, fluffy snow on Christmas day. It was perfect.
But then we had an ice storm and everything froze over. The ice was so heavy on the trees that the branches started breaking. The young trees were alright because they were still relatively flexible (thank God my Japanese maple survived!), so they just sagged. But the old trees... :( People couldn't drive in the streets because the huge branches were all over the place, and if you're car was parked on the street when the storm hit, it was completely buried/damaged. Of course, the branches were too heavy to move with the ice still on them so everything was on lock down.
To make matters work, the power went out. Toronto was out for about a week. The cities on the outskirts were out for a few days. The temps dropped to -21C, which is bad enough, but it was more like -40sC with the windchill.
And then of course, there was the frost quake (where the moisture in soil and rock deep in the earth freeze and crack).
When the weather warmed, the ice and snow began to melt, which creates slush and water. Then temps cooled and all the slush and water froze. Fun driving.
This all happened within a span of two weeks. Now the weather is a mild -4C and things are back to the normal winter style.
This has been the most exciting, dangerous, disastrous, and freezing winter I have ever lived through.
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