Ice Storm January 2012, Elma Washington, Elma Photographer

Well the weather in Western Washington can tend to be a bit on the Bipolar side and this past week did not disappoint. I actually enjoy the excitement of winter storms. It is a break in the monotony, however this one was a bit on the extreme side. Mother nature wanted to keep us on our toes and put us in our place. Last Saturday started the snow, it continued to snow for four days. We ended up with about 20 inches of snow. Then that snow turned to rain and froze as it hit the ground, trees, anything that came in contact with it. Soon the snow had a one inch crust on it and all the trees became frozen as well. Usually on the hill I live on the night is pretty quiet. During this ice storm there were so many noises breaking that typical silence. Crashing of trees falling, branches crackling as a light breeze came by, it was a very scary sound. Well with all of the trees heavy with ice and snow many fell across power lines. We were without power for 6 hours. Long enough for our house to get to about 62 degrees and the kids started to become restless. My husband worried it may last much longer so we made the trek out of our home to Home Depot for a generator. Amazingly we made it out of our driveway (thank goodness for our four wheel drive full size truck because my car would have never made it) and luckily Home Depot had a few generators left in Aberdeen. The roads were amazingly good going that direction. I knew the other way towards Olympia through the Black Hills would be another story. So my hubby being crafty with electricity and all things mechanical he had the generator up and running in no time and we were able to get warm again and get the refrigerator back cooling food down. We were one of the lucky ones. As I type this many of my friends and family in the Olympia area northward still are without power...going on four days! I am very thankful for our Lineman who are working their butts off to get power to these poor souls. I hope it is restored soon! And mother nature has even more fun in store for us today. A wind storm! I am just thankful the windstorm waited until today when everything is thawed out. It would have been even more devastating if the wind kicked up when ice was covering the trees. I could not go without documenting the beauty of this storm on my camera. Here are some of my favorites. Enjoy!