Snow! (?!)

Well this was unexpected. Yes, the forecast from the National Weather Service had occasionally included a chance of snow over the weekend, but the days when the snow was supposed to appear kept changing, and sometimes they weren't predicting any at all, and it seemed very early, still, for snow to be happening (there often isn't any at all until mid-November), so I wasn't taking this all that seriously. But it snowed for a couple hours here anyway, Saturday morning, and it was coming down hard enough for some of that time that we actually had some accumulation.



It had all melted off a few hours later, but still. Not only very early-seeming (I have no idea whether it's early statistically), but also an awful lot, for a first snow.



Last winter and the winter before were both exceptionally snowy years around Iowa City: I couldn't track down any specific information about it, but 2007-08 was at least the third-snowiest winter on record. I wouldn't object, personally, if this were to happen again (I know a lot of people would, though.), except for one thing: we must not lose electricity this winter. Extended periods without electricity and large tropical plant collections do not go well together. Not to mention Nina.


The husband and I have talked about getting a kerosene heater and/or a generator; both seem like pretty good ideas to me, but I don't know if we can afford either. (Also kerosene heaters are hard to find now? Apparently?) There does need to be a plan of some kind, though. A long spell of temperatures below 60F/16C would kill about a third to a half of my collection, and if it went below 50F/10C for a long time, I might lose three-quarters. This should not be allowed to happen.