strangest precip ever

so, while we didn’t get a massive snowstorm yesterday, we did get some very interesting precipitation.

it sleeted, and accumulated. several inches. when i went outside to move my car, it was still below freezing, so the sleet stayed whole. lots of tiny little ice pellets that you could kick around. shoveling was interesting – it was more akin to say, shoveling grain for horses. it didn’t stack up too well.

until it climbed above freezing, and started to rain. then it melted a bit and stuck to itself. while i got soaked, i eventually was able to clear it all.

then it kept raining. and the ground was still frozen, so this morning we ended up with a nice slick mess out there. i did what i could to keep the storm drains clear last night (to avoid frozen lakes at the end of the alley/street)  but pretty much every flat surface had some sort of icy covering this morning.

the salt/sand mixture i threw down last night was marginally effective – the salt dissolves in the rain and runs off, leaving enough sand around that one might expect to see a lifeguard run by in slow motion.