Winter Weather: My Very First Snow Storm in Savannah, Georgia

Savannah, Georgia -- According to the Weather Channel's website, the high on Saturday, February 28, 2009 was 72. Having such brilliant weather in February meant that students at the Armstrong Atlantic State University campus were sitting outside on picnic blankets to soak up the good weather. It was sunny without being unbearably hot, and I was also enjoying the weather. Saturday was the day to run errands.

Fortunately, I made it home before evening rolled around. It started raining quite heavily. While I was making dinner, I stood in the living room and watching the pine trees swaying back and forth ominously. The doors and windows rattled because the wind was blowing so fiercely, and it takes a pretty strong gust to shake the walls of this relatively new apartment building. Living on the coast means that the residents are familiar with strong winds, but this storm had the potential to be brutal.

Watching my regular shows on television was nearly impossible, and the reason for the disruption created some level of anxiety for me. My viewing was frequently interrupted by the harsh beeps and the computerized voice of tornado watches, tornado warnings, wind advisories, and severe thunderstorm warnings. At least one tornado spotted around Hinesville, Georgia, an area that I drive through quite frequently, and the wind, rain, and thunder were not letting up in Savannah.

I woke up early Sunday morning. I am not sure if the cold temperatures that had dropped almost 30 degrees overnight woke me up. Perhaps my aquarium filter sputtering and then dying as the electricity went out woke me up. Either way, I spent Sunday morning reading and using the bathroom by flashlight and desperately trying to avoid having the refrigerator door open. I had no idea how long the power outage would last.

Fortunately, I had my laptop, which allowed me to check the radar on the Weather Channel's website. It was still wet and cold, and the radar indicated that the brutal winter weather was not over. Things got even more interesting when my father, living in Columbus, GA, started sending pictures of a thick blanket of snow covering the ground and all of the houses in Columbus. This was the same storm coming for Savannah, and there was a slight chance of a rain/snow mix at about 1 a.m.

Snow in Savannah, Georgia? I could wait up for that. The electricity eventually came back on, and my freshwater fish, as well as the food in the refrigerator, survived. However, the weather remained chilly. The winter weather that had been absent in Savannah for the past few weeks returned with a vengeance. The heat was on and I had knit penguin slippers on my feet, but it was still freezing.

The next day I went out to my car. Savannah did not get the snow, but the parking lot was a mess because trash from the dumpster was blown out onto the street. Unfortunately, I left the passenger window of my car down at some point, so my passenger seat was soaked and covered with leaves, pine needles, and male pine cones. Overall, it was in the same condition as the exterior of my car.

So far, the weather has remained relatively low. Winter is certainly not over yet in the South. I did not get to see snow on the east coast, but I did learn an important lesson about my car windows.