Wuhan has always felt a little unreal to me, and this latest round of freezing rain followed by snow only adds to that feeling. Snow itself is not some rare miracle, but the way it arrived this time was completely disorienting.
In my memory, Wuhan does not actually get that much snow. The one that still stands out most is the heavy snowfall in 2008. That one was truly intense, and back then we still had to go to class in it.
Now it is happening again. Over the past two days, the temperature dropped sharply, then came the freezing rain, and by today it had turned into full-on snow. Even now, I still find it hard to believe how heavy it got. In the residential compound and around the office park, tree branches have been bent and snapped under the weight. Some paths are basically impossible to walk through, and with the freezing rain mixed in, the whole scene has been brutal.
On the first day of freezing rain, my car was completely sealed over with ice. It was not especially thick, but it covered everything. I took some hot water out and managed to clear the ice from the windshield, the door handles, and the side mirrors, though it still took a fair amount of effort. At the time, it was still coming down as that pellet-like frozen rain, and the wind was strong enough that leaving your hands exposed for just a few seconds made them go numb.
Then last night the weather forecast said there would be a blizzard. I did not really believe it. This morning proved me wrong. When I went out to drive to work, there was a broken tree branch lying on the car, along with a pile of leaves, all of it frozen solid. The entire front windshield was packed with ice and snow. In the end, it took two full buckets of hot water just to clear enough of it to drive normally. It was so cold that my hands no longer felt like they belonged to me.
Still, as harsh as the weather has been, some of the plants after the freezing rain actually looked beautiful, so here is one photo.
I just hope the ice is not too bad tomorrow morning.