The 2016 Blizzard

It's currently in the 70s here in New York, which is wonderful no matter what time of year it occurs, but it's definitely not normal for March. It's no secret that I adore snow, and we've had a pitiful amount of it this "winter." In fact, this was one of the least snowiest winters we've had in a while, and the vast majority of the accumulation that we did manage to get came all in one day.

On January 23rd, New York City recorded 26.8 inches of snow in Central Park. We stayed inside for more than 24 hours during the actual snowfall, but the next day we ventured out to see how Brooklyn had fared. My favorite part of the entire blizzard was seeing the huge, car-shaped mounds of snow that lined the streets. I don't normally envy people that have cars in the city, but I was especially glad to be able to enjoy the snowy streets without worrying about digging out.

We walked to Prospect Park past the back entrance of Green-Wood Cemetery, which was unfortunately closed due to the snow. They actually opened their main gates later in the day but I wasn't able to make it in. I adore snow almost as much as I love cemeteries, so when the two combine I'm endlessly delighted.

Prospect Park was a true winter wonderland, although I did get overwhelmed at times by the amount of screaming children sledding on every possible snowy surface. I love the city even more when it snows because of how quiet everything usually becomes. The traffic slows to a crawl, there are less people out and everything just seems more magical and calm. I felt a bit robbed of this phenomenon since by the time we ventured out it was sunny and it seemed as if 90% of Brooklyn had the same idea as us.

Since we had gotten a slow start, there were already some really excellent snow creations scattered throughout the park, including a Madonna-and-Child sculpture that was hard to capture accurately and the most wonderful snow octopus I've ever seen (it's also the only snow octopus I've ever seen).

We tried to add our own creation, but couldn't get the snow to cooperate so I settled on flopping down into the snow and making a snow angel. Of course because I'm thirty years old now, I felt like I had whiplash for the next week—maybe I should be thankful that my chances to injure myself participating in snowy activities have been so limited this year.