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HAMPTON ROADS' WHITE CHRISTMAS! December 20 & 26, 2004 The Monday before Christmas the Hampton Roads area had a light dusting of snow that started falling on the night of the 19th. The light snow fell through the late evening hours as the cold artic air moved in. The snow was a dry powder that coated everything it touched. By morning, the temperature had fallen to 10- 15 degrees with a stiff wind of around 20-30mph. This dropped the windchill factor to -28 degrees. I headed out early in the morning to the local city park just to shoot as few photos of any ducks and geese in the snow and small pond there and anything else that caught my eye. As I was leaving the park, I saw the wind blowing the snow across the road in front of me. So I stopped and and got out and walked around to the front of the truck and crouched down to stay out of the wind waiting for the snow to blow into the air and across the road on the next big gust. I shot several photos during this time and that's when the windchill dropped to -28 degrees. Then on Christmas Day, the NWS office started talking about the chance of snow for the next day in the area. They started out thinking that the bulk of the area would see rain with a mix to snow before ending and that we would not see much in the way of accumulation. WRONG!! There was a wide range of snowfall totals across Hampton Roads from 3 inches near the Beach to 10-12 inches in parts of Suffolk and Isle Of White. So thats where I went to shoot a few photos before the snow stopped falling later in the day. What happened was it started out as a brief light rain but quickly changed over to all snow by 7am. The snow fell quiet heavily at times and stopped sometime after 4pm. We missed a true White Christmas by about thirteen hours or so. It was still nice to see it for the holidays and a beautiful scene with snow coating the trees, roads and lawns. Below are a few photos from both snowfalls with a few more to be added later.
This was taken at Portsmouth City Park the morning of the 20th. Usually there are lots of ducks and geese here even when it snows. But the wind was so cold, they all decided to stay somewhere warmer.
This is the shot from the front of the truck crouched down to hide from the wind. This gust was recorded on the truck at 30mph which dropped the 14 degree temperature to around -28 degrees. This photo was converted to black and white.
Taken off Rt. 10 in Suffolk and Isle Of White on December 26th, this old farm house was surrounded by about 9 inches of snow at this point. As you can see in the photo the snow was falling very heavily at this point too. They received about 12-15 inches before it was all said and done.
Taken from the front yard of the farm house above, this shot of the truck shows just how hard it was snowing at the time. It was a beautiful sight.
Taken near the Portsmouth City Park this side road near the cemetery looked peaceful and quiet covered in a white blanket.
This is a shot of the local bank here in Portsmouth. I have driven by the bank many times during the holidays hoping that one time the snow would fall and cover the trees and bushes while the Christmas lights were still on. I got the chance this year to shoot what was just a beautiful scene that played out all across the area.
I will be adding more photos over the next few days. All of theses photos were taken with my new Nikon D70.
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