Hurricane Harbor: Snow ... From a Tropical Perspective

It's snowing from Carolina to New England tonight in a large blue swath of wintry real estate along the East Coast and partly down into the South.

I love watching snow fall.

No matter how many times I see it snow I am a little girl all over again.

To see white stuff falling from the sky... snow flakes that look like chunks of Styrofoam or soap suds or foam from a wild ocean falling from the sky and swirling around in their own little, unique air currents. And then larger flakes coming down harder illuminated by the street lights.

I know for all of you who live in New York, Canada, Connecticut and Maine this seems like a silly rant for me to go on when all you want is for it to stop snowing. Ohio, Indiana and Illinois all get their extra share of the white stuff. Personally, I just want to see it snow a little longer...

I'm a Miami girl. I grew up with palm trees and sunshine and when it rains we pretend it's liquid sunshine falling from the sky. That's a term the hotels owners on Collins Avenue would say to folks out by the pool who would complain about the rain. "Liquid Sunshine" ...a little bit of Miami History there.. Eventually the term was used in ads for Florida Orange Juice.

I know the way the sun looks setting from La Concha in Key West and how it feels to walk down Duval Street in a pouring rain storm in the middle of the summer when you are soaked to the skin and you smile knowing it will take less than 20 minutes to dry out when the hot Florida sun comes back out.

The first time I saw snow fall I didn't know how to walk on it. I wondered if you were supposed to do something special... as if you might slide like an ice skater rather than walk. I was 18 in college in Brooklyn and I slowly put my boots on and stepped down onto the snow very slowly and carefully and smiled. I was told to return the first pair of boots I impulsively bought upon arriving in NY because they had no "treads" (which had never been a problem in Miami) and had to buy a less cute but more practical pair that would help me navigate the hills and streets in Crown Heights that often get icy. It's called Crown Heights for a reason and often you watch helplessly as some older person falls and slides their way down Kingston Avenue in Mid Winter as everyone rushes to try and help them. They might have a foot of snow by now, and yet we are lucky to get an inch in Raleigh.

My kids in New York keep sending me pictures. My son sent me a photo of my old block in Crown Heights!

My daughter drives daily from Crown Heights up to White Plains. Today's commute home was a white one.

My son who lives in Ames Iowa doesn't send pics anymore... they are there 4 months minus three months plus four before he graduates and they go somewhere hopefully far from snow...

takes a lot for people in Iowa to post pics of snow..

As for me... I grew up in Miami... old Key West family before that.. Tampa

all the tropical ports of call..

My youngest son there is a Miami kid...loves Miami

Here's a pic of him helping Matt launch the weather balloon at NWS Key West :)

several years back.. he's hooked on the tropics...