Snow City
For those of you who don’t know me, I am an avid ‘Southerner/American girl’ traveller, wishing, hoping, for a RTW trip, but in the meantime I’m doing what I can, when I can. Here are my stories:
Ever wonder what its like in a New York City snow storm? This moment, the snow is stinging me in the face, and sticking to my overcoat as I walk down the deserted 19th Street at 12:45am. In New York, the wind tunnel effect is in full force, down the avenue and east to west, though it really must be only around freezing, not much below, because it really isn’t but so cold. The street ahead is coated in white, the air is full of snowy fog, falling in whirls around the street lights. The building windows go dark-dark-light, dark-dark-light and I notice a cat holding watch over her stoop, in the odd lit window. Only a few are up in their apartments at this hour, most are either out toasting the night, or asleep by now. Very few cars disturb the quiet of the street as I make my way, they keep themselves to the avenues, mostly cabs, in hopes for fares on the way home in the early hours of the storm. When I get in the building I pass by the apartment door, and up to the roof top.
6 stories above the lamp lights, store lights and headlights it hits you the real wonder of a snowy night in New York. I know its up there, that’s why I go to look, but each time I do, its almost a new discovery. For all the nights where you can’t see but 10 stars total, this is payback. Approaching the roof deck furniture that hasn’t hosted a cup of coffee since September, I survey the city from 80 feet. The Empire State building and all the buildings of uptown are shrouded in mist, but I can tell it’s after midnight because there isn’t a smudge of color emanating from my right. As I recall the Empire State was red, white and blue as I got in a cab earlier tonight. The New York 1 sign is still barely visible on 32nd street directly north, the rest of the skyline is very dim and foggy in the distance. The wind blows strongly from several directions and I am happy for my hat and gloves, but still I marvel that its not all that cold. Considering.
All of this strikes me pretty fast, half a second or so. But what really strikes me, as it would you, before you even noticed your footsteps messing up the untouched snow of the roofdeck, and before you wonder which buildings you can make out in the storm, before everything, you notice the ambient light. It is as clear and as light out as noon on a mildly cloudy summers day. This is not an exaggeration, and it hits you because you know there aren‘t street lights right above you to see by. Just the heavens. It is astounding, and though I’ve seen it before, many times now actually, it strikes me as magical every time. From 6 stories up it is quiet, at least for Manhattan at any hour, underneath the falling blanket of white. The reflection of every light of the city is shining back from the low fog and cloud cover. I look at the snow coated table and chairs and picture myself reading my latest book, and how easy the words on the page would be to see. This is how light it is. I am not jesting when I say it is like midday light. And I’m not saying that it is ‘kind of’ like midday light (remember in Manhattan, every night, thanks to the light pollution, is like ‘kind of’ midday.) I’m talking full on bright midday. And even weirder, since the lights are reflecting from everywhere, on every whited-out surface, there are no shadows.
I can’t tell you how eerie that effect is. Bright, and from all over. I can only tell you, if you find yourself in a city, such as NYC, during a snowstorm, where the streets are beginning to coat themselves in white, and the cabs are leaving tracks, try your hardest to get above the street, but still in the open air, and spend a quite moment alone with the snow light.
Like I said, it makes up for at least a few of those nights you look up and can’t even see the Big Dipper. There’s thunder happening as I trapse downstairs to write this. Thundery snowstorms. Cool, I think. Even to a city girl.
Next update: Ski-time Summit County, Co, then to Bolivia
Tags: New York City, NYC, Snow, USA, Tag Index
jessicab