Snowstorm Fern to Playa del Carmen's Sargassum
It was already quite chilly in the Hudson Valley in December. Winter Storm Fern started on January 24, 2026. This was our driveway in Grandpa Land after a day or two. New York is much more prepared for a big snow than say the Washington D.C area. In DC, two inches of snow literally can cause a thousand accidents out on the Beltway. It really doesn't snow that much so I get it that the area doesn't invest a whole lot in serious snow plows and the people aren't practiced in the art of driving in it. As far as major cities go, I read that Syracuse NY ranks the highest with ~120 inches a year (contrasted with the ranger station on Mount Rainier clocking in at ~650 inches a year). So these giant NY double super snow plows are right on top of things. For the first few days the plows throw the snow up on the sidewalks. The piles can reach ~15 feet high. As we walk everywhere, this causes something like back country urban cross country skiing scrambling to navigate these piles. W...
