August Snow!

While idling on the Internet one evening, Case mentioned that the weather forecast predicted snow flurries for the next day. That caught my ear, as I had been wishing to see snow fall in the Alps! We agreed, however, that the prospect was unlikely. After all, when the weather forecasters in California (where we live) predict rain, how often does it rain? Not often. It usually just stays warm and sunny. (Yes, we know... We have such a hard life...)

Well, I suppose we should have considered that, when the weatherman predicts sun in California, we usually believe it ... so perhaps when the weatherman predicts snow in the Alps, we should also believe it!

All the same, it didn't look likely. The thermometer read 12 C, much too warm for snow. I stayed optimistic, however, and did everything I could think of to "help" the weather do what I wanted. I even moved the thermometer away from the chalet window to "help" the temperature get colder. When I finally crawled into bed around 11:30 pm, the thermometer read 5 C. I fell asleep hoping to see a blanket of snow outside when morning came.

Well, Case woke me at 1 am (which was quite a bit earlier than I had planned to get up). "You might want to look outside!", he said. I came awake right away and leaped from bed to the window. Sure enough, just as I wished for....snow in August!

Thinking that it wouldn't last till morning we grabbed the camera to capture the moment...
but, the next morning we woke up to a about 4 cm of snow on the ground. Our summer holiday had changed seasons overnight!

These snowmen probably started out as fine, upstanding examples of their kind, but we found them later in the day, as they bravely tried to survive the slushy rainfall.
Much of the snow had melted by evening, and over the next few days, the weather slowly warmed and returned to the "normal" for summer. "Normal" can't be guaranteed, though. The local residents told us that, while snow fall isn't very common in August, they have seen snow fall every month of the year!