Cold December

When we were preparing to move here, we were told that it doesn't snow much in Belgium.  That at most there were a couple of snow falls of an inch or two.

That has not been the case.  We have had multiple inches of snow and no melting in between.  The average December temperature is in the 40s.   Lately it has been in the low 30s, which by winter standards isn't really all that cold.

The thing is (in case you haven't caught all the references to rain) we get a good amount of precipitation.   So when the temperature is 30 and not 40, the rain becomes snow.

In the snow there is limited clearing of the streets and non existent clearing of the sidewalks (where they exist).  There is a whole lot of driving on snow and ice and through slush.

We live on  a hill.  Our neighbors live on a hill.  No one is using their driveway.  We can access our house via a back road.  Most of our neighbors can not so they just park their cars at the bottom of their driveways.

At the airports, you may have read, there are issues.  The issue isn't so much the snow or getting it cleared. The issue is that the airports have run out of de-icing stuff.  They didn't expect to need so much.  They have run out.  Truck traffic has been affected by all this cold and well there is a strike in France at some factory that makes the de-icing stuff.

Glad we aren't flying anywhere any time soon.  In the meantime, we'll exercise our winter driving skills and keep pulling on our boots when we head out.