Blogging from A to Z April Challenge - N #atozchallenge

It's another fine day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Hope all of you are managing to keep up the pace of this exciting and fun blogging event. Today's post was inspired by overnight events.

Névé - granular snow; field of granular snow. According to Merriam-Webster, this partially compacted granular snow forms the surface part of the upper end of a glacier.

Nature (as in Mother Nature) - Imagine the scene. The kids have been in shorts and T-shirts the past several days, as temperatures have been in the high 60s to mid 70s. Tulip leaves have sprouted out of the ground and purple crocus fill the flowers beds. The dwarf cherry tree even has some buds. As I marched down to the mailbox yesterday in a torrential downpour, I kept thinking "April showers bring May flowers." This morning, however, we opened to the blinds to a blanket of white, heavy snow. This past winter was one that had even the girls complaining about how much Mother Nature dumped on us. Definitely not what we were looking for a few days before Easter. The bitter winds this morning sure aren't helping.

Nor’easter - Since we're on the topic of snow today, we'll dedicate this last item to the type of massive storm no one likes to hear about. A nor’easter, given its name from the direction the wind is coming, is a macro-scale storm along the upper East Coast and Atlantic Canada. In February 1978, meteorologists had predicted a large storm for the Northeast. When the pre-dawn flakes didn't appear on February 5, people discounted the reports and went about their day. Later on, hurricane-force winds and whiteout conditions caused gridlock on the highways, forcing drivers to abandon their cars. Lasting through February 7, snowdrifts trapped people in their homes and places of business. Record snowfall left residents of Massachusetts and Rhode Island without heat, water or electricity for more than a week; approximately 10,000 sought refuge in shelters. Severe flooding damaged or destroyed homes on the Long Island Sound and Cape Cod Bay. An estimated 100 people died as a result of the storm. To read more about major blizzards in U.S. history, visit http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/major-blizzards-in-u-s-history