Snow? In October?

Yesterday I was out running errands, and the weather was quite cold. Not freezing certainly, but very chilly, and a marked turn from just a week or so ago. And it was very grey. To me, it smelled like it might snow. Every time I chatted with a cashier, I would comment on this. I got a lot of strange looks. I've always thought that the air could smell like snow, but perhaps I'm the only one. Or, perhaps it was because it was only October 14th yesterday.

Then last night I read that a nor'easter is coming in for the weekend (yippee) with lots of rain, and perhaps even snow.

Well, it's just getting light this morning, and as I look outside I see snow on my hemlocks. Yes! I'm not so crazy after all.

Does this mean we have a doozy of a winter ahead of us? I've always heard that a bumper crop of acorns means a hard winter ahead. I don't know, that would mean that a God was involved who was looking out for the squirrels. A naturalist might argue that lots of acorns resulted from all the rain we had last year, and has nothing to do with the winter ahead, because nature cannot be prescient.

I guess we'll see in the coming months...