The Day Before Winter

Tweet As I stood on a hillside looking into a pine thicket covered with 15 inches of snow -- there was a large snapping sound -- followed by a small storm of snow rising above the trees. This scene was repeated throughout the afternoon today -- as the heavy snow kept snapping the tops out of the pine trees -- releasing an evergreen smell onto the hillside.

It smelled like Christmas.

The trees were falling in the forests, and also in the roadways -- making things doubly treacherous -- heavy snow on the roadway and downed trees in some places blocked or made roads into single lane tracks. Particularly hard-hit was Madison County, North Carolina -- where power and phone lines also snapped -- leaving thousands in Madison and nearby Buncombe County in the dark -- and in some cases -- in the freezing cold.

Below are some photos snapped today in Madison County, near Marshall, NC.