First heavy snow of the winter

It's been a long time coming. Proper, heavy snow, the kind that paralyses cities. Below: ul. Trombity at ten to seven this morning, the snow still mercifully light. We saw far more people on foot today; not good driving conditions (as colleagues and clients would testify throughout the day). By the peak of the morning rush hour, the snow was falling intensively.

Approaching midday, right in the heart of the city - Centrum, Rondo Dmowskiego. A cycle courier (on a fixie, what else?) is dicing with a Gocław-bound 507 bus. Despite the steady snowfall, it's actually the warmest it's been for weeks, with temperatures nudging zero at lunchtime.

Below: Ogród Saski, and the ducks are out in force on the corner of ul. Marszałkowska and Królewska, their traditional winter hang-out.

Below: outside the Palace of Culture, an impoverished intellectual (a social class lacking in Britain) is calling it a day; his selection of well-thumbed paperbacks up for sale is covered in snow and thus business is not brisk.


Left: The Marriott hotel rises above snow-covered spruces across from the Palace of Culture.

This snowfall had been forecast accurately a few days ago, and yet it caught out motorists on the hop. Few snowploughs were to be seen in the morning rush hour; by the evening, everything was back to normal, Warsaw was coping. Tonight the temperature will fall again to a double-digits below zero, with more snow falling until the early hours.

This time last year:
God's Dwelling Place - a short story

This time two years ago:
Beat this for a snowy winter!

This time three years ago:
Poland's most popular outergarments

This time four years ago:
The Frost Gods return