Strange weather

Winter has shown up early this year.   It's been getting decidedly chilly at night for the past week or so, but Friday marked a dramatic ramping down in the temperature.  In fact, there was a point around 7 in the evening, in the midst of a heavy rainstorm, when the temperature must have plummeted a good 10 or 15 degrees Fahrenheit in the space of just a few minutes, taking it down to not much above freezing: my breath was steaming fiercely as I scurried through the downpour towards my evening's entertainment.   Last night, more of the same: bitterly cold, and starting to spot with rain as I arrive at a gig around 10pm.  Shortly afterwards, the tentative rain became a downpour.  And then, at the Halloween witching hour, the rain became SNOW.   By the time I went home at 2am or so this morning, the snow had turned to sleet and then to rain, and it didn't seem likely that any of it would still be around this morning.  At some point overnight, though, it had turned back to snow once more, and it was coming down heavily when I woke this morning.  The sky looked absolutely full of it, and it didn't start to let up until around lunchtime.   SNOW, on - or slightly before - the 1st November?!  Unheard of!   Well, not quite.  I remember back in '03 we had a very heavy fall, quite out of the blue, on the 4th or 5th November.  Then, as now, the trees were still in full leaf, and were bowed and shattered in their thousands by the great weight of snow.  There's going to be lots of clearing up for the city authorities to do tomorrow.   It's all melting again now, but I have a feeling there's going to be quite a bit more of it this season.       Did anyone see a Snow-Mao today?