In this part of the world people do not know about using salt to melt snow and ice. Some cities use sand to create traction on ice. Most sidewalks in Kherson looked like the one below, pure ice and snow.
This picture was taken on a Sunday in December when the temperatures rose from -13.5 C (8 F) to 4.6 C (40 F) and then fell back to -10 C (14 F), all within 24 hours. We were getting ready to leave after the Sunday worship service, when someone said it was raining outside. Raining?! It was freezing cold that morning on the way to church. How can it be raining withing just a few hours? But as wild as it sounds, it was raining. It did melt the snow a little bit, but in the late afternoon the temperature started dropping again, and everything froze. The streets were covered with a sheet of ice.
After a day or two Timmy, Polly and I ventured out for a doctor's appointment. It was a torture. We walked 6 or 7 blocks, and it took us close to an hour. I ended up carrying Polly half way because she was too tired to walk in the snow. Timmy thought it was fun to step on the iced top layer of snow and then to sink down through the cracking icy crust.
This is a street that the tractor got to. The snow was pushed off the road and onto a side road and the sidewalk.
These were driving conditions. Buses ran, but there were fewer of them, and they went slowly. Taxis doubled their price due to 'ice on the roads'.
We piled up in a taxi to get to church. We can usually fit into a Volga car, and yes, there is a driver, too. Jamie takes the passenger seat, and the rest of us are in the back seat. In the picture you can see heads of all the kids, and I am holding the camera.
I thought our fellow-Americans would appreciate this picture. Most people do not have snow tires but I did see a couple of cars like this around the city.
