Snow in Jordan

Snow in Amman

Jordan gets cold in the winter. Really cold. Which is a struggle because the buildings are designed to be cool on the inside, since it's blazing hot for most parts of the year. Most winters, I've been told, it snows once or twice, normally in January, and because it's only one or two snows the country has not invested in snow removal equipment. This partically explains why schools have a month long holiday spanning from the first or second week in January until early Febuary. This year though, the snow came early. Snow covered much of the Middle East, including parts of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and even (briefly) Egypt.

Starting early last week, everyone kept talking about how it was going to snow. It was cold, but I wasn't sure I believed them. Then, on Wednesday, it was pouring rain. None of the nursery aged students came to school, and only about half of the kingergarten and first grade classes showed up. It was a cold, wet miserable day. Around noon, the Headmistress announced that the school would have a three hour delay the next day, and would be opening at 11 because the news was calling for the weather to get worse. The news was calling for snow. I was excited for the chance to sleep in, but I was worried about getting transportation to Amman after school on Thursday- one of the other SALTers, Christine, was coming to visit me and I needed to meet her.

"Snow" in Husn

I woke up the next morning to my phone ringing. It was the teacher I car pool to school with, letting me know that school was canceled for the day because of snow. Snow? I looked out the window of my bedroom- nothing. I walked down to the big window down the hall, that has a beautiful view from it- ok there was a little bit on snow on some metal. Ok, fine with me. I needed to go to Amman anyway, so I called the bus service that I normally take, they told me that they had buses going at 12 and 2. I rushed to get packed and convinced a friend with a car to drive me to the bus station. I just missed the noon bus, so I used the time to check out the brand new Carrefour grocery/department store. Soon enough I was on the bus, on my way to Amman. I still hadn't seen very much snow, just a bit on cars or in deep shadows; I found it funny that it was a snow day.

Upon stepping out of the bus in Amman though I found that it was much colder in Amman than in Irbid, and it was snowing. The snow wasn't sticking to the ground, but it was falling. I caught a cab and met up with my Reps. We had dinner and then headed off to the airport, which is about 45 minutes, on a normal day, outside of the city. The farther we got out from the center of Amman, the more snow I saw on the ground, I felt a small amount of cognitive dissonance because the last time I had gone to the airport it was been at least 90F degrees outside, at the time I would never have imagined that there would be snow in just a few short months.

The morning snow/slush

We successfully received Christine from the airport, and had a relaxing evening in at the Rep Flat. It continued to snow throughout most of the night. The next morning, there was a blanket of snow on the road and sidewalks outside. I called the school Priest and found out that they had already canceled school for Saturday even though there wasn't any snow in Irbid. I decided to just stay in Amman for another day, even though I had originally planned to return to Irbid on Friday evening. Christine and I took the morning slow and had a relaxing brunch with the Reps before we trekked out into the weather, hoping that something would be open since the snow was melting. We made our way to downtown, and ended up in the Roman Ampitheater, then made our way to Rainbow Street and had a late lunch at an American style Waffle House (no relationship to the chain), since it was the only thing open. After that we headed back to the Rep Flat, where we spent some more quality time with the Reps before heading out to have dinner at a reasurant with some traditional Jordanian foods. It had started snowing again, and the roads were getting icy so we were one of the few cars on the roads, and earned some "are you crazy" looks from the locals as we climbed some hills.

The next day there was even more snow outside. We talked to some locals and found out that the roads were closed, and the government was encouraging everyone to stay inside. So that's exactly what we did. The Reps, Christine, and I spent the day playing card games, talking, and drinking delicious homemade hot chocolate in the apartment. The school Priest called me to encourage me to return to Irbid so I could attend the teacher's Christmas party, but there were no buses running. On Sunday, I finally caught a bus back to Irbid, with a little bit of rushing and panic since it was the only bus leaving. When I left, there was still snow in Amman but there wasn't any in Irbid still. Christine stayed another day, then took a bus to Israel/Palestine.

Playing in the evening snow

The snow effected schools and businesses all week; schools across the country could not open until 9. There is still snow in Amman and other places with high altitudes. It was in the news that one town up in the mountains needed food to be airlifted to it because of the roads were so impassible.

There is still no snow in Irbid. I'm praying that the weather stays like this, because I'm hoping to have a safe, easy trip on Tuesday, aka Christmas Eve. I will be following in Christine's foot steps and meeting up with her and another SALTer in Jerusalem where we are all going to spend Christmas together.