Kat and I usually try to spend the coldest month anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere on Pensacola Beach. In old Pensacola stands one of the world’s great seafood markets, Joe Patti’s. Normal winters here include at least a dozen sunny days fit for beachcombing, with a few warm enough to charbroil shrimp. But this year we witnessed and survived Winter Storm Enzo.

Very cold temperatures were forecast days in advance along with 1 to 3 inches of snow. We refilled our propane, although the oldish guy at Ace Hardware told her “Been here eight years … next snowflake I see’ll be the first.” Back in camp we filled our fresh water tank, and stowed enough chow for a week. Then the forecast became more severe with high winds and lows down to 15 Fahrenheit, maybe twice as much snow, possibly over a coating of freezing rain. But where can you go to get better weather? South Florida was the only prospect, but you can’t cover 600 miles pulling an Airstream in one day. We, and every other camper at Fort Pickens had no choice but to ride it out.

Monday had been sunny and clear, but later turned cold. Tuesday dawned completely overcast with temps dropping as the morning wore on. Then came the wind, cutting through sweatshirts and jackets, but we walked around A loop for a little exercise before the anticipated blizzard. Already too cold for outdoor comfort, we cut the walk short and went into Kat’s Cradle to enjoy warmth and leftover gumbo and clam chowder. Storms stoke appetites.

Less than an hour later we began noticing tiny windblown sleet. Then came the large, wet flakes borne horizontally on gusts. Then the snow thickened to the point of limiting visibility. The thermometer in our ‘Stream’s wheel well now read 28, still nine degrees short of the expected early evening low. For southerners, 19 degrees is pretty damn cold when paired with 25 to 30 mile per hour wind. COLD.

Fort Pickens’ A loop sites all have shore power, a life saver in extreme cold, since our propane furnace blows warmth courtesy of its electric fan. We also use a 1500 watt radiator for heat, so long as the power remains functional. In an emergency we could rely on our propane oven to keep our indoor air in the low 60’s, but at some risk of carbon monoxide asphyxiation. But if we get cold enough, we might risk it.

At sunset the snow was still thick, flying fast, and outside registered 25 degrees. By nine p.m. the winds slowed and the snowfall stopped only to return an hour later. Overnight lows were expected around 20. Wind effects Airstreams much like skin: the trailer has a steel skeleton supporting two thin aluminum skins, one outside and the other inside covered mostly by a light tan fabric Airstreamers refer to as “mouse fur”. Wind and low temps demand a lot of furnace heat to stay comfy, but we have ample propane … so long as we don’t lose power.

Wednesday morning was bright with a cloudless sky, and a deep snow carpet. The electricity remained reliable and only the tent campers were cold. Our loop had just one tent, and they at least rigged up a radiant heater inside their truck and found a bit of warmth there. As the morning progressed, people emerged to walk around to see what happened. Kat measured 9.5 inches of accumulation atop our propane tank cover, a one by three foot flat cover sitting on the tank housing. Some of this may have first fallen on our roof, or since the cover does not contact anything warm, it could also be a truer test of total snowfall. Official reports were as high as nine inches in places. Either way that’s the largest snowfall either of us has seen.

Tonight and tomorrow morning will be the conclusion of Enzo. No more winter precipitation is expected, but lows approaching 15 again present a worry of “What if the power goes out?” Everything will refreeze overnight, but with another sunny day expected, we’ll likely get our thaw.

But the thaw took more than three days. On the third day after the blizzard we drove to Pensacola to get shrimp and fin fish at Joe Patti’s. I-110 was still closed but police curiously allowed a dump truck to enter the northbound ramp. A few blocks later we viewed a different dumper hauling a cargo never before seen in Pensacola – snow scraped off the highway!