Weird weather and wacky drivers

We had the most bizarre precipitation that I've ever seen today. I think it was technically hail, but when I actually walked outside to look at it, it looked conspicuously like perlite...you know, that white stuff that they put in potted plants. It did change over to actual snow after a while, but it was very bizarre.

And, of course, this was a very wet snow--the kind that turns to ice as soon as you compress it. The sort-of main street that is just outside my house has a nice little hill on it (very little, hardly enough to notice). This hill rapidly became a sheet of ice. This did not deter a large number of drivers from trying to take the hill in both directions. Very few people were making it up the hill (mostly 4-wheel drive vehicles). Amazingly, during the time we were out shoveling the drive no one actually had an accident. Considering how slick it was, that's something of a miracle.

Apparently it got even worse. I had someone knock on the door and ask to use the bathroom, because it wasn't moving at all. And a bunch of people had taken the road as an alternate to the highway that's less than a mile away (but backs up pretty regularly because of holiday weekends or bad weather).

And, just to prove that there really was snow, a couple of pictures: