Would those of you that grew up in places with real weather please enlighten those of us who grew up here in Seattle about two snow-related items?

1. How is it a good thing to shovel your sidewalk down to an extremely hard, very slightly lumpy, very slippery few centimeters of compacted snow-ice? Shoveling to a bare, wet sidewalk (maybe that involves salt?) seems to make sense, but creating this slick surface that crackles ominously when you walk on it seems worse than leaving the snow to pack down unevenly, giving you at least a chance of some traction when, say, going downhill.

2. Is there a term for the very small-gauge (quite a bit smaller than a BB) tiny balls of snow that were falling from the sky last night and a little bit this morning here at the Stranger Weathercenter? Here in Seattle, we famously have more than 100 different terms for rain, so we're just curious.

At Cal Anderson Park. Current conditions at the Stranger Weathercenter: Main roads slushy but driveable; very, very light snow falling; gray sky; still approx. four inches of snow on the ground in the park! And the abovementioned sidewalk situation.
  • Josh Bis/Flickr
  • At Cal Anderson Park. Current conditions at the Stranger Weathercenter: Main roads slushy but driveable; very, very light snow falling; gray sky; still approx. four inches of snow on the ground in the park! And the abovementioned sidewalk situation.