New York City, February 9, 2016

★★ A shocking burst of cold wind met the children bustling out the lobby door. Thin snow clung here and there in the scars and joints of the sidewalk or on the arms of the scoop of a parked backhoe. Salt granules, still intact, whitened other sidewalk cracks. After midday, warm tones began imposing themselves on what had been unchanging gray. The clouds thinned to ivory in places, and then even on to blue. The glow of real sunlight appeared somewhere nearby. Gray strengthened again, but the expected new snow kept failing to appear.