Countdown to Spring - Snowmelt, Baby, Snowmelt

We had snow again early on Friday.  I didn't whine or complain.  Why?  After several days of not getting out of the 20s during the day and being in the teens and even single digits a couple of times at night, we were graced this last week with 40s, 50s, and even one day when it hit 60.  The snow we had on Friday managed to total 3", but it was immediately compressed and then gone thanks to rain and above freezing temperatures.  I happily shoveled a half-inch of slush off my deck and walkway just to speed the process of making it go away.

As I looked outside today, the area around trees and bushes is down to bare ground for a circumference of anywhere from 1 to 3 feet.  There's life in that there plant-life!  Looking closer, the actual snow depth in general, save for where it was shoveled to from the previous snowstorms, is only about 2-3".  With our temperatures forecast again to be in the 40s and 50s for the first week of March, we might be down to mostly bare ground by the end of the week.  My apologies to any snow lovers, but I am very much looking forward to that, and may have to do a Snoopy dance when it happens.  Yeah, I may be 63, overweight and have arthritis, but I can still manage to look that silly.  Spring fever will do that.

Only 20 days until spring.

Countdown to Spring–Roarin’ All the Way

There’s a saying that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.  March doesn’t always live up to that saying to its fullest potential, but this year, well …
In last week’s post, I remarked that Punxsutawney Phil was wrong in the prediction of there being six more weeks of winter.  With all the warm weather and quickly disappearing snow we were having, I couldn’t help but make the remark.  Never taunt the ground hog.

On March 2, after a day of 50-degree weather, but mostly cloudy skies and strangely increasing winds, we had a classic Nor’easter storm develop.  We were fortunate in that we had only a little bit of very soggy snow mixed in with rain.  North and west of the Mid-Hudson Valley, though, got slammed with 2-3 feet of snow.  The ski resorts were thrilled, I’m sure.  The rest of us, not so much.  Power outages were rampant with the high winds taking down branches and trees across power lines.  We were fortunate in that we only lost power for one hour.  As I type this, there are people who are just getting their power back on from last week’s storm and a few that still don’t have it.

Today brings another Nor’easter, only this time, my area won’t get off as easy in terms of the precipitation.  There was disagreement among the forecasting groups about last week’s storm as to what type of precipitation we were going to get.  Not this time.  Although they were differing slightly on the totals, they were all saying snow.  We presently have about 6” of very, very heavy snow.  Yes, this is the snow we used to make snowballs and snowmen out of when I was younger – solid, packable stuff.  You don’t want to shovel it, but you do want to play with it.  I’ll be doing the former tomorrow, taking my time with it clearing my deck and walkway.  I’m a fat, 60+ woman who doesn’t want to end up a winter statistic because she did too much too fast with this hefty, crappy white stuff, aka “heart attack” snow.

But on a positive note, in my walks of yesterday and today, I saw the red ends of tree branches that weren’t there last week.  Those trees are just itching to send out leaves.  I saw crocus, daffodil and snowdrop leaves coming up through grass and debris, all signs of flowers to follow in the not too distant future.  The pussy willow I pass everyday is just about in full furriness.  Well, today, those fuzzies are a little soggy, but they’ll recover.  I’m seeing more and more migrating birds return, although I haven’t seen any other robins than the one I mentioned last time.  Maybe they headed south again to places where the ground isn’t white.  With the migrators, there are more spring songs being heard, songs which will still be heard tomorrow as my area starts to shovel out from what we all hope is the last reminder of this winter season. 

The lion that brought in March will soon be tamed, and the happy playful lamb that signals March’s end will be here soon enough.

Only 13 days until spring.

Countdown to Spring - You Can't Keep a Good Crocus Down

My covering the patches of crocus and snowdrops paid off.  Yesterday, I came home to both having flowers in fully recovered bloom.  The deep purples and yellows of the crocus were especially nice.  The sunny day and temperatures in the upper 40s also extended the area of non-snow around each patch by a little bit.  I haven't really noticed a decrease in the snow depth yet, but it's likely happening.

Never did get around to shoveling that last bit of snow from the side yard walkway to the road yesterday.  I needed a break from that activity.

Only 2 days until Spring.

Countdown to Spring – Brown Ground to White

Well, our nor-easter has arrived and they didn’t lie about the snowfall rates, although I think they might actually have underestimated a bit. When I went out around 5 AM, it was a dry snow and there was, at best, an inch on the ground. It’s now just after 7 AM as I type this and there is now 4-5” of snow.  It’s not as light and fluffy, either, although I wouldn’t call it classically packable yet.

I used a pushbroom to clear the way to and around my car at first.  It’s a choice I prefer over the snow shovel.  Can’t use that now.  Regardless of when this storm ends, it’s a shoveling thing from here on.

Oh, how I miss that dull brown ground view from my window right now.

Only 39 days until Spring.

Countdown to Spring: Under the Weather

Sorry to the handful of people following this blog right now.  I was more under the weather than I thought I was originally.  But, I’m feeling better today and am back to bore you.

I woke this morning to what I call snow-eating fog.  Warm air over snow cover can create a very dense fog.  It was dense enough that at sunrise, I couldn’t see more than 100 yards.  I could actually hear the foghorn from the lighthouse that’s about three miles away and it rarely comes on.  I call it snow-eating fog because the warm air is still eating away at the snow cover even with the ground-level clouds in place (that’s all fog is, really).  The temperature never got below freezing last night, so the snow cover has continued to shrink in the darkness.

As I looked out this morning at ground level, I saw MORE GROUND.  There’s still more white than brown and green showing, but the melting is becoming more apparent.  The sun is beginning to make its way through, however,  and the fog has thinned out a bit.  The temperature is supposed to be sunny and in the low to mid 50s today.  This works.  It’s supposed to head back down into the 30s and 40s in a day or so, with 10s and 20s at night.  But, the colder temperatures won’t be around for too much longer.

So, we’re all under the weather now.  But the weather is better, so it’s not quite so bad.

Only 9 days until spring,

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