This is the last full day of winter. Springtime arrives tomorrow. Please don't celebrate. It's been a disappointing winter. Not much snow. Just a few blizzard wannabes.
I mourn. I like winter. My only consolation in its passing may be the arrival of humongous spring snow storms. Yeah, I wish. Bring it on! Cure my drought.
So here's the bad news for your time zone:
SPRING EQUINOX, March 20, 2013
Eastern Daylight Time: 7:02 AM Central Daylight Time: 6:02 AM Mountain Daylight Time: 5:02 AM Pacific Daylight Time: 4:02 AM Alaska Daylight Time: 3:02 AM Hawaii-Aleutian Daylight Time: 1:02 AM
Go ahead. Try to smile. Try to make the best of it. This is so disgusting.
I feel your dismay. I'm not ready to hang up my winter jacket either, no matter what the meteorologists say. And I won't. Mostly because the snowbanks at the end of my driveway still tower six feet tall. It's been a pretty good winter here, in Minnesota. I cannot complain, nor shall I rub it in too much. Not everyone shares my sentiments however. People are starting to crack around here, the winter has ebbed so long. Old men have gone on strike, refusing to shovel another scoop of snow. On my walks, you can hear restless men firing up their Harley Davidson motorcycles in their garages. And skinny woman are openly cursing the winter gods for the plight they find themselves in. One neighbor even said he might move. Said he would put a snow blower in the back of his truck and just drive south. And he'd keep driving until some one asked him what that was yonder, in the back of his truck. Then he'd live there...Its been a long winter indeed. And I love it. I love it more than I can tell you. Something I'm sure the facilitators of an open air baseball stadium down town will roll their eyes at. As the first pitch of the Twins opener is only two weeks away. Go figure.
I was plucking through a dike of boxes loaded up with all my backcountry hiking and backpack gear and was in a funk from all the stuff that is going to wait another 6-8 months before it sees daylight or snow again. Crap, it is already over and I still have a lot to learn about nordic skiing and that still all too shiny four season tent I swear is in more of a pout than I am. Just moved from close to downtown to city center, the journey from victorian to 1920's deco.
I am damn near with line of sight from Travis W. country, on a cloudless hard light of winter day, and we are suffering from a lack of seasonal hardship too. The upside has been the views without haze or icing. More than a handful days when the visibilty limits of distant ranges has exceded seventy miles. Pretty incredible sunsets too.
-------------- "Speak out, though your voice may shake"
We needed more snow than we got this winter as well, and we probably have an unfortunately dry season ahead. But lamenting that fact won't change a thing about it, and I love summer weather...so I'm celebrating!
It does help that 1000 feet higher and an hour north of here, there is enough snow to support another few weeks of skiing. I do love x-country skiing.
-------------- The harder the toil, the sweeter the rest.
I'm not done with winter yet. When spring comes too soon, I just hike further up in the mountains. This last weekend, I had to hike several miles before the earth gave up it's hold and snow took it's place. It may be spring in town, but I can still find enough winter bliss to satisfy my appetite for now.
-------------- If I'm going to be lost, in the woods is where I want to be...
I hope we all know that my opening post was tongue-in-cheek. Don't take me too seriously.
I have snow nearby. There are several feet of it in the Bighorns and a couple or three in the Black Hills. I can step from the trailhead directly onto a snowpack just minutes away. So it's not so much my backpacking area I'm thinking of. I'm thinking in broader terms.
The fact remains that half of Wyoming is in extreme drought. And I'd rather see green grass on the way to the trailhead. But our heaviest snows do generally arrive in springtime. So we'll see.
I'm ready for springtime, but a wet springtime would be nice. Snowstorms are possible around here even in the first week of June — even at lower elevations.
peeb Let's see who's been naughty, and who's been naughty!
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Posted on: Mar. 20 2013, 10:16 am
What's spring? I just shoveled another few inches off the driveway this week already. It *might* make 20 degrees today. We are certainly below 0 on the windchill this morning. But I like the snow - I'm with GJ; the locals are sick of the white stuff, but I'll keep it coming, no biggie. At this rate we may skip spring altogether and go straight to a dry, hot summer (what I'm afraid of, anyway).
It might snow again on Sunday...
This time last year it was 80*
-------------- It's all so simple when you break it down scientifically - Nick Bakay
llamapacker... yeah, yesterday and today have been nothing but rain, rain, rain, but did you miss the three days of mid-50's and sun last week??? Oh and all the blooming flowers I admit, I grew up in MN where my parents said they just had 5 inches of snow this past week, so I am feeling pretty good about being here in the valley right about now.
-------------- "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike." - John Muir
I'm usually really into snow, but for somemreason, I had a hard time getting into the snow this winter. Now, I'm ready for spring, but I do want lots of moisture. Fires are not fun. Last week we had a record high of 73*, now that's too hot. I'd love a summer with highs of mid-fifties and no higher.
-------------- “He who knows the most, he who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens and how to come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man” -- from Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
While it has been fairly dry this winter (although February got above average precipitation, which isn't saying much for one of the driest months), the temperatures have also been staying well below normal. Another strange season here in north-central CO.
-------------- When you are out West Please, at my behest Since you are Nature's guest Do something to help the rest:
Dismantle a fire ring; Take a stone and give a swing. You may find that it will bring A lift of goodness 'neath your wing.
llamapacker... yeah, yesterday and today have been nothing but rain, rain, rain, but did you miss the three days of mid-50's and sun last week???
Ah yes, but that was winter. This is spring. We did have some beautiful dry days. We are about 9 inches below our average for rain since October. We made up almost 2" today. If the wind hadn't blown so hard we would have gotten more. Look out Tigger, here it comes.
llamapacker... yeah, yesterday and today have been nothing but rain, rain, rain, but did you miss the three days of mid-50's and sun last week???
Ah yes, but that was winter. This is spring. We did have some beautiful dry days. We are about 9 inches below our average for rain since October. We made up almost 2" today. If the wind hadn't blown so hard we would have gotten more. Look out Tigger, here it comes.
Wow. You're tellin' me. It's been a bit brutal with the winds and rain today. You can take it back.
-------------- If I'm going to be lost, in the woods is where I want to be...
Look at it this way at least it is extending our snowshoeing and for some of us our "Winter Camping seasons. On a side note we are supposedly going to get 9-12 inches of snow this weekend which if we do my wife and I will be enjoying some snowshoeing for a little while longer. And to think I was worried we weren't going to have enough this year due to the drought.
It snowed here this morning, rained most of the afternoon, and is snowing again as evening approaches. In other words, a typical spring day for eastern Idaho. I get excited about spring because I love summer, but spring itself is pretty crappy.
-------------- The harder the toil, the sweeter the rest.
As is the norm in my area, we can't seem to figure out what season it should be. Snow flurries, sunny and in the upper 50s, cold rain, warm rain, a touch of ice...
Anywho, I'm starting cool weather crops like lettuce - Black Seeded Simpson, Red Sails, etc. A couple of kinds of garlic went in last fall. Too early for everything else.
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