January 2nd, 2007
snow – at least for a little while
This was the view out the bedroom window in the early morning of Dec. 31st, 2006. As you can see, we now have a little snow. Not much. In fact, on New Year’s Eve, we had freezing rain, and then the temperature turned mild, so the snow is much reduced. The forecast for this week is for warmer weather – around 10C (or 50F) by Friday. At the rate that the snow is shrinking and melting, I doubt there will be much left by Friday. January is usually quite a cold month up here. It’s not unusual for temperatures to dive far below 0F. This is definitely turning out to be an odd winter. People in my area are talking about it (how could we fail to notice). It will be interesting to see how the rest of the winter turns out.
Tags: weather
January 2nd, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Hitting well above freezing here to, I think it was 10C today and judging by the weather network it won’t be any colder soon.
Off to google to conversion to see what 0F is in celsius ;-)
January 2nd, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Bev, is there a secret,guilty little part of you that is glad for this mildness? I know we should care devoutly about global warming and I’m unclear as to whether this strange winter is merely El Nino induced or an effect of the broader concern. Still, I love seeing the soil, the broad stones on our patio and the grass which most years remains sullen and hidden beneath the snow. A dusting or a few inches such as in your pretty picture, would be lovely – for a while.
January 3rd, 2007 at 2:06 am
The colours in the picture are lovely. I noticed several trees today with enlarging leaf buds. One magnolia seemed almost ready to open up. I am not complaining about driving on clear roads and the lack of shovelling, but I do hope we get colder weather soon in SW Ontario. Spring in February cannot be a good thing here.
January 3rd, 2007 at 2:18 pm
We had a little snow on the weekend too–long gone now. Last night the moon was so bright I was wishing we still had the snow–would have been as bright as day. I don’t like all this mild weather–makes life easier, but also makes me weak, less cold-tolerant, and is hell on some of the trees and perennials.
January 3rd, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Your snow is beautiful. I wish our temps were a little colder and our precipitation would fall upon us in snow. There’s something so lovely about it, all those soft edges. We’re having a very normal, although perhaps slightly wetter winter here. Our 2800 gallon water tank is full with collected rain. We did it in two days of intermittent rain. We’re looking forward to using that to water the garden in the dry summer months. The upside of downpours.
January 3rd, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Peter – We’re having another warm day here and the snow is melting down quickly. It’s supposed to become even warmer later this week, so I doubt there will be much left by the weekend. Now, let’s see….0F is around -17C, I believe. We’ve seen it much colder than that here in January though… down to about -30F which is about -34 C — which seem *very* cold indeed! (-:
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Cathy – Yes, it’s true — I’ve been quite enjoying the lack of snow this winter. It’s making the time seem to pass more easily. Something I haven’t mentioned on my blog is that I have a lot of trouble with arthritis, and walking in snow isn’t my favourite thing, although I do quite a lot of that nonetheless. Being able to keep walking on grass in my summer hiking boots has been a real pleasure so far this winter. That said, a few days ago when it was dreary and dull and spitting rain, I was thinking, “I’d rather have some nice snow.” Now that we’ve had it and I enjoyed seeing the moonlight on the snow last night, it could all melt away again in a couple of weeks and I’d probably be okay with that. One weird thing about this winter though — I usually use the deep winter for working on indoor projects. This winter, I’m finding that I’ve very restless and unwilling to hole up in the house sorting photos, writing up field notes, or any of the other typical things that I’d be doing in January. Makes me wonder a little how I would manage if I spent winters in a different climate.
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Ruth – I too noticed how large the buds were on some of the trees when we were hiking at the Baxter Conservation Area on Christmas day. It will be interesting to see what happens as the “winter” progresses. I wonder if the trees might leaf out earlier in spring if we don’t get some truly cold weather between now and then.
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Pamela – We had enough remaining snow here to have one of those incredible winter nights when the moon floods the landscape with a glowing silver light. I got up out of bed a couple of times to stand at the window looking out across the snow. I realize now that I should have opened the window to listen for coyote as we often hear them on such nights. You’re quite right about this weather being hard on certain plants. This kind of winter always used to do major damage to my rose bushes when I had more of them around the gardens. Now, I’m down to the real survivors like William Baffin and a few others, and they seem to be able to take these snowless winters.
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robin – That amount of snow is actually quite adequate for enjoying the way that winter light (and moonlight) cast wonderful colours and shadows across the snow. As I commented on your blog earlier this morning, I really don’t manage well in wet, dreary weather like I’ve seen in the PNW. I’m not so sure I could handle it for weeks on end. I suppose the same can be said about some of our winters when we have relentless cold temperatures and a lot of snow, but we do have those bright blue skies and sunshine (almost blinding when reflected by the snow) – and that helps to keep me in a good state of mind.
January 4th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Ah, yes – arthritis. I put my cross country skis away more than a decade ago. I know I should be happy for the wonderful times we had – once in a snowy wood a little screech owl dropped from tree and flew inches beside me and landed on a branch and sat in a wide-eyed blinking exchange with the three of us. Raputre. Now the old bones resist midnight skiing (and a whole lot more:0) I was born in ’46 – I imagine I’m your senior by a quite a few years.
January 4th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I’m sure “Raputre” is a nice experience, but “Rapture” is the one I intended – maybe the former is something French.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
I agree with Ruth – the colors in that photo are glorious. We’re having temps in the low 60’s here, and it should be freezing. We spent lots of money on fruit trees last year and planted them where they drowned :( So we replaced them this fall and now I’m worried about this batch too. Tree tips on the hillsides are getting that tell-tale red cast to them that signals spring.
January 6th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Cathy – I was born in ’55, but have had a lot of trouble with arthritis since I was a teenager. There are certain things I find difficult to do. I used to cross country ski, but that’s one of the things that I do find painful and so I dropped that awhile ago too. Snowshoeing seems okay, so I do quite a bit of that in winter. It’s all a bit of a challenge but I don’t give up on anything too easily! (-:
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Leslie – We see these colours so much at this time of the year, both at dawn and dusk. It’s definitely one of the nice things about our winters. That really sucks about your fruit trees. I hope they don’t get too badly damaged by the weather in your area, but I’m sure we’re going to see plenty of that here too. I think many trees and bushes are breaking dormancy due to warm, wet weather that seems so much like April or May.