Friday, March 02, 2007

What Time of Year is This?

Yesterday was March 1st. Usually this signals a hint of possible spring on the horizon. Not warm sunny days, mind you, but at least a patch of blue sky or a few blooming crocus. Yesterday, however, the crocus were trying their best to bloom through a good inch of snow. Most of the region only got a little hail or slush, but in our neck of the proverbial woods it came down hard and stuck.

On Wednesday night I was heading over to see a friend, and I left our neighborhood with the sun shining and the pavement dry. However, just about a fifteen minute trip later I was actually slipping and sliding up a hill as it hailed all around me. Several cars around me needed to pull off to the side because they didn't have the traction or momentum to make it up. I was feeling very happy about being in a front-wheel drive car at that moment. There was some spinning and slipping, but I made it in the end. Heading home a few hours later, our sidewalks were still dry. Then, just an hour or so after I got home, it all began to fall with a vengeance.

We still have snow on the ground around our house and around school. Even having temperatures up in the 40s hasn't melted things very quickly. I would REALLY like to think that this was our last little flirt with winter, but that remains to be seen. The real question is will next winter be quite so exciting?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

According to the weather guy on KUOW's Weekday today, the next winter will be even more "eventful" than this year, due to La Niña. Apparently this winter was really unusual in that El Niño conditions ended during winter. Apparently that's never happened before, so who knows what it means for weather to come?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/28/tech/main2523483.shtml

- Mark.