Monday, February 2, 2009

One Day's Difference


The profile of these wall snow caps was isosceles trapezoids yesterday morning. Their upper base was only slightly shorter than the lower base. Then a rare thing happened. A strong sun filled the afternoon sky and the temperature climbed above freezing for the first time in weeks. Dark stones absorbed the sun's heat and there was snow melt. The temperature fell back below freezing by sunset and ice crystals formed. I can see an ocean wave crashing toward the beach in the snow's profile. It is February and I clearly need some time in the sun.

Here is a written summary of the past month's weather here. Snow cover was continuous for January 2009. Daytime temperature remained below freezing for thirty days last month. There were several snow storms. One storm included ice and freezing rain. The ice accumulation was insufficient to take out the electric power but the ice remains in place. Our driveway has varied from a rink smooth ice coating to slick ice covered thinly with snow. The snow cover protected the plants from the subzero temperatures. The long period of cold could make for an excellent maple sugar season.

1 comment:

Jared said...

I'd never heard that a long cold period would result in a good sap run, but it makes sense in a sort of intuitive way. What a winter. I was talking with my parents last night, and they said that this winter reminds them of winters we had when I was a little kid. Quite wonderful!