Is It Spring Yet?

Could it be that winter is over? Under normal circumstances I'd say that it is far from over; mainly because it's still only the beginning of March, and winter usually is thought to last until the last days of March. You know, all of that in like a lion, out like a lamb stuff. Well, this year March is all lamb so far.

Our snow is melting fast because we've had nothing but spring like temperatures, and it's only going to get warmer each day right now. It was only a little over a week ago that I showed you pictures from the middle of one of our best winter snowstorms, but it only took a few short days for all of that snow to begin melting away forever.

Now we have what you see in these pictures. Most of the snow is gone. Only the bigger piles, and the stuff that stays mostly in shadow remains. That will be gone soon enough if this trend continues. There's always a chance that we could get one more winter snowstorm, but I'm beginning to think if it does happen, it will only be a last gasp effort that won't last. I have some other evidence why I think this is true.

Last year we had a very hard winter here. It was cold, and we had a lot of snow then. There were very many days when the cold kept me from going outside at all. I don't mind the cold, but I'm not foolish when it gets to be dangerous. This year there were very few of those kind of days, but that's not my real point.

After last year's cold winter, it abruptly all came to an end as March arrived. The snow melted quickly, as the temperatures soared to spring-like levels. It's happening in almost the same exact pattern this March. It seems a little early for winter to end, but even last year's winter ended at this time. This could be the same.

As you can see in the picture above, there is liquid water there. That is the river that feeds Carpenter Lake. It always seems to melt first, mostly because that water is moving around more than on the lake. The lake is still frozen, but it's looking like the ice is thinning out very quickly. I'm hoping I don't miss the ice quakes I've told you about.

This last picture is from the trail at the back of the nature park. You can see that there are light spots and dark spots on the trail. The dark spots are wet areas left from the melting snow. The light spots are dry areas. Two weeks ago this trail was completely covered with snow, but it is already drying in some places.

Soon enough we'll be seeing the return of green to all of these surrounding trees. Spring will be here legitimately. Right now this early warm up is good enough for me though. I had fun this winter, but Spring is always my favorite time of year. There most likely will be at least one more snowfall, but it's running out of time for it to be effective. Here comes spring!

And that's it today from Weatherman Ratty!