Snow Day

My brain is on hold again. Thursday I left to visit my mother, a 3 hour drive away from here, then Friday I was forced to return home to beat the big storm hitting the Upper Midwest.

This morning my decision to return early was vindicated by 12" of new snow. It is challenging to dig out from a snowfall of that depth, even the fresh powdery kind. But I'm not complaining. It's kind of lovely to be put on house arrest due to the weather, especially when you are well stocked with food and entertainment. I also experienced the pleasure of neighborliness; as we were shovelling our driveway, a neighbor came out with his snow blower and made short work of the some of the heaviest drifts.

It was an odd snow storm in that it was accompanied thunder, which we listened to in the middle of the night as we watched the snow swirl.

Added interest was provided courtesy the National Weather Service, which has a LaCrosse, Wisconsin website with many interesting and desirable factoids on weather conditions, including snowfall totals around the region, satellite images, radar images, probability maps, drought information, and so on.

This is the most substantial snowfall I can remember in the last four years, the first huge mound of snow I created by shovelling in a long time. Its rarity makes it a pleasure, and also, thanks to the Weather Service information, the knowledge that we need this precipitation; as the map shows that most of Minnesota and Wisconsin is either abnormally dry or in severe drought conditions.

It looks like the snowfalls generated by this storm are heaviest in southern Minnesota and southern Wisconsin. I would like it to continue snowing here, but also hope some snow storms visit northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Last summer we visited Copper Harbor, Michigan for the first time. It is a lovely place, but I have never seen a more parched looking woods in my years of hiking the woods of the Upper Midwest. I found myself thinking of those woods, and wishing they would get rained on. Not only were all the lawns brown, but the forest ground cover looked collapsed and thirsty.

Now, I hope they will get some snow. Some parts of the country just expect massive winter snows, and when they don't arrive, it's odd. Check out George's Eagle Harbor Web, which reports that the U.P. is at a record low snowfall mark, and that Lake Superior is a "foot below average for early February." The good news is, extreme weather events are convincing more and more people that global warming is real. Scientists hasten to point out that extreme weather conditions do not in and of themselves point to climate change. But you can start to sort through what reputable scientists are willing to say about global warming by visiting the website of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The findings have been praised, parsed, and pooh-poohed all across the political spectrum. I wonder how many of the deniers have actually gone to the website to review the data as presented by the scientists. Oh well. Enjoy the snow!