February and March are (traditionally) the heaviest snow months in Vermont, although not the February that ended yesterday, extra day notwithstanding. It did snow last Friday. We were all duly warned about a winter storm and got maybe an inch and a half. The snow did, however – more or less – stay on the ground all week.
That was fairly rare this winter and one evening, as I was watching the light die through the back window, I realized how much I’d missed the snow cover this year. I guess it was a strange case of Seasonal Affective Disorder. The term usually applies to people who find the lack of light during winter depressing. I find the gray and dark comforting and restful, as opposed to constant light, which I find enervating, as if I should always be doing something more productive than whatever I’m doing.
I used to feel I needed two weeks of below-zero weather to feel I’d had a winter, now I’ll settle for a few weeks of snow cover. We’re getting covered in snow today, as we’re in the midst of our first proper snowfall of the season. It’s been coming down since mid-morning, but there’s only a few inches of accumulation. The thermometer stands one degree below freezing and the forecast says temperatures will be back in the 40s by Saturday.
It’s been one of those winters. The news carried reports of two vehicles falling through the ice last Saturday, a Jeep on Mallett’s Bay on Lake Champlain and a pickup on Lake Willoughby in the Northeast Kingdom. There’s nothing unusual about either event, except for the dates. Trucks-falling-through-ice season usually does not commence in these parts until late March.
Even if it had been cold, there still wouldn’t have been much snow, as it’s been a dry winter overall. On warm afternoons in the past few weeks, I would see what I thought was rain dripping off the sugar maple out back, but since it hadn’t rained, how could that be? After a bit, I realized it was sap, running very early this year. This does not necessarily portend a bad year for syrup, since the sap run will depend on how many warm days and cool nights we get, regardless of when they begin and end. One year does not a trend make, but some scientists measure these things and conclude sugar season in Vermont now begins 8.2 days earlier and ends 11.4 days earlier than it did 40 years ago, for a loss of about 10 percent of the crop.
The federal Department of Agriculture released its updated zone hardiness map a few weeks ago and my garden jumped up half a zone from 4b (minimum temp: -25 degrees F) to 5a (minimum temp: -20 degrees F), since 1990. Even that’s low-balling it. If this past winter is a predictor, we should be in zone 6a (minimum temp: -5 degrees F).
Last month I reported on conversations at the winter meeting of the Vermont Beekeepers. As we had such a warm February, beeks (as they’re known) have been opening their hives (not me, my bees died last fall) and report the girls are coming through the winter in remarkably good shape. (The boys were left outside to die when the weather turned cold. That’s life.)
I shoveled the front walk at noon, for perhaps the fifth time this winter and the driveway apron for perhaps the third time. I haven’t bothered touching anything behind the sidewalk. Why bother? Chittenden County schools were off this week for winter break and I have to soon head out and retrieve a teenager off one of the nearby mountains, which will give me a slight fix of winter driving.
In Like a Lion?
February and March are (traditionally) the heaviest snow months in Vermont, although not the February that ended yesterday, extra day notwithstanding. It did snow last Friday. We were all duly warned about a winter storm and got maybe an inch and a half. The snow did, however – more or less – stay on the ground all week.
That was fairly rare this winter and one evening, as I was watching the light die through the back window, I realized how much I’d missed the snow cover this year. I guess it was a strange case of Seasonal Affective Disorder. The term usually applies to people who find the lack of light during winter depressing. I find the gray and dark comforting and restful, as opposed to constant light, which I find enervating, as if I should always be doing something more productive than whatever I’m doing.
I used to feel I needed two weeks of below-zero weather to feel I’d had a winter, now I’ll settle for a few weeks of snow cover. We’re getting covered in snow today, as we’re in the midst of our first proper snowfall of the season. It’s been coming down since mid-morning, but there’s only a few inches of accumulation. The thermometer stands one degree below freezing and the forecast says temperatures will be back in the 40s by Saturday.
It’s been one of those winters. The news carried reports of two vehicles falling through the ice last Saturday, a Jeep on Mallett’s Bay on Lake Champlain and a pickup on Lake Willoughby in the Northeast Kingdom. There’s nothing unusual about either event, except for the dates. Trucks-falling-through-ice season usually does not commence in these parts until late March.
Even if it had been cold, there still wouldn’t have been much snow, as it’s been a dry winter overall. On warm afternoons in the past few weeks, I would see what I thought was rain dripping off the sugar maple out back, but since it hadn’t rained, how could that be? After a bit, I realized it was sap, running very early this year. This does not necessarily portend a bad year for syrup, since the sap run will depend on how many warm days and cool nights we get, regardless of when they begin and end. One year does not a trend make, but some scientists measure these things and conclude sugar season in Vermont now begins 8.2 days earlier and ends 11.4 days earlier than it did 40 years ago, for a loss of about 10 percent of the crop.
The federal Department of Agriculture released its updated zone hardiness map a few weeks ago and my garden jumped up half a zone from 4b (minimum temp: -25 degrees F) to 5a (minimum temp: -20 degrees F), since 1990. Even that’s low-balling it. If this past winter is a predictor, we should be in zone 6a (minimum temp: -5 degrees F).
Last month I reported on conversations at the winter meeting of the Vermont Beekeepers. As we had such a warm February, beeks (as they’re known) have been opening their hives (not me, my bees died last fall) and report the girls are coming through the winter in remarkably good shape. (The boys were left outside to die when the weather turned cold. That’s life.)
I shoveled the front walk at noon, for perhaps the fifth time this winter and the driveway apron for perhaps the third time. I haven’t bothered touching anything behind the sidewalk. Why bother? Chittenden County schools were off this week for winter break and I have to soon head out and retrieve a teenager off one of the nearby mountains, which will give me a slight fix of winter driving.
I hope I haven’t forgotten how.
© Mark Floegel, 2012