Definitely click to embiggen because that is a daytime temp, a real temp, not windchill, that reads 15 below zero Fahrenheit. The photo's a bit foggy because I had the camera pressed up against the somewhat frosty window. I've found the camera does not like below zero weather, and colder than 10 below is something she absolutely refuses to tolerate or perform in, so I had to stay inside and try my best.
Speaking of recording data for posterity, I love reading the journals and diaries of the early settlers of this country, the Puritans and Pilgrims, to see into their daily lives, their experiences, the world as they understood it. I’ve often thought of this blog as sort of a combination knitting blog and local weather almanac, not a diary really, but sort of on the line with The Farmer’s Almanac of days of yore.
My parents always bought the annual Farmer’s Almanac, a supposed guide or prediction of the year’s weather, exact time of daily sunrise and sunset, lunar cycles, what happened in history on this day, and farming tips and precautions. I have always been fascinated by the weather, especially violent weather like we have in the Midwest. Having lived in several states and traveled through a great many, I’ve experienced the weather of the Atlantic Seaboard, Florida’s muggy, oppressive heatwaves, southern and northern California’s climates, both foggy, hazy, and earth trembling, as well as the Pacific Island’s sometimes treacherous weather.
The environmental conditions that scare me the most are earthquakes or tremors like the ones I’ve experienced near LA. The ones that fascinate me the most are tornadoes that we have aplenty here. The ones that are beginning to scare me a lot are our very high winds, winds that certainly have changed since I was a child some 45+ years ago, becoming more violent, more ferocious, more dangerous.
This year I wish I would have taken better care to track our daily snowfall as we have had a lot of it. It certainly is almost a record breaking year in terms of snowfall, up in the top five or certainly 10. Last year we had the fifth heaviest snowfall/accumulation in recorded history (recorded around here, that is) by February, and we had more snow in March, even on Good Friday and Easter. This year, we had more than 89 inches by January (the average is about 44 inches, so you can see we have easily doubled that before winter even got started in earnest ~ we tend to get most of our snow in February), and we have had very odd breaks in this snow, weekly stretches of subzero weather that is very unusual. Sometimes we have below zero during the day because of windchill factors, but not often. Often we have about a week’s worth, scattered about through the winter, of below zero at night. This year seems to be the exception as we have had at least two solid weeks of well below zero during the day, in two weekly portions, and this is actual temperature, not including windchill.
It is rare that we have a winter that combines both heavy snowfall and below zero temperatures. In fact, I don’t ever remember one where both existed in high numbers. Usually, if we are going to be faced with lots of frigid weather, below zero at night or a few days of it, we have very light or no snowfall, just absolute cold. When we have lots of snow, the temps usually tend to hover around the 20s (Fahrenheit) or 10s, but not lower; there’s simply not enough moisture in the air with frigid temps for us to get a lot of snow, and frigid temps tend to occur with less cloud coverage, again, less moisture in the air.
Last week it warmed up, rained. This week, it rained a lot, and for the second time since the beginning of January, great mounds and many feet of snow have almost completely melted away. The lakes (Great ones around here) have frozen along their shores and then began to thaw, and even the faster moving rivers have done their share of freezing, thawing, freezing again, much to many ice-fishermen’s displeasure and sometimes dangerous encounter. (Idiots around here have not only taken snowmobiles onto the rivers and lakes, but cars and trucks that end up in the drink and test our local Coast Guard’s patience and rescue skills.
Yesterday it got pretty cold again, and everything started to refreeze. This constant thawing and freezing and snowing wreak havoc on two critical systems: our roads (potholes the size of Montana) and water/sewers (breaks that cause flooding of basements, homes, streets, cities, and potholes the size of Texas).
Tomorrow it is supposed to snow again, between four to eight inches worth. For the most part this year, I have succumbed to hiring young, hearty, and healthy snow-shoveller-guys-with-sizable-snowblowers-looking-for-work-in-a-bad-economy. I feel very bad for these young guys, out of work, looking for work, and am glad to be able to help them out, and likewise, we benefit immensely from their hard work, so this heavy snow season hasn’t felt as bad on my back or DH’s as previous ones have, and this helps give DH’s wrist another year to heal from last year’s break.
I have always loved watching it snow. Michigan has some of the most beautiful winter sights around, even if we do tend to have heavier wet snow than say Aspen or Park City or any of the numerous other skiing meccas in the Rockies. I especially love snow when I don’t have to drive in it. It has a calming and hypnotic effect on me, and I love the way it buffers the sound, silencing the noise from the roads and expressway that are on the other side of the woods just a half a mile or so away. And really, what knitter doesn’t love a snowday, time off work to stay home with a cup of hot tea or cocoa? Sure, lots of knitters knit in hotter climates, but knitting and snow go hand-in-hand like knitting and mittens or knitting and wool socks.
As usual, I have been pretty stressed out lately ~ very little time to knit or blog ~ too much work and way too many committees. So I say, bring on the snow tomorrow, bring it heavy. Not enough to cause power outages or accidents, but bring it for the calming and tranquil day it will provide me, the warmth it will give the bunnies, and the much needed increase in the level of the lakes. And if I can find some time to knit tomorrow, that will be even better!
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