snow

The last few days have been warm for January, a pleasant thaw. The rain had settled and shrunken most of the snow and we enjoyed daytime temperatures in the thirties. Last night that all came to an abrupt halt. I looked out the window at about nine and it was snowing hard. In fact it was a very quick 3 inches of snow and the wind quickly came up. This morning’s temperature is 8 Fahrenheit and the predicted high for the day is in the teens. The nearly full moon shining through the trees and making it almost as bright as day.

Folks often ask me what a guide does on his days off. Well today was the perfect winter day; crystal blue skies, fresh powder snow, not to cold and as you can see in the photo album no shortage of white stuff. I was supposed to be working at my desk getting caught up on all of the off season stuff.

If you live in the south you don’t have the chance to experience icicles like we do here in Maine. With our recent snow and a few sunny cold days, we have had excellent conditions for icicles to form on the eves of the house. The sun warms the roof (partly because I shoveled a few bare patches that really heat up) melting the snow that then trickles down and refreezes as it drips from the eves. We had some earlier this winter that went nearly to the ground.

This latest snowstorm was a bit of a surprise all the way around, after a pretty big storm on Thursday I expected that most of the energy had been taken from the atmosphere and the Sunday storm would not be a big deal. The forecasters seemed to agree with me first calling for over a foot of snow and then backing off to a forecast of only 5 to 9 inches last evening. We were all wrong!

Our latest snowstorm left behind six or eight inches of new snow. We had rain for a brief period during the middle of the day and because everything was wet, the snow at the end of the storm stuck to everything!

Argy and I travelled to Bar Harbor on Saturday to visit out son Noah who is a junior at the College of the Atlantic. As part of the trip we spent a couple of hours snowshoeing in the National Park. The weather was perfect; cold but not too cold and clear as a bell. There was plenty of snow that was crusted over from the rain at the end of last weeks storm and about a half an inch of new snow that fell early that morning.  

Today’s storm started slowly with a few light flurries this morning and by 2 PM it is snowing very hard. We are forecast to get between one and two feet of fluffy new white stuff. The snow will last through the day today and most of the night so it is easy to see how we could get that amount. Good news is that we have warmer temperatures than we have seen in quite a while. It is currently 24 here in Union and I see that the thermometer at the airport in Owls Head is reporting a whopping 30 degrees! Warm enough to make you want to go outside without a coat if not for the wind.

You don’t need to ask. After all it is January in Maine aren’t we supposed to have snow and cold? How cold, you ask; around eight below zero Fahrenheit this morning. The most impressive thing about this cold wave was how it arrived. Yesterday morning when I got up at 5AM the temperature was thirty one, five hours later at 10 I went out and discovered that the temperature had fallen to 10 on a stiff northerly wind. Not a fun day to be outside.

No doubt about it; we are guaranteed to have a white Christmas. Sunday’s storm put 16 to 18 inches on top of the few inches we got on Friday. Without a doubt we will be white on the big day. The most notable thing about the most recent storm was the drifting. The snow was waist deep behind the office when I shoveled a path to the dog kennel. Temperatures are cold with lows in the single numbers and slightly below zero each night and it seems like the wind is always blowing. I guess that winter is here to stay.

This morning we woke up to snow covering the ground and more falling. This is not supposed to be a big “snow event” but rather a garden variety storm. Leaving us with a few inches of new snow on the ground. Just in time for Christmas. We are forecast to get another small storm on Friday and then another early next week. Needless to say it looks like a white Christmas is in the bag here in mid-coast Maine.