[TheForge] Re: OT snowfall

[Mike]

> whats it like in the snow zones where you are?

In SW Nova Scotia, the grass is green, some plants are in bud, the
catnip has put up several new shoots, the jonquils are up.  Temp in
the 40s F. Many frosty nights but only a couple or three nights below
20F.

We're at about 45N latitude, usually noticeably warmer than where
Steve Smith is in Maine at about the same latitude because we're
warmed by the Gulf Stream.  But not usually this warm.  We've had one
soggy snow storm that has now all melted away.  The ground isn't frozen
yet.

>From 1969 to 1990 there was only one year when deep snow built up and
lay on all winter but it was always cold enough to freeze the ground
down a few feet.  There was always plenty of snow, but between thaws
and bouts of freezing rain that took it all away in a few days. In
1990 I left Halifax in a shirt-sleeve weather thaw in early February.
The first thing anybody said to me when I got off the plane in Boston
was, "Lotta snow you guys got."  Say whut?

When I got back to Halifax 3 week later, YHZ was closed, I had to cab
to Halifax 5 hours from the Moncton airport and the city was nearly
paralyzed.  There had been 4 spectacular snow storms, residential
streets were reduced to one ice-covered lane between snowbanks up to 8
feet high.  Since then, more than half the winters have had lots of
deep snow that lay on till spring.

Not this year. Not so far.  Seems like early spring here.

Bite my tongue, knock on wood and all that.  If you don't like the
weather in Nova Scotia, wait a minute. :-)

And while I'm indulging in OFF TOPIC... Ruffed grouse, you say?

Two years ago we had a dozen ruffed grouse living around our place.
We thought it was really cool, seeing them all up in the apple trees
through the winter.  And sad when three of them flew into the side
of the shop or house at full speed and broke their necks.  

Hah!  The following spring, there were hardly any blossoms on the
apple trees because the grouse had eaten all the buds.  We have three
this year and I'd shoot them all if I were quick enough.  Not that
there's more than a couple of bites of meat on one.  But now they're
on the bad-guy list, even if I do find it thrilling when I see one on
the ground with ruff and tail all puffed up.


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^