In mid-January we had almost a week
of unseasonably warm weather getting up into the 50s. The
"January thaw" had melted away almost all evidence of "The
Great Blizzard of '05" except for vestiges of the largest
piles. Beginning late in the evening of February 28, "the second-worst snowstorm of
the season" arrived. It had snowed all night and didn't stop until after
noon on Tuesday, piling up a fresh fourteen inches of heavy, wet snow.
Earlier on Monday I had visited an
orthopedic doctor and was given a shot of cortisone for chronic pain
in my shoulders. On Tuesday morning I was greeted with yet another major
snowstorm that nonetheless
had to be cleared.
By comparison it wasn't quite as bad
as The
Great Blizzard last month, though that was three feet of
light, fluffy snow. This one hiked the season's official snowfall total
so far at Boston's Logan International Airport up to 82 inches (the all-time official record
for Boston is 103 inches). Add another two feet or so more here on the Northshore
and that means I've so far moved some eight or nine feet of snow this
season.
The important winter strategy is to
stay ahead of the next snowstorm -- and there's always a next
snowstorm until the final one, usually in late-March or early-April. An
effective tactic -- especially this time in the season with the sun
climbing higher -- is to remove as much reflective white snow as soon as
possible, get down to bare ground wherever possible so radiational
melting and simple evaporation can occur during the day. Once the sun finds bare ground the
melting expands impressively even with below-freezing temperatures. The
below shots are a good example of its effectiveness.
Our daily highs are still below
freezing, some 10 degrees below the seasonal norm and stuck there for
at least another two weeks the weathermen have pronounced. Another major
snowstorm is bearing down on us, expected to arrive on Monday
again and snow into the next day. The snowblower has been refueled and the
shovel and bottle of Advil are at the ready.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, many of the
Catalina 22 discussion list members were just getting
home from the Catalina 22 Mid-Winter 2005 Championship Regatta
in Sanford, Florida over the previous weekend. The sailing experiences
were being related to the list as I was picking up my shovel.
What a difference some 1100 miles on the East Coast makes: the
difference between a Yankee sailor moving snow from one place to another, and those down in
"the tropics" under sail. Man, do I hate winter in New
England!
-- March 4,
2005
