What's Up

 I'm no longer a skeptic that is a hard sell on global warning.  Here we are at the end of January and we normally have from 150" to 165" of snow by now. We only have a total of 42" so far which is 1/4th of normal.  I have to go out and start up the tractor just to keep the battery charged up instead of putting the snow thrower to use.  The snows we have received so far have been just a few inches that really didn't require using the snow thrower.  I have maybe used it two times just to keep in practice.  I don't even need to plug the block heater in to start the tractor because as I write this it is 49 degrees out. Ball cap and sweatshirt weather.

 Snow has melted off the roads as shown in the two photo's and sledding is out of the question because the snow on the driveway has melted down to where the gravel is sticking up.  To sled before I had to shovel snow onto the driveway. Can't do that now as it is that granular snow which  is like cane sugar. Other places in the country are getting the cold and snow but not here.  That means that it is going to be a high hazard for a wildfire occurrence. Last time in 2006 it was like this we had a serious wildfire just a few miles from us. Always a scary time when it is so dry that a wildfire hazard is present. Only 14 weeks of winter left so it needs to get going if we are to get any accumulation.  

Even if it snowed 10" a week that is only 140 inches, which added to our current 42" is 182" total.  That is 83" less than average. So what's up with the lack of snow anyway?  Maybe this will be another year that I get to plant my garden on April 1st, and enjoy a longer growing season.  It is not like we don't want the snow, we need the snow.  This is more like spring weather we are having now but I don't think I'll put our winter clothes away quite yet.  Ski resorts are seriously hurting this year too. Just checked the weather forecast for then next week and only a very slight chance of snow is predicted.  Of course here in the mountains that could mean anywhere from 1/2" to 4'. We are ready one way or the other, bring it on....