Strange Winter

Thinking back to last year, we had one bad winter. We did not see any snow until Dec. 26th (2010), but then it kept coming. By February, we had already seen 82 inches (2.08 meters) of snow. Though New England sees it's share of snow, it's a remarkable, record-shattering year for snowfall in the southern part of New England. Even dedicated snow-lovers, like myself, were desperate to see it melt by late March. We worried what the 2011-2012 winter would bring...

In August, we had a Hurricane roll up the eastern US seaboard. We lost power for four days; others in our area lost power up to 12 days. We also had to keep listening to the radio as they were evacuating people along the Connecticut River. We were just outside that evacuation area. Unfortunately those in Vermont upriver from us were not so fortunate; whole towns were isolated when the bridges and roads washed away. One down disappeared completely, washed down stream and passing us on the river's way to Long Island Sound before it met the Atlantic. You could stand near the river banks and find debris pressed against the tree-trunks well past the river's original borders...

 

Then we had our first - and history-making earliest - Nor'Easter at the end of October. After a day of howling wings, we awoke to a world blanketed with early snowfall. When you compare this shot with the previous one, it does not look bad at all.

In truth it was very little to shovel, comparatively. The true level of destruction isn't visible. It looks like a clear, beautiful day following a light snowfall. 

You don't realize that gardens were still growing, fall peas were on the vines, leaves were still in the trees, many were only starting to change from summer green to the myriad golds, reds and oranges of autumn colors.

To the left is a shot of the morning glory, blackening on the vine. Confused flowers were pushing through the snow to greet the sun for the last time...

All around us was destruction. All through the prior day, we heard horrific snapping and cracking of large tree branches breaking and crashing down. Mighty oaks, elms and maple trees were broken.

The weight of even this amount of snowfall on limbs full of leaves were too much to bear.

 

Smaller trees were completely crushed. It was as if some giant had reached down in the night and crushed them. Others just seemed to peel apart like a banana.

Trees crashed down everywhere - on houses, on cars, bringing down miles and miles of power lines and phone lines. Blocking every single road - great and small.

 

With roads blocked, utility companies could not get to the power lines. With power lines down, road crews could not clean up the tree branches. With both, the snow plows were completely useless. With only three inches (76 mm) of snow, the entire state ground to a standstill.

Instead of having no electricity of four days, this time we were without it for eight days - over a week. In some places, they did not get power back for THREE WEEKS - nearly a month without electricity. Not only was this an inconvenience; this was dangerous. Without electricity, most have no heat, many have no water - hot or cold! Shelters were set up - once the roads were cleared to get to them. We stayed overnight at home, with candles and LOTS of wool blankets. But I still had to make my way to the shelter for a shower.

Businesses struggled. Most found ways to continue via generator powered wi-fi and cell phones. Then the cell towers began to fail; the battery back-ups on the towers only last a few days.

Another issue was the shortage of gasoline. A few gas stations had acquired generators following the hurricane's outage. But there was no access into the state to get their tanks resupplied. Many were only open less than two days before they were run dry. People needed gas to drive to the shelters. People needed gas for the generators and chain saws. Work crews needed it for their snow removal, tree removal and power line repair trucks and equipment. The state had to make a decision in some areas to ration gas.

We - obviously - survived this storm too. Things returned to normal. Christmas was very quiet though. Only a fraction of the people put out holiday decorations and lights - both personal and public areas. So Christmas seemed a bit darker. Everyone wondered... what will happen next....

It's now the beginning of February. There are still many trees with broken branches hanging in their limbs, dried leaves still fluttering from the dead branches. But we have not had any other snowstorm since then. In fact, we only had a dusting twice that disappeared within an hour of sunrise the next morning..

The trees are bare; the ground is frozen - somewhat. But this is not what one pictures January in New England to appear. Yet this is our January, even our December. No snow. This may lead to a dry spell as we will not have our snow melt in the spring and the frozen ground does not absorb the rainfall.

For the most part, our January has been practically amazing! We've had beautiful sunshine in a time when we mostly see cloudy skies, snowfall and perpetual gloom. This past week, temperatures have been in the 40's'F - even 50's' F (10'C). Our normal daytime high temperature this time of year is 20'F (-6'C). 

Each evening, there are many people out walking at sunset. Kids are playing outside without a jacket. There is no snow on the ground; there are no plants blooming, though it feels like late March now. Even the ground that was frozen in December has become soft and pliant. Grass has started to grow again.

I do not know what the rest of winter will bring. Today is Groundhog's Day. There is a small mammal that allegedly predicts if spring is here now or if we will see eight more weeks of winter. As fun as the tradition is, I don't hold much stock in it's predictions.

Like many things in life, we can prepare for the worst, and smile in joyous surprise when we are provided the best. Or we can believe all will be well and get hit with several feet (meters) of snow in late April. It has happened before. 

Anything is possible with God; and God does indeed touch this world of ours. Who knows what will come this year. 2012 can be one of destruction or one of major blessings.

Look to the light - for that is where Hope always resides.