On the last day of winter in Maine, I finished SPRING cleanup & watched the lake ice go out

[jpak]

We has record high temperatures yesterday - 67 degrees (old record 58). I could actually see the ice melting and the ice edge retreating across the lake. It melted over a half mile in the PM.

I saw a wood duck land on the newly ice-free lake, heard a catbird and had a woodcock singing in the field Friday night.

As I raked, there was already green grass under the leaf pack and the irises are up.

In years past, in lat March, I would be skiing down to the Camp with a roof-rake to get the 3 1/2 feet snow off the roof before the spring rains. The snow would be deep enough to cover the picnic tables and the stone walls. We'd be busy making maple syrup - but the sugaring season began in mid-February this year and ended already.

When I was a kid we had to "post-hole" through hip-deep snow to find the one pool in the brook that was ice-free on Opening Day of fishing season.

Not so this year - the brooks are ice-free and the snow on the banks has gone - even in the deepest ravines.

All this is MONTH and HALF earlier than normal.

global warming is real

deniers suck

the end

[WhiteTara]

1. well, I'm in the upper south

and we have 8" of snow on the roof of the car and it is coming down in blizzard fashion!

[jpak]

5. It will be gone by Wednesday

yup

[WhiteTara]

6. yep. n/t

[eShirl]

2. Yep, I'm pretty sure this beats Spring 1990. (the year of the "endless summer")

As I recall, the weather then was only a month early at the most.

[jpak]

4. My brother had a mosquito bite yesterday in S. Maine

:thumbsdown:

[eShirl]

3. Also, there hasn't been snow worth shovelling since late JANUARY.

[joshcryer]

7. I'm getting wasps here in Colorado. The recent cold snap may have killed some of them off...

...but I expect by weeks end they'll be back. There will be a few more cold snaps here, but we're looking at highs of 70s tomorrow. On the first week of spring.

In Colorado.