Last week started off in true Spring like fashion. Roads were free of ice and dry, the maple taps were running, and lawns were even greening up a little. Winter had been declared dead the week before and was looking like it would remain dead and unmourned until its progeny shows up next November or December (or October, blech!). That changed around mid-week.
The sunlight that makes it through the trees is feeling warmer and melting snow. It was further noted that some tree shadows are considerably shorter and wider this Spring than last.
Before mid-week, the signs of Spring were all over the northwoods. All that was missing was a few Trillium.
It started with rain. Rain this time of year is expected and, when the lake level was low, welcomed. Then the temperatures started to drop. At the half inch mark, we took in the rain gauge to prevent cracking that could happen on the off chance that it got cold enough to freeze.
Zombie Winter, the third Horseman of the Snowpocalypse, usually arrives, taunts a young Spring for a day or two, and then leaves. Not this year's un-dead ugly cold bringer. The arctic cold spanned the weekend and flowed into the next week. Normally, a visit from Zombie Winter will push ice-out back up to a week, but this extended visit could push it into May. If the ice was a yard thick, I'd guarantee a May ice-out, but with only 19.5 inches separating us from putting in the pier, it will probably be sooner. Unless we get a rare visit by the fourth and final Horseman of the Snowpocalypse (Silenced Spring). Then we're thinking June and that will make for a very interesting first ski show.
-Nemo likes his taps running and his June ice free.
