Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Spring is sprung

Snoqualmie Pass Summit  
 Dirt skiing, anyone?

From our local weather expert,  Cliff Mass:

Meteorological winter ends roughly the third week of February in western Washington.   After that it is difficult to get the really big winter weather events:  record floods, historic windstorm, big lowland snow storms. 

Boston already has a record 74 inches of snow this winter, about the same as Snoqualmie Pass, where they typically have about 280 inches of snow by the middle of February. 

Hopefully, the Cascade and Olympic mountains will get some heavy snow in the next 8 weeks, but down in the lowlands we've turned the corner to spring.  Bulbs are springing up, birds are nesting and the first pink trees are starting to bloom on our street. Which probably sounds like paradise if you live on the east coast.  Or eastern Washington.

Before hitting the road on Sunday, Amanda and the kids walked around the garden soaking up the lushness. It will be many, many weeks before they see a bit of green appear in the Methow Valley.

The good news is there was plenty of snow over there this winter, which was a boon for the local tourist economy, hurting from the fires last summer.  Nordic skiers came from as far away as California because of the lack of snow at the Sierra resorts.  Could Winthrop become the next Sun Valley? 

We've lived long enough to see climate change, so nothing would surprise me. Might as well enjoy the pussy willow moment.

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