Sunday, January 8, 2023

The Big Thaw

Never in my life have I witnessed as big a January thaw as over the past two weeks.  Two weeks ago today we experienced one of the fiercest blizzards I can remember, but within a few days the temperature was above freezing, even up to 10°C on two different days.  the snow started disappearing, and 98% of it has now gone.  Here are three photos to mark the transformation.

This was the day after Christmas, no sign of green anywhere except the spruce trees, no deck, no 'ostrich'.

A week later the vast majority of snow is gone, most of it melted at the bottom of the snowpack and drained into the groundwater.

On Friday there were only small patches of snow left, the deck was bare, the 'ostrich' was back to being a heron.

And here's our snow measuring stick, the garden heron.  You can start with the top picture when it was totally out of view, buried in the big drift that formed east of the deck, and then follow the sequence of its emergence.

We're back down to below freezing temperatures as of yesterday, and there are snow flurries forecast for tomorrow.


21 comments:

  1. Enjoy the winter of 22-23...it's a new day each day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now that's a dramatic change. Crazy weather!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wasn't that a shock?! I like the comparison photos. I loathe these melts. I have done yard duty at -20, and I'd prefer that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very good comparison photographs.
    Once again we've had rain today, the garden is very soggy!

    All the best Jan

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thawing is a great thing. Take a break before the next snow. I like your progressive shots as the snow melted.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The seasons are so different to when I remember them as a child, long hot summers, winter was predictable. I hope your heron can keep his head out of the snow for a good while.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A Jan thaw made lots of mud around here!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hope we get some more snow before it gets real cold again.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That is amazing. I don't like such radical changes but there's not much I can do about it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It is scary to think of the climate change that is going on this year in particular. I don't mind the lack of snow on the ground but know that it is abnormal.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Meanwhile, here in England, we had snow before Christmas which is most unusual - even in the days before anyone thought about climate change. Your heron must be wondering what on earth is going on.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Incredible! What is happening is scary!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow! What a difference a week can make.

    ReplyDelete
  14. It was the earliest January thaw I can remember and here we are coming up to the time of month for our normal January thaw,. When I look ahead I see our normal January thaw is going to happen as well. If the 14 day weather forecast holds together we will have 9 of 14 daytime temps above and well above freezing:)))).

    ReplyDelete
  15. Winter just isn't winter any more, I really miss cold and snow. While we still get occasional snow it doesn't last long and my skis are still in the garage loft and will probably stay there for the foreseeable future.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Woah, that is some serious transformation! We've lost pretty much all our snow here in South Dakota as well.

    ReplyDelete
  17. While I have learned to expect some sort of January thaw, this came early (starting in December), was very thaw-ish 😀, and has lasted a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  18. If we would stop poisoning Mother Nature, she might stop giving such knee jerk reactions to us.

    ReplyDelete