Anticipation

It seems like weeks since the Keweenaw picked up any new snow, but the reality is it has been less than a week. Just as misleading is the fact that the ground has been mostly bare down here for 2-3 weeks, but that is not the same for the higher terrain both north and south of the Houghton/Hancock megalopolis. Those areas have anywhere from 2-5″ on the ground and have had that much for at least 2 weeks.

None the less, the growing talk of the town up here has been where is winter/ or where is the snow? Snow is about as regular from December 1st through early April up here as the sun rising. It does not matter if one loves snow or is not too fond of it, when it has not come in significant portions through the first week of December, it is a pretty big deal. Those that love it are anxious for it to arrive and those that are not a fan of the snow are wondering how badly we will pay for this later on.

I don’t have the answer to how badly we will pay for it, but there will most certainly be some reciprocity going forward. How can I be confident? Well, lets say that we will not get much snow for at least the first half of this week. That puts us at December 10, one third of the month without much snow for the season to date. Our area averages around 250″ per season. The least is 130″. So it is safe to say that we should anticipate somewhere between 130-250″ of snow by the time it all ends. That’s a fair amount of snow to cram into around 3 1/2 months. 

So I am not concerned at all. Anxious, YOU BET, but not worried. I also personally like to have more snow fall from the second half of December through the first half of March than to have most of it fall in November or December. I do think it is safe to say we are not going to have a record season for snowfall, but average to even above average are still easily in reach.

As far as activities up here go, it is pretty quiet. Typically this is the time of the year where, if we have enough snow, there would be snowmobilers and some skiers traveling here to play in it, but the real influx starts right after Christmas and continues through mid-February. Without covid there would be Christmas events going on, like lighting of trees, or sleigh/wagon rides with Santa, school events or even parties to attend. Those have obviously been canceled for this year.

So it is quiet. That might be a factor as to why the talk of the lack of snow is getting so popular. Folks are not spending minutes or even hours moving snow around. That and the covid restrictions gives them more time to pay attention to other things in this pre-Christmas period. 

We also had a pretty quiet week at the Dee household. Grace went back to school on Monday after their 2 1/2 week online schooling. Even when the kids were not in school, Nora had to go in, but Bleau stayed home. So this week Huck and I got back to the quiet “bachelor” mode. The week went well and the region is not getting any worse with it’s covid cases, so they will be in school again this week and perhaps the entire period until Christmas break. 

With no snow on the ground, there have not been too many interesting things to take pictures of. I was in the woods for a brief period today and snapped this shot of a mostly bare Dreamland snowmobile trail. Directly behind the Dreamland Bar, the trail crosses a small bridge where there is a small pond on one side and a slowly flowing creek on the other. I noticed some cool ice formations on the stream side, so I snapped a shot of them.

I guessing that many of you jumped here this evening hoping I would give a sneak preview of the forecast. Well, I cannot let you good folks down. I am not going to get into the exact details, but there is hope for some areas of the Northwoods to get some meaningful snows by later this week. A low looks to form in the southern Plains Thursday and then head into the Midwest for Friday. Rains will fall in many areas, but it looks like at least the northern 1/3rd to 1/2 of MN, far northern WI and the western 1/2 of the UP could see snows fall. All of this is still too far to have a load of confidence, but I do like what I see in the next 10 days across the US, as far as getting us into a more wintry patter.

So let you head hit the pillow tonight with visions of cruising down a snowy and cold trail through the Northwoods.

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
JD