Here we go again!

More global warming fell overnight. There were six inches on the deck this morning of heavy wet snow. And then we had a little bit of rain/sleet on top of that. It seemed to stop (or at least level off on the sleet level so I went out to try the snow thrower while Terry got the deck and the small path out to the bird feeders. The thrower was doing pretty well considering the weight of the stuff it was trying to toss. Even so, the height of the mounds at the end of the driveway was too much for it. The opening will be a little narrower than it has been but the thrower can't seem to lift the plow enhanced dense crud higher than the four or five feet I've already got it at.

So, I cleared the end of the driveway and made two passes--one down and one back--from the garage, around the Tundra and down the length of the drive, when the sleet turned back to snow as the temperature dropped down a couple of degrees. I called a halt to my efforts at that point and decided to wait until after lunch to make another assault. Already we've an additional inch of snow in the hour or so since the the switch over occurred.

There have been a few trucks up the hill but they must have been gas and wind farm workers. No signs of a plow yet. That's understandable since we are--more or less--at the end of civilization. Above us there are only a couple of full time residences and I'm not sure whose responsibility it is to plow Mountain Ridge Road out to their places. I know the township crew goes to the intersection at the top of the ridge, but beyond that it's "No Winter Maintenance" to the west and, a short distance to the east, a different township and county.

After a fairly mild winter through the first of the year (the Christmas Blizzard stayed well to the east) we are certainly making up for it. Seems we had 2-3 inches of snow twice a week with incredibly low temperatures throughout January and the first week of February. Since then, after a week of thaw, the quantity of snow has increased dramatically.

AccuHunch says that after this round of snow stops sometime this afternoon, we will get another round of "nuisance" snow Saturday night. (Translation "nuisance snow" = about 2"). The good news, if you don't live on a flood plain, is that the temperatures will rise starting Sunday and all of next week will see highs in the area of 40 degrees and possibly even into the 50 degree range. The night time lows will be int he 20s. There might be some snow flurries at night but rain showers during the day. Those conditions will trigger some serious melting and possible stream and river flooding.