Snow Day

Neighbor, Pete Sieger, clearing his drive way of nine inches of fresh snow.

Yesterday was a snow day. Unlike in some other parts of the country where a snow day means closed schools and businesses, here in Minnesota it translates as a day when we have to shovel before going off on our daily business. At best a few schools might postpone opening an hour to allow buses and parents the time to navigate the snow clogged streets.

March is our second snowiest month. March is also the month for state high school basketball and hockey tournaments. Common wisdom says that we will get a heavy snow sometime during the playoffs. I suspect that because of climate change common wisdom will need to adjust.

Will the snow help mitigate our ongoing drought? Nope. At the beginning of the winter we had a shallow snow pack that did little to insulate the earth from the cold. Now the ground is deeply frozen. When the snow melts, like it is supposed to do all this week, the water will run off into streets, streams, lakes and rivers rather than be absorbed by the land.

We’ve seen a snowy February and a good snow fall at the start of March. If this pattern continues into spring with plentiful rain, then perhaps the drought will break.

If the drought continues, which is possible because droughts seem to have a life cycle of about 8 or 9 years, then 2013 will be a rough year for Minnesota.

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