Piles of Snow

Huge piles of snow here are from plowing my driveway. But having just flown to Portland and back, I know that similar snowcover existed (on January 23) all the way from Denver to around Pendleton, Oregon. I mean total snowcover. A thick blanket that covered even the steep sides of hills--it was everywhere. There have probably been other winters like this, but I don't personally remember any.

I'd be interested to know what effect global warming has had on our weather: so far we've had big snow, violent hurricanes, and much more--and what's next? My thought would be that what's called "global warming" really means that more energy is being trapped by pollutants in our atmosphere. It would seem that this could cause greater separation of warm from cold, and hence more vi0lent interaction. between the two.

Here is snow being plowed out of my driveway about a week ago. It didn't snow very much then, but the wind howled for most of two days and made the driveway impassible for my Prius. A neighbor is in the business of plowing driveways.

Now the wind is howling again and great clouds of blowing snow are whipping past my window. I have my 4WD truck available again, but even it has limits. I need to drive to Salida, and I think I'd better go soon, or else put my truck away.

I'm going to have to dig down to my woodpile through what looks like two feet of drifted snow.
I guess I'd better do that before it gets dark.

Big Snow

This was the first part of our big snow. Seven more inches fell a couple days later. This is a view south from my porch, between Buena Vista and Salida, Colorado. The clouds above the horizon hide the Sangre de Cristo range. Right after taking this photo, I got busy with a snow shovel and cleared my driveway. Hard work is good for me!

Snowmoving

A neighbor of mine turned out to be in the snowmoving business. He came over this morning and did my driveway, and a bit around my garage. In the place pictured, I didn't realize how deep the snow was! It was very hardpacked, too. Now I've been in and out with my Prius, starting to save money to offset what this snow job cost.

I'm half-expecting our normal, temporary February warm-up. If it happens, the snow that was in my driveway until today will not be melting there, causing a muddy quagmire. If it snows again, which it certainly will, quick action with a shovel will cut down on the accumulation.

Snowy Winter

This is the look of my driveway this weekend, after I spent a long time shoveling it. The 4WD truck goes in and out rather easily, but I haven't wanted to try the Prius yet. It's not a snow car and if it gets stuck here, I can't go anywhere in either vehicle.

The wind was up today, so snow was drifting in as fast as I could shovel it. We haven't had a winter like this for about five years

Shoveling was great exercise today, but I'm thinking about finding somebody in the business of plowing driveways.

Tracks in the Snow

On Friday, I was looking around outside and came upon some very interesting tracks. I'm not a tracker at all, but this looked to me a lot like a cat. Not a house cat, either. Way too big, plus my cats won't go more than a nose-length outside when it's real cold!

The unknown animal continued between my house and my northmost shed, leaving a good series of tracks. Each print was, of course, the size of the one above.


Additionally, some animal had dug a burrow into the snow and under some wood that's out there. The opening shown here is probably about five inches in diameter. A few feet away, there was another one of these.