Snow Report

Boulder had a record snowfall in February; fifty-six inches, just four inches short of five feet!  This broke the previous record of 32 inches and was just two inches shy of breaking the record for the snowiest month overall.  In addition it's been cold so the snow has stayed on the ground.  This is very unusual for Boulder since generally the sun comes out, the temperatures rise, and the snow melts quickly.

And it usually snows more in March than in February, so who knows what the next month will bring.

As I type it's snowing again, quite heavily, with snow expected this afternoon and into the morning.  Since we live a few blocks from the mountains we tend to get more snow in our neighborhood than even a few blocks east, and while the weather man predicts six inches we already have nearly four and it's only three o'clock.

We've never lived with this type of winter and we wondered what it would be like.

Well, it's probably no secret that we think the snow is very pretty.  I now know why snow is sometimes called "powder."  Snow here is usually light and fluffy with no ice mixed into it.

It makes view of the Flatirons even more beautiful than usual...

...and the city streets quite lovely. 

Of course you have to stay on top of the shoveling.

By now it's hard to know where to put the snow you have shoveled.  As I said, this isn't usually any problem because it melts right away in the bright sun.  But the last few weeks have been odd and with all the snow building up on the curbs it can be a challenge to find a parking place on residential streets or to get the trash/recycle/compost cans out for pickup.  We're glad our house has a garage and a driveway big enough for the second car so we don't have to look for parking on the street. 

Most streets aren't plowed but rely on solar power to deal with the snow.  Both the streets by our house are plowed which is unusual.  I think one is plowed to help get the kids to the school there.  We've heard that the other one is plowed because a plow driver had a girlfriend up the hill and started plowing it as a favor for her.  If the snow sticks around too long on our streets a big machine arrives to chew it up and spew it into dump trucks!   

The schools never close, even last Thursday when we woke up to find over a foot of snow on the ground.  The last snow day was in February 2012 when it snowed two feet.   Paul was pretty upset Thursday especially when he heard that his friends in Maryland had a snow day for just a few inches of snow.

But there are some compensations.  Schools always get out in May and never have snow days to make up.  And you can't tell me that playing in a snow fort at recess with your friends isn't fun. 

As the saying goes, "If you don't like the weather in Colorado, just wait five minutes." February had plenty of days when the sun came out in all its glory, that Boulder Blue Sky appeared again, and we headed out to hike in the winter wonderland that we're so happy to call home.