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Uh, it’s cold.

SDColorado said:
The front of my house has a southern exposure, snow was completely gone within couple of days. Back Yard went from a skating rink to a mud pit, still is.

The high country on the other hand has had some avalanche dangers

https://www.9news.com/video/news/lo...b4461-61ea-4697-88a2-15b92751c90f?jwsource=cl
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Wow. No avalanches likely around here, just six or ten inches of snow over next 2 days then 50º Sunday, ground is still frozen below so it will be skating rink time and then mud, no place to go.
 
AlliFlowers said:
We have never experienced such a long winter. I don't remember the last time I needed a jacket in late March.
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Yesterday here it was a sunny blue sky morning. Also trash pickup day, so when I had my stuff ready to take out to roadside around 7, I glanced out there and saw all that blue sky and sun and figured that a windbreaker would do over a sweatshirt and turtleneck. Then I stepped out on the deck and connected with the fact that it was only 16ºF out there. Ugh. I guess that was a hint of why we were about to get a snow dump these couple days now instead of rain. The air was almost calm but icy.

Anyway Parka Time here has not yet got the message from EDT or calendar spring or the occasional few geese I've seen flying north. :eek: Those geese probably made a U turn last night.
 
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I may have hit the Spring jackpot here! Nine robins just landed in my yard a bit before sunset, with time to sample the pickings in the grassy spots where it got warm enough today for some grubbing about in the lawns. I love how they position themselves like sentries looking out from where they've landed in case there are raptors around.

They are still just flocking, not fighting yet, so there's a chance they'll do a bit of a U-turn if we get a snowdump by weekend. Almost time to settle into the area and sort themselves into pairs. If this is the whole party traveling north together, there's an odd one out... or a bigamist's opportunity. :D
 
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It’s been in the low 70’s in the Denver area the past couple of days, mid-60’s tomorrow.

But my wife and I took our motorcycles to Estes Park and Nederland over the weekend and found some snow along the way.

905977b75008a7d8d4d4fcf2c329d99c.jpg
 
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What a nice photo! The call of the open mountain road... I can ID with that. I'm looking forward to some trips up to Ithaca soon. The Finger Lakes weather takes the hard frosts off and brings all those beautiful spring flowers out sooner than in the higher elevations around here. Counties immediately northwest of the Catskills are still in a high plateau so they do sometimes get snow dumps in April that bring the plows back out. I have to keep an eye on their weather for awhile yet in making runabout plans for points north.
 
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LizKat said:
What a nice photo! The call of the open mountain road... I can ID with that. I'm looking forward to some trips up to Ithaca soon. The Finger Lakes weather takes the hard frosts off and brings all those beautiful spring flowers out sooner than in the higher elevations around here. Counties immediately northwest of the Catskills are still in a high plateau so they do sometimes get snow dumps in April that bring the plows back out. I have to keep an eye on their weather for awhile yet in making runabout plans for points north.
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It’s a beautiful area out that way. I was born in Syracuse and the family used to vacation in the Catskills when I was young. Later the family moved to Pittsburgh, but by brother went to school at Colgate and my sister Ithaca, so used to make trips out to Ithaca and Hamilton as well. “Ithaca is Gorges” right :)
 
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It is scenic in these parts of NY (not as dramatic in general as the Rocky Mountains, certainly. But up by "Ithaca is Gorges", definitely! I still see cars sporting that bumpersticker when I'm up there. This is Taughhannock Falls up a few miles out of Ithaca near Trumansburg. Yep those are people down there in the lower right hand corner...

Taughannock Falls.jpg

​

And here's a link to the same falls in winter; that same site has pix of Ithaca Falls as well.

 
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File under "the winter that would not end"... daffodils are up, lilacs trying to bud, day lilies showing four inches of foliage. But, there's snow in the forecast for tomorrow, Sunday and Tuesday with temperatures in the 20s during the overnights. A bit extreme for the very end of April.

Sure and there is such a thing as "snow peas" --but I certainly never meant that to be taken quite so literally by the weather gods.
 
Woke up to cold drizzle and patches of ice. I feel bad for the paper man making the journey at 5 AM!
 
ucfgrad93 said:
Woke up to about 2 inches of snow on the ground this morning. Welcome to springtime on the front range.
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Here we seem pretty well assured that Spring has finally landed. Only the barn swallows are missing, and they should be turning up in a week or so. A honeysuckle shrub that's practically a thicket unto itself has been reclaimed even a bit earlier than usual by a pair of gray catbirds. They're fussy about late cold weather so I figure we're past it.

Yesterday I was treated to a few distinct "meow!" calls plus some riffs of typical catbird gibberish, alternating with fairly good mimicry of house finches and robins as I walked out to post a letter in midmorning. This particular male catbird has to be the same one from last year, when he had learned by midsummer how to mimic the noon whistle from the firehall down in the village. I heard him softly practicing that acquisition later on yesterday afternoon. I'll be happy if he doesn't crank it up at 5am some morning.

Catbirds are so comical and really fun to have around all season. They haven't quite the talent of mockingbirds but they are pretty good mimics. Once a few years back there was one that would mimic exactly the sound of my driver's side car door squeaking when I opened it fully. The females only seem to sing back quiet little riffs after her mate struts longer pieces of his repertoire. They both get really quiet when there are eggs being minded unless an intruder actually gets near the nest... then there's all hell to pay with both parents defending.

Anyway they seem pretty reliable predictors of the fading away of threats of snow, unlike robins, who show up early and do sometimes get surprised. Last year we had an April 30 snowdump and the catbirds were nowhere to be found until almost June. The robins had been here for weeks and so were out there on the first of May hopping around and kicking up leaf litter under trees out back after the lawns had all turned white again and made bug-hunting futile.
 
It is interesting that you mention Robbins. I grew up in the Northeast (Syracuse/Pittsburgh) and used to think of Robbins as harbingers of spring. But here in Colorado they no longer leave for the winter.

According the the National Audubon Society, rising temperatures have resulted in more and more of them staying the winter. The National Audubon report, drawing on 40 years of data compiled during Christmas bird counts, said the number of robins wintering in Colorado has increased 1,704 percent since 1968. Canadian Geese just tend to hang out here year round as well.

I am not sure what our harbinger of spring is anymore. I suppose the hummingbirds, with the Broadtail and Rufous being the most common.
 
We got some minor hail this morning... Which is weird considering it was nearing the low 90s this time last year.
 
SDColorado said:
Wow! That is pretty weird. That must have come as a surprise! What was the temp today?
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This morning? About 50*. It's been cold for weeks now. There are years where summer doesn't really come in the classic sense for the region. Which is nice. But it does mean the summer after is hell.
 
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In the 40s here today. I was further upstate over the weekend, rain rain rain rain up there as well. One wonders if we'll even have the merry month of May this year. All the creeks are topped off and yet it still rains on. Pretty soon time to get the cellar pumps out around here.
 
So snow in the hills tonight and a nor'easter Wednesday. But the good news is the rumors are summer arrives in 2 weeks with temps in the 80s.
 
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MacNut said:
So snow in the hills tonight and a nor'easter Wednesday. But the good news is the rumors are summer arrives in 2 weeks with temps in the 80s.
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So yet another year when Spring does actually occur during its assigned season but only on nonconsecutive dates and also (apparently) only while we are sleeping. :rolleyes:
 
LizKat said:
So yet another year when Spring does actually occur during its assigned season but only on nonconsecutive dates and also (apparently) only while we are sleeping. :rolleyes:
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The past few years we only get about 3 weeks of spring and a month of monsoon.
 
I now somewhat understand why @ucfgrad93 lives in Colorado despite hating the snow after around Christmas time. That highway pass is breathtaking.

We've had rain in the mornings for a couple days now. We had a break today, but we have several rainy days coming up. On the one hand, I'm sick of this damn rain. On the other, it's nice to have cool weather this time of year. Also, the longer it rains the more water the land soaks up which is great for that water under soil thing that has a scientific name I can't be bothered with to remember. Hopefully we get good rain next year, too, or else there's going to be a lot of fuel for fires. :(
 
I shall await for Noah's large ship in the morning. I will offer him a goat, in the form of a human being, that is an annoying neighbor.
 
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