Well Spring has definitely arrived in Caribou. It’s been a warm, sunny week. Believe it or not it’s been near 70, or at least it feels like it. The photo was taken today, notice the thermometer on the tree (click the photo to see an enlargement). The snow is slowly going but there’s a lot left to go. Fortunately, the rivers seem to be doing okay.

Well, it happened. According to the National Weather Service at Caribou:

From beginning of the 2007-2008 snowfall season through midnight March 20, 2008, the National Weather Service in Caribou, ME has recorded 182.5 inches of snowfall. This morning’s measurement (21 March) puts the total at 184.5 inches. This seasonal snowfall total is the greatest amount ever, since records began in 1939. The previous record of 181.1 inches was set in the 1954-1955 snowfall season. … 184.5 inches equals 15 feet, four and one-half inches.

Now the wind is howling and we’re trying to keep up with the drifting. I’ll take a photo of what I see out my window and post soon.

Looks like Caribou may break the snowfall record if this current storm delivers. Meteorologists are calling for another 9-12 inches over the next 36 hours, so that will push the total just past the 181-inch record for the season.  We’re prepared for it in this household. The city has been trying to widen the sidestreets as they have become one-lane with the snowbanks closing in. Our roof has been cleared off twice and it’s a good thing - it’s been an issue this year for many people. And why a business would have a flat roof in snow country is beyond me. There have been collapses and a lot of property damage because of it.

…

But Spring is coming and we should have quite a mud season this year. The ground has a shallow freeze this year, so the snow will melt and we’ll have lots of lovely mud. Then, all of a sudden, everything will be green. I never knew how many shades of green there were until I lived here. If any artists have fallen on this blog, you ought to take a visit to Aroostook County, Maine. The vistas are wonderful.

I guess it’s not just the huge mountains of snow in my yard. The official word is that we have indeed had record snow in northern Maine.

Southern Maine, however, has had its share of really nasty mixed precipitation which is far worse than snow, imo.

We’ve still got more winter to go and if we continue to get snow, we may just get up to the phone wires.

I’ve started out 2008 with a system recharge: business is picking up and so is the cold season. Even though I tend not to go out among the public very often, I still managed to pick up the latest cold virus incarnation. I don’t get discouraged by it, I consider it an opportunity for the immune system to readjust. Read the rest of this entry »