As the new year rolls in, I’m reminded that yes, indeed, it is wintertime in the Rockies. When I got up and left for work this morning, it was around -4 degrees, a stark contrast to the impostor of winter that seems to be frequenting the east coast. With record highs in the 70s onChristmas eve, I think there may be a prolonged fall, or perhaps an early spring, but certainly not winter. I hope all those people lulled into thinking winter would be like last year, who spent thousands on a fancy snowblower, don’t feel too ripped off about now.
But here in the Rocky Mountains, winter is alive and well. A friend was asking my husband about white Christmases here in Nederland. Of the six Christmases we have lived here, five have been white. The great irony is the only Christmas we had visitors — my family came out from the midwest, it was balmy and bare, with temperatures in the 40s.
Just goes to show you probably shouldn’t trust the Farmers Almanac, which despite its total disregard for climatology, meteorology, or any other hard science, seems to attract a loyal following. I see it on display every year at the local discount store, supermarket, and other assorted outlets, and people seemed to buy it, and better yet, take it seriously. You can’t read an article online about winter predictions without some website quoting the Farmers Almanac. I hope all those folks in New England who were planning their Christmas ski vacations didn’t get too upset by what they were expecting to be a cold and snowy winter. After having a record ski winter last year, second only to (you guessed it) Colorado in total skier visits, New England is now suffering the wrath of El Nino, something true scientists have been predicting for months. Which roughly translates to way above normal winters for the east, and cold and snowy for the west (California) and the southwest.
As the wheel truly does come full circle, after four years of depressing, worse and worst winters, the Sierra Nevada and California seems to have finally started to come out of their drought. Most of the ski resorts in the Sierra have already received well over all of last season’s snowfall, and happy days have finally returned to the Lake Tahoe ski industry.
So what will 2016 bring? If the El Nino predictions are correct, we should be in for yet another prolonged, snowy and wet spring — time will tell.
