Friday, January 11, 2008

Weather Report

Y'all have seen what the snow looked like before Christmas around here. I saw a big snowplow in a shopping center shooting up snow onto a snow wall three stories high. Quite a sight. Then it snowed again and we went from raising our arms in dismay to dropping them in resignation.

But things change quickly here. Yesterday January 10, at the heart of winter, all that snow was gone after a mere week of rain and temperatures in the 10 Celcius. Melted. You could see the brown grass in lawns. Sidewalks were perfectly clean and dry. More astonishing yet, the Richelieu River is completely thawed. Entirely. Not even floating ice. The whole region looked to be about Mid-March. At the heart of winter.

This morning, when I woke up, the world was white again. How plants and wild animals can adapt to such erratic conditions, I've no idea. It's all so strange.