DONNIE JOHNSTON: So Long, Winter!

If you're a betting person, get your money out. Donnie says winter's over -- you can bank on it.

By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

Winter is over.

Put it in the bank.

Oh, we may still have a snow flurry here and there, and maybe even an inch or two of the white stuff in early March, but for all intents and purposes, our winter is over.

Much of the ground is still covered with snow (at least in my neighborhood) from the Jan. 6 storm and it will still be there, especially in north-shaded spots, when February rolls around later this week. But it is not, as the old people would contend, waiting around for more.

There’s very little chance for snow in the next 14 days (extended forecast) and by then it will almost be Valentine’s Day. If we have a big February snow, it is almost always during the first two weeks of the month, so once we’re past the 15^th, we’re usually in pretty good shape, no matter what that groundhog says Sunday.

Yes, we have had some big snows in February, most notably the Blizzard of 1899, the granddaddy of them all. There was also a 24-inch snow in February of 1984, but both were early in the month.

All that aside, the days are getting longer so spring can’t be far away. Now it is still light at 6 pm and a month from now there will be daylight at 7. Then comes Daylight Saving Time. There is hope for those who hate winter.

Despite the fact that there was snow on the ground most of the month, January was relatively dry. We got barely an inch of moisture in that initial snow and less than half an inch in two other minor storms. That’s not a lot, considering we usually average more than three inches a month.

By the way, remember how dry it was last October and November? I still ended up with more than 57 inches of rain at my house last year, some 14 inches above average. We had several really wet months.

January’s cold and snow quieted, at least for the moment, all those old fogies who are always screaming that “we don’t have winters like we used to.” One night the temperature at my house fell below zero and we have had snow on the ground almost this entire month. I know of several people who had pipes that froze and one friend fell and almost froze to death.

Of course, at least according to some “experts”, all this severe winter weather is due to global warming. Tell that to all the people that were buried under snow in Florida from that rare storm.

Had this been 1900, many of us would have spent the past two weeks cutting ice to fill the icehouse. Insulated with sawdust and straw, the ice cut from ponds and rivers in January might last well into August.

Of course, you didn’t put small chunks of that ice in your drink because the river or pond water was dirty. But you could use it to keep the icebox cold or make ice cream. You can still sometimes find depressions in the ground around old homes where underground icehouses once existed.

All those who long for “those good old days” might also consider that 125 years ago ruts in roads would have been so bad after the cold and snow that a horse’s fetlocks might be bleeding from traveling in the jagged ice.

And where there were no bridges, horses – and people – were at the mercy of the ice at stream fords. Travel was sometimes impossible for days and some churches were closed all winter.

Schools, on the other hand, usually remained open because kids were not needed to help with the farmwork during bad weather. When planting, hoeing and harvesting time came, however, there was no time for school on subsistence farms.

But let’s stop talking about snow and cold because the winter is about over. I saw a flock of robins Saturday and the skunks start mating in a week or so (February is the Moon of the Polecat).

Pitchers and catchers will report in two weeks and Major League Baseball’s spring training begins and with any luck I’ll have my potatoes in the ground by the end of February.

We’ve had our winter. Now it is time for spring.

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