Looking back at photos from 2013. It looks like there is between 6 and 8″ of snow on the ground. Now, in March of 2019, as I am posting this,
we haven’t had more than 3″ of snow at a time for the past 6 years. So far this winter (from November through March, I have had a total of 14″ of snow falling 1/4″ to 3″ at a time. Mostly 1/4″.) 1/4″ of snow is all but worthless. It melts off the 3″ deep layer of mulch before it even gets to the ground below.
One of the things I love about Colorado is that it can snow 3″ over night, and all that snow will be melted into the ground by 3pm the following day. But not if you only get 1/4″ to begin with. It literally evaporates away.
The winter of 2006 the skies opened and snow fell for 24 solid hours. 3 feet of it. The snow filled the ditches which surround the property, making them seem like slight depressions at the side of the road. 4 neighbors drove their cars into the ditches at various points around the neighborhood (wish I had got pictures!) and were buried up to the windows in snow, having to be towed out.
Recently, I have had to drag 300′ of hose around the yard to water in the winter for the past 4 years. It’s back breaking, shoulder pulling, time consuming hell. It takes me 10 solid days to get the yard watered, 3 hours a day during the peak heat of the day – if there’s heat. And by heat, I mean 40-50 degrees. Otherwise, you can’t water, because it just freezes around the roots of the plants and that’s worse than not having any water at all.
Many are pining for spring. Not me, I’m praying for snow, lots of it. THIS is what climate change looks like. End of rant.
