They—the mysterious weather people “they”—predicted a weak La Niña this winter, which for this area means more precipitation and a chance that it would be a little colder than usual. I used the words “roller coaster” on November 25, and a roller coaster it is.
We had a balmy day and a hard freeze the night of November 9; the fig tree dropped all its leaves overnight, but the magnolia, pawpaws, and silver maple seemed to have their remaining leaves frozen in place. Then the temperature went back up again—it hit 64° on November 28.
The magnolia and pawpaws dropped their leaves slowly through November, but the silver maple held on. By December 12, we had our first snowfall, delivered by an Alberta clipper. It may be a winter of Alberta clippers. I’m glad I bought a new shovel last year.
This snowfall came with howling winds overnight, which stripped the leaves from the silver maple and scattered them everywhere. The silver maple teeters over the northwest edge of my lot. The rain garden is on the east side of the lot, and the photograph above is looking south. The leaves blew into my neighbor’s lot to the south as well.
We had more snow the night of December 13, but it was beautiful by sunrise.
This brought us up to 8 inches or so of snow on the ground. A little hard to believe—I stuck a ruler in the snow—this is a lot for an Alberta clipper, but it is light, fluffy snow.
Then it warmed up; I photographed the rain garden again, thinking it would get cold again without continuing to melt.
By the morning of December 24, I was able to finish most of the raking that I had not completed before the first snowfall; only the areas next to the driveway still had snow. The temperature dropped below freezing and it started to snow again. The city is clearly trying to save money; the plows went by once in the evening, followed by salt trucks. With a high of 25°F, salt is not very effective.
And the temperature dropped further. It reached 12°F yesterday, December 26, and as far as I know, it has not gotten above 7° today.
As long as we can maintain some snow cover, the plants will be fine, even with the temperature swings. Snow cover is not going to be a problem for the next week or so. They are predicting a repeat of last weekend’s weather for this coming weekend.
Time to stock up on cocoa and little marshmallows. Happy new year, everyone!