We got an inch of snow/sleet Tuesday night. Then temperatures shot up to the middle-30s with a quarter-inch of rain. Shortly after sunrise, the temperature took a nose dive into the teens. Some decent snow showers blew through, but didn’t leave anything of significance.
Lakes are glare ice and any left-over trail base is hard as a brick.
First off: DEC has closed the gates to Moose River Plains through the end of mud season.
Perkins Clearing still does hold a base and some people did make their way back there on Wednesday:
Yes, it looks nice and white when you get back in there, but it’s as hard as a brick with a scant skiff of windblown powder. Studs and ice-scratchers would be a major asset because the winter cold heading into the weekend will keep all the moisture locked up in the trail base and away from your heat-exchangers and slides.
Could you ride in Perkins Clearing from Mason Lake parking lot if you absolutely need a last ride? Yes, but you have to decide if it’s worth the haul.
Extended Outlook:
Temperatures rising into the 50s and even 60s next week will melt the remnant snow pack very quickly and make it difficult to reach the nooks and crannies that would still hold ride-able snow.
I’m ready to put this miserable winter behind me and move on to the next chapter…
Post Mortem:
Temperature:
December-January-February averaged 24.4*F, which was 4th warmest on record for Indian Lake Dam behind these three:
1936-37: 24.9*F
1948-49: 24.8*F
2001-02: 24.7*F
After shattering the record for cold last winter in February, we did the same for warmth this winter in December.
December 2015 averaged 34.3*F, which destroyed the previous record of 29.3*F in December 1984.
Snowfall
Snowfall records are more spotty, but I can compare against the totals that I hold since 1992-93:
December 2015: 7.3″
January 2016: 17.3″
February 2016: 13.7″
Total (December-January-February) : 38.3″
This blows away other weaklings like 2001-02 (50.1″), 2011-12 (51.3″) and 2009-10 (56.4″) by a wide margin.
I’d love to compare with the pathetic winters in the years surrounding 1990, but I don’t have those records for Indian Lake.
At any rate, we were probably very close to the 100-year low for winter snowfall here in Indian Lake based on records I’ve seen from many other weather stations.
Does this mean that winters are no more? Nope! A lot of the low snowfall/warm winter records I have seen date back to the 1930s. Those were the Dust Bowl Years out in the American and Canadian Prairies. We do find a way to bounce back.
But I can’t completely rule out a stretch of pathetic winters like we had around 1990, either. It has been a while since we’ve strung together several consecutive clunkers in ilsnow land.
We can only hope this winter was a one-of-a-kind disaster that won’t visit us for another 80 years.
For the ilsnow nation,
Darrin
