Jay Honeck wrote:
Jay, you just don't have the right definition of winter. Winter starts
when the first snow falls and ends when the last snow melts. Anyone in
snow country knows that! :-)


I know, but it's been a LONG time since we've seen anything like this.
Below zero, day after day -- in early December?

Two years ago, we still landing on grass strips until New Year's Day...
Last year the kids were bummed because we didn't have a White Christmas.

This year? We've got snow piles almost two stories tall at the Inn!

Yes, much the same here in PA, but I think less snow than you have. We
have about 8" on the ground at present. It has been quite cold though.
I record the temps every morning into a spreadsheet and we have been
below zero several times already with the lowest I've seen being -12.1
on 12/14.

Just a few years ago, 1999 to be exact, I bought the land that my house
now sits on. I needed a soil analysis and perc test for the septic
system and when I called in early November, they couldn't get me
scheduled until 12/10. They told me it was almost a certainty that I'd
have to wait until spring as they can't perc after the temp first drops
below freezing. Turns out, the lowest temp prior to 12/10 that year was
38! and, as I recall, it didn't drop below freezing until right around
Christmas.

This is closer to the winters I remember as a kid growing up in this
area in the 60s and 70s. We almost always had snow before Thanks giving
and deer season (the first Monday after Thanksgiving), and it stayed on
the ground until late March or early April. The year I graduated, 1977,
we had 2" of snow in early June! It melted by 10AM, but it was snow
nonetheless.


Matt