winter pond

As expected, winter is back; yesterday afternoon, the boys and I went for a long walk and discussed various signs of spring: snow will melt, trees will have leaves, grass will grow. And as of 4:45 AM, we have two inches of fresh snow.

It won’t last, I’m sure–it sounds like we’ll get a good dumping, but it will be gone by the end of the week. Certainly it won’t be enough to reverse the melting of Minnesota the Star Tribune predicted yesterday.

For the Twin Cities, four of the five warmest winters since 1891 have occurred in the past 24 seasons. Four of the nine warmest have happened over the last nine winters, including this one.

Warm winters are a drag if you want to go sledding, make snowmen, or use your snowshoes; I’d be all for a brief and intense winter, a month of frigid temperatures and roaring blizzards, followed by a gentle slide into spring.