How odd is this? 51 degrees on January 1! Guess yesterday and today count as the annual January thaw. It rained all night. The snow and ice are totally gone, and naturally, the roof leaked. More wet spots on the ceiling. What is surprising is that all the lawns are green-- they haven't turned to the yellow straw that shows up when the March snows melt. Even the perennials on the berm look green. And that god-awful weed that grows under the snow all winter looks so happy and has been growing madly. Parts of the flower beds are already covered with it.
According to the forecast we will be back into the high teens to low 20s tonight with chances of snow for the upcoming week, but 51 so far today? Wow.
This is especially wow because on Dec 2 we had a snowstorm after rain. and then the temps plummeted into single digits and the snow on top of rain froze. For the last four weeks it has been bitter cold. The highest temps in all that time have been in the mid 20s, though most of the time it was colder, in the teens, accompanied by lots of wind.
After a month of freeze, to soar to 48 yesterday and 51 today was pretty amazing. The ground is so frozen that all the rain and snow melt is puddled up in every dip and low spot. It is windy today, so maybe that will help evaporate some of the puddles before the turn back to ice tonight.
After feeding the cats, I walked around the yard, which is quite the mine field, and checked everything out. Then I got my coat and went for a walk. It may be 51 degrees, but we also have 96% humidity. It was good to get out and get moving, but the damp was a lot chillier than I realized. Now that I'm back inside, I feel cold radiating off my bones.
I'm thinking that 51 is going to be the high for today. An hour after my walk, it is now 48 degrees. The bug says we should be down to 34 by late afternoon. I'm thinking I'll just stay cozied up inside.
Last night, the New Year's Eve ruckus started at quarter to twelve. Fireworks, as in aerial bursts went on for at least a half an hour. Many many strings of firecrackers were lit as well as many of the single big boomers. There must have been some wild parties. It is now 11 am on Saturday morning and it is extremely quiet. I would be surprised if even a dozen cars have gone by. Quiet is good, but it is kind of an eerie quiet.
And speaking of eerie, last night (this morning?) I was standing in the driveway watching all the big color bursts. There were two areas with quite the shows: one group in the sky over the Averhill corner and one up by the school. The eerie part is that there were 7 red lights in the sky over the trees as you looked towards Averhill. If I had a ruler at the end of an outstretched arm the lights would have been about 12 to 14 inches apart. They were flying in a staggered arrangement like this: , ' , ' , ' , At first I only saw a couple and thought it was weird there were so many planes in a row. The lights went north until I couldn't see them. Then they came around again. Remote controlled planes out for fun? Who knows, but it was strange.
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