The Big Snowmelt

Back yard as of 2/6/19

Okay so we went through that extreme record breaking cold spell with a -20.F low ( first time in 23 years ) and -19.F on my backyard weather station. Then 3 days later the temperatures slowly rose into the 40s and 50s where it remained for 2 days and 2 nights and all the snow melted. It's that simple. We had 13" on the ground Saturday morning and by days end Sunday it looked like the above photo. It was like magic watching it go and was the fastest I've seen that much melt. It felt like maybe spring wasn't too far off, then just as fast as it came we cooled off into the 20s where we have been ever since. It's also looking likely going to get most of that snow back because the forecast shows at least 2-3 snow events hitting over the next week. The good news is average high for February is 35 the bad news is mother nature doesn't care about that and has other ideas!

Daffodil sprouts 2/2/19

Snowdrop in bloom 2/2/19

When the snow melted it reviled not only have the Snowdrops made it through the cold just fine, they were completely unharmed by the polar vortex of coldness. They had the thick snowcover to thank for this, because if they had been exposed to cold without a thick blanket they would have been very sorry. What was interesting though are the Daffodils and Tulips. Back in early January before we got a heaping pile of snow from 3 snowstorms in a row there was only a daffodil or two barely poking out of the ground and no Tulips. Now there are many Daffodils and Tulips coming up everywhere! It looks like about nearly 30% of the bulbs are up and some are as much as 3" tall. Well, I remembered the ground never froze before we got that very first snowfall so apparently they were very happy under the blanket and kept growing never knowing the horror of cold temperature we were experiencing above. Since spring doesn't look like it going to show up anytime soon, it would actually prove very beneficial to get at least 5" of snow back to protect those sprouts again. It doesn't look like we will have any problem getting that and maybe more.