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Monday, March 23, 2015

WINTER 2015 PT2: THE END (I HOPE!)

It's 31F degrees as I type this on March 23rd. Three days into spring and it still
feels like Winter. It's not surprising, I suppose, given that there is still so much
snow on the ground.

We broke several regional records this Winter here in New England: Boston had
a record amount of 94.4 inches of snow fall in 30 days, 24 Jan to 22 Feb. The old total
snow amount record of 107.6 inches was broken and we've had 110.3 so far. February
was the coldest and snowiest month recorded since they started keeping records back
in the late 1800's. As a result, many unusual things happened this Winter:


The icing over of many of the bays and harbors along the New England coastline led to:

-Coast Guard Icebreakers having to work further south than normal in New England. Yje
ferry from Hingham to Boston was suspended for several days due to ice, as were the
ferries from Woods Hole and Hyannis to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

- A Coast Guard cutter spotting a coyote running across the ice over Hingham Harbor.

- A herd of deer falling through the ice at Wareham Harbor. Most of them could not be saved.

- Ocean water so cold it formed "slurpee waves".

- Small icebergs washing ashore on Cape Cod.

And the deep snow caused:
-The suspension of mass transit and commuter rail service in the Greater Boston area.

-The endless search by the highway departments of cities and towns for somewhere
 to put the snow lining the streets and covering sidewalks.

-The sighting of someone wearing an Abominable Snowman costume wandering the
streets of Boston 

- The snow was so high people were jumping out of apartment windows and off
roofs into snow drifts. Many of them were dressed in bathing suits. I can only ascribe
this as perhaps the effects of cabin fever.

- There were quite a few memes going around on Facebook about the weather. My favorites
were the mock Ken Burns style documentary, complete with "Civil War" type narration
and music, and another that paired snow photos with quotes from Samuel Beckett's
plays,


It's definitely been a Winter to remember. And even though it is Spring, the snow season
is not over yet. We could still add more snow to that total.

After all, we had a blizzard on April Fool's Day in 1997!

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