Thank you, Scott, for your report from Alberta. Here in my area of the Great Plains of Turtle Island (known to ‘geographists’ as Southwest Nebraska) the winter has been very similar. It started about 6 weeks late and ended about a month early.

It was like a cheap, tawdry sexual encounter. There was almost no foreplay whatsoever. Once it got going it quickly amplified and finished in a quick but vigorous climax. And afterward there was no cuddling.

We got a few dustings of snow but nothing serious until the twice in a century blizzard that we experienced on Ground Hog Day. To hear the locals tell it, “We haven’t had a blizzard like that in over 20 years!” All activity was completely shut down. The area was paralyzed.

I moved here from the mountains of Colorado where blizzards happen every other week for several months out of every year. Nothing shuts down there until you get more than 4 feet of snow in a day.

Here on Groundhog Day we got two feet of snow and it was a disaster of epic proportions. Like I said, the locals hadn’t seen anything like this in over 20 years.

But that was it! That was the end of winter; one huge dump and it was over. Since then, the temperatures have been climbing unabated and it hasn’t snowed again. The 10 and 12 foot high snow mountains created by the local snow removal equipment have finally melted over the last week. Today it almost reached 80 degrees (Fahrenheit)…..in the first week of March!

All the local farmers I’ve talked to are scratching their heads and bitching and moaning about how their Spring planting schedules are all screwed up. While they bitch and moan they simultaneously cling vehemently to their denial of climate change. I guess that happens when farmers get their weather information from extreme right-wing Republican political pundits rather than from scientists…..

I am neither a farmer nor a scientist but I am a nature freak. I have noticed that the local pond around which I take almost daily nature walks is totally clear of ice almost a month earlier than last year. I have noticed that the Canada Geese that winter there are already heading north almost a month earlier than the last few winters. I have noticed that the trees and bushes are budding out almost a month earlier than normal. I have noticed that the wild onions are already 5 or 6 inches tall when they were barely sprouting at this time last year. I have noticed an awful lot of robins who normally don’t show up until the end of March.

I checked the local newspaper and the weather prognosticators are calling for snow on Tuesday.

I guess we’ll see what happens…..