Monday, March 11, 2013

Weather in Minnesota v. The Desert: Equally Crazy

I'm beginning to think that South Central Minnesota and the Desert Southwest are more similar than I ever realized.

No, I'm not crazy.

Well, ok.  Maybe I am.  But bear with me for a second.

See, my old home in the desert Southwest had this ability to suddenly and inexplicably change weather rather quickly and drastically.  One minute I'd be blowing sand out of my nose, due to a sandstorm that was so intense that I was completely exfoliated and had hair that would make Cousin It jealous, and the next...

stick figure with tangled hair, weighed down by rain falling on it.  Figure holds her hand out, watching it


Totally soaked with rain.

Then, not more than five minutes later (because, you know... rain in the desert doesn't last long at all...), the temperatures are back into the 90s, the sun is beaming down, and everything is back to peacefully sweltering norms.

Well, it appears that South Central Minnesota is just as crazy.... just in a different way.

See, on Saturday temperatures raised, yet again, to the point where everything started melting. This time it was extra awesome, because there was so much snow that the melting was pretty extreme.  There was localized flooding, a few roadways in the area were closed, and the trail I had created so that my dogs could get to the fenced in section of the yard without being covered by some awfully squishy snow.

Long, shoveled out trail is formed of brownish slush with perfectly white snow on both sides.

Not only that, but my raised garden had a nice little pool forming where melted snow dripped from the shed roof.

Small pool of water within the raised garden - drop of water on lower edge breaks the smoothness.

It was pretty amazing.

Or at least, it was pretty amazing to a desert rat like me!

The next morning, though, I looked out the window to find it snowing.  A lot.  As in, I-almost-can't-see-the-neighbor's-house snowing.  The last time we got snow so soon after a rather warm period, I was amazed.  This time, however, I looked out at the snow and shrugged.

"Here we go again..."

And then it stopped.

...about 15 minutes later.

The result of that snow?

Snow covered trail

The trail was covered, yet again, though this time the overall height of the snow was lower due to the prior melting.

small pool of water within the raised garden, some snow showing along the edges.


And the pool within the raised garden was, well... still a pool.  Basically, even though it was still snowing, the temperature was high enough that nothing was re-freezing... yet.

This was a good thing.

I looked out at the driveway

Snowy slush covered driveway


and thought, "Eh.  That's not so bad.  I'll just leave it."

But then I realized that the last time I ignored slushy snow in the driveway due to being such a thin layer,  the thin layer froze, causing ice.  More snow and melting occurred, culminating in a huge, nasty, and thick slab of ice that covered every inch of paved surface on the property.

Thick layer of ice in the sidewalk that was chiseled away.

That sucked.

A lot.

So I went out and shoveled the negligible amount of slushy snow from the driveway before it had a chance to turn into another homemade ice rink.

Hooray! 
I learned!!!

I also learned that the weather here in South Central Minnesota may be vastly different from my former desert home, but both areas share one similarity:

They have equally crazy weather changes.

Who knew, right?!





2 comments:

  1. and you didn't slip and bump your head this time either! HOORAY!! :)

    ReplyDelete