We are already three weeks into February---and, even more surprising to me, two weeks away from the beginning of daily saving time on March 8th.
John Bates, my reliable news source, talks in his column this past Friday about the warm winter we have been experiencing. And, that column had been written even before this past weekend----with three lovely days of 40-plus temperatures. It felt great, for the first time in many months, to walk outdoors without hat and gloves, and with my jacket unzipped!
John cites these average figures from Minocqua: usually in January, the average high is 20 degrees and the average low is one degree. For January 2020, the numbers were average high temperature of 27.2 degrees, with average low of 14.2 degrees.
Those of us who were at the lake during January certainly noted that we didn't have that common January week of minus 20 to 30 degrees.
But, as we know, it's been cold enough for the snow cover to stick around. John Bates says that by February 17th, last week, three-feet of snow still remained on the ground in northern Vilas County. Over the weekend, though, we could see snow piles compress visibly, and somehow they no longer looked quite so daunting.
February has been remarkably snow-free, although driveways and parking lots still are ice and snow-covered. I guess we will be ready for whatever March throws at us!