The scurs were right about the temperatures rebounding on Monday. They just weren’t aware that it would take the ball all the way to the hoop for a slam dunk. Will our January temps and relatively sparse precip last into February? Starting Wednesday and Thursday (Groundhog Day), partly cloudy with a high near 40 and a low around 25. Mostly cloudy on Friday with a slight chance of snow and/or rain. Highs of 35 and lows around 20. Partly cloudy on Saturday with a slight chance of snow. Highs again near 35 and lows of 20. Sunday partly cloudy with highs near 35 and lows of 20 – 25. Mostly sunny both Monday and Tuesday with highs of 30 – 35. Lows Monday night near 20 and cooling to 10 – 15 on Tuesday night. The normal high for February 2nd is 24 and the normal low is 5. On the 5th we will be back over 10 hours of daylight for the first time since early November. The scurs will not see their shadow on the 2nd meaning six more weeks of winter just like normal.
The Full Moon for the month falls on the 7th and generally goes by the Full Snow Moon. It was also called the Full Hunger Moon by the tribes of the northeast as the deep snow made hunting difficult. The Ojibwe knew this as the Full Sucker Moon as the suckers would be running. The Sioux called this the Raccoon Moon as frequently the raccoons would awaken from their slumber to forage for food during a February thaw. This also coincides with the little fat buddies beginning to forage for goodies after all the Christmas goodies have finally been consumed.
Other happenings in the February evening sky continue to include the nightly show by Venus and Jupiter. Venus continues to stay out a little longer each night and the moon’s recent conjunctions with Jupiter have been beautiful. The distance in the sky between the two planets will become less as the month wears on. Mars is becoming bigger and brighter with each passing night as earth catches up to its orbit. Mars will rise about three hours after sunset in the east on the 1st and by the end of the month, it will appear just after sunset. Saturn is rising just after midnight and by the end of the month, it will rise about 10 p.m. With clear nights predicted it should be a good time for viewing other members of our solar system. The sky will be crowded with all the planetary activity.
We continued back on our lower than normal precipitation track in January after being close to normal in December. At the ranch we’ve tallied .71” of liquid precip for January and roughly 7.7” of snow. Interestingly enough, last January we only generated about 3.5” of snow. The difference was it stayed cold and blew it around every other day. Compare that to the 30-year normal at the SROC from 1971 – 2000 of 1.39” and 13.1” of snow. What does February look like? So far NOAA’s predictions are for better than even odds of continued above normal temperatures and even odds of above or below normal precipitation. We continue to be classified in a severe drought, one that as of January 19th is predicted to persist through the end of April. That could change however if La Niña decides to disappear prior to planting season. Only time will tell.
A big “thank you” should go out to all those who bought snow blowers and other snow removal equipment this winter. We all owe you. A good percentage of the moisture we have had has likely gone into the ground. While we have lost some to evaporation, the thawing and refreezing has created some room for the snow melt. Along with that, there simply hasn’t been enough moisture for runoff to occur. Streams are not increasing in flow and wetlands are showing no sign of being recharged. The wetting followed by freezing and thawing we have seen should also help break down some of the large clods resulting from last fall’s tillage operations. One negative to all the warm weather has been the short stay on the ice for many of the permanent fish houses. Monday’s warm temps brought a mass exodus from area lakes. Not only can the ice become shaky with water on the ice swirling around the houses, the accesses can become rutted and not easily traversed. Time to get ‘em off while the getting’s good.
We did actually have some colder weather and snow on the ground this past week for a while, bringing more activity back to the birdfeeders. However, at the ranch we had a sharp-shinned hawk hanging around for a few days. That seemed to dampen the enthusiasm of the smaller feathered friends. Still, there were a half-dozen goldfinches, two white-breasted nuthatches, four of the leghorn-sized blue jays, some downies and hairies as well as a return visit from a couple chickadees. They seemed absolutely delighted by the smorgasbord of sunflower seed, thistle seed and suet, bringing a smile to my face while observing their antics.
Ruby spent much of the past weekend watching out the window for her squirrel. Just before I was ready to go to town for more tax paperwork work, she began growling loudly and frantically scratching at the sliding glass door to go out. At first glance there was no squirrel out there. Upon closer observation, there was no squirrel evident but suddenly there was a squirrel tail waving fanatically from the tree trunk in an attempt to taunt the little Border Collie. After Ruby made a quick trip out the front door, the squirrel beat it back up into the branches, thankful that small, lightning quick red and white dogs can’t climb trees.
See you next week…real good then.