How Was Your Winter?

[paleoman]

#2310

I know it’s not quite over yet, but at least here in Michigan, in the souther lower peninsula, it’s been extremely mild. In fact we’re to reach 70 a day or two this week if we’re lucky (I’d hate to be an orchard owner though – they might be open to a really damaging freeze). I don’t remember a winter as mild than this one.

[Stephen Graf]

#8045

I heat with wood. Normally I go through a little over 2 cords of wood to heat my little cabin. This year, we barely burned a quarter cord.

Garden insect pests didn’t get killed off this year. Looks like the first to show themselves are cutworms eating the roots of early crops like broccoli.

Groundhogs are starting to show their sleepy little noggins already. Looks like it’s about time to start chasing my arch garden nemesis 😀

[Jason Wesbrock]

#8104

It’s been extremely mild here as well. There’s already green grass starting to poke through in my yard, and the trees are starting to bud up. Three hours north on our property in Wisconsin the story is much the same. The last weekend in February last year my daughter and I would have needed snow shoes to get through the the creek valley. Now there’s only an inch or two of snow on the ground in those same spots.

[Troy Breeding]

#8111

Steve Graf wrote: I heat with wood. Normally I go through a little over 2 cords of wood to heat my little cabin. This year, we barely burned a quarter cord.

Garden insect pests didn’t get killed off this year. Looks like the first to show themselves are cutworms eating the roots of early crops like broccoli.

Groundhogs are starting to show their sleepy little noggins already. Looks like it’s about time to start chasing my arch garden nemesis 😀

Hahahahaha!!!! arch garden nemesis!!! Thats a good one!!!:D

Troy

[Ralph]

#8127

Very, very dry and windy here in the Texas Panhandle. Hardly any moisture and what little there was the wind dried it up within hours. Did have drizzly day yesterday but only 0.1″.

[ksbowman]

#8145

Same here in Kansas. It’s been a very mild winter with little snow and just a little rain. Normally it’s so wet and slick I have to carry a bale of hay on back of the tractor to feed most of the winter. This year I’ve had to do this two days. Great for feeding cattle and not stressing them, but a real lack of moisture to grow grass this spring. Like said above it will be a bumper crop for insects since we didn’t have a long cold stretch. There should be alot of ticks and chiggers this year!

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#8166

Seems like it’s been mild just about everywhere (except for those extreme storms in the midwest recently). Here on the Idaho/Wyoming border, we’re at about 95% of normal snowpack, but it’s certainly been a warmer, wetter snowpack than we’re used to. Not many really cold days (as in sub-zero) at all this winter.

Still, after a few winters in a row of huge snowfall, it’s fine with me. And the wildlife are catching a break. I’ve heard we had something like 90% mule deer fawn mortality last winter, due in large part to a huge amount of snowfall that didn’t let up till the end of May.

[new moon]

#8228

If it wasn’t for the short days I may not have noticed that it was winter here in my part of Colorado. That makes two years in a row. I don’t mind that it’s not terribly cold out but sure miss the moisture. Seven out of the last ten years here have been dry, three of them extremely so. Last year was to dry for mosquitos even, I can smile about that.

[SteveMcD]

#8549

Same here in New York State. Think it is going to be a banner year for Ticks. With all the lack of snowfall, if we do not have an exceptionally wet Spring. We will likely be in Drought conditions come early summer.

[Hiram]

#8653

Mild here,,,gonna be a lot of ticks this summer! Matter fact, I have picked them off my dogs all winter.

[bruc]

#8722

Very mild winter in Southwestern Manitoba with a very small amount of snow. Supposed to be a mild week so by mid-week we will likely have very little snow left.

Still ice fishing.:wink: Might be short-lived.

Bruce

[Charles Ek]

#8754

When I see winter this year, I’ll let you know. 😥

We just drove from NH to MN and back this past week. Most snow we saw was the few inches in our front yard when we left. Bare ground in western NY (Syracuse, Buffalo, etc.) Bare ground all the way to MN, where we saw a couple of inches at most.

NH moose permits for the 2012 season will probably be cut to half what they were just a few years ago. The winter ticks have been hammering the moose population during these warm winters. The southern limit of moose range might just slide north across the border during my lifetime.

[pewanogo]

#8829

This is the winter that never was in southern Michigan.Very little snow, ice fishing and predator hunting. Good to give the snow shovel a rest.

[David Coulter]

#9527

The only real snow we had was a preseason dump in October. We could use some precipitation now. Had my first deer tick of the year, although those fellas show up all year long. Would love to have one more good snow to follow some tracks around, just for the fun of it. dwc

[Wexbow]

#9587

Very mild winter here in Ireland with the upshot of being unusually dry – our norm is mild and wet to very wet! We were on the west of a blocking high that hit the rest of Europe really hard – even snowed in Rome!

The last two winters were exceptionally hard with a lot of snow – broke a 60 year record with minus 22C recorded, which is crazy for this little island sitting in the gulf stream.

[mikelee]

#11168

Lots of snow up here in the northern interior of B.C but really mild . snow one day then rain! lots of icy roads . freezing at night and thawing by mid afternoon . Still about two feet of the white stuff in the valley bottoms. Pretty heavy crust some days ,allows the wolves to run on top . Not so good for the deer. But some south facing slopes starting to bare off. Moos are looking good so far . we’ll see how many wind up with ticks later .

[paleoman]

#14216

Cripes we’re going to leaf out here in the next week at this rate. I’m feeling a little ruffled as this just seems weird in my gut?

[lemhiman55]

#14247

Warmer than normal here in central Idaho and didn’t have squat for snow. Hope we get some rain or it’s setting up to be a bad fire year.

[William Warren]

#14340

So mild here I never even got to break out the wool jackets.

My grandad was a farmer and he always disagreed with my assumptions that cold winters equal less pests. He may be right.

Steve G. good luck with those pesky groundhogs.

Steve McD if it will make you feel better you could freeze every tick you find in the freezer…..:D

I prefer the bench vise myself. I don’t have to wait for ’em to freeze and it makes a neat waffle pattern in them…

[wildschwein]

#16721

Extremely mild winter up here in Northern Alberta as well. Only had one -40*C snap this winter and I have noticed that a great deal of last years fawns/calves survived. Should be a phenomenal hunting season in 2012!

Also the Beavers and Gophers are out and about already! Hope to have some pics before long.

[pewanogo]

#29992

Update from southern Mich…….88 degrees last week for three days in arow . Broke all records for the month of March for all time. Today?…….Rain , snow, sleet , hail,freezing rain, thunder, lightening,and low 30’s for temps. Six or seven killed in terrible traffic accidents blammed on the quickly changing weather. Turkeys were strutting, walleyes spawning and the stoutest hatch of black flies and mosquitos seen around here for quite some time. Maybe todays weather will kill some of them off.

[bamboo]

#30341

SteveMcD wrote: Same here in New York State. Think it is going to be a banner year for Ticks. With all the lack of snowfall, if we do not have an exceptionally wet Spring. We will likely be in Drought conditions come early summer.

same up here in shohla steve–and the black flys are getting started

the delaware river is low and the trout steams look like late june

———————-mike

[Troy Breeding]

#30443

Lets just say I’ve already had to mow my lawn three times. The first time I did it my neighbor came over and told me I wasn’t supposed to be mowing grass in early March in OH.

Troy

[Wexbow]

#30776

We’ve just had a week of summer over here. Blue skies, 20C (about 70 in your money), 2nd grass cut, t-shirt wearing weather! Only thing is now we’re back to our usual march weather – overcast with a nice northwesterly and a balmy 8C (that’s about 45F) 🙁 Crazy weather indeed…

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