24 April 2009

Early Signs of Spring




It's kinda-sorta official: spring has made its first, timid appearance in the frozen North (if you don't count the temps in the 40s for the last three weeks which has melted most of the snow).

On Sunday, we saw seagulls in Girdwood - a fairly sure sign, as they tend to really, really dislike snow. On Wednesday, they made it to Anchorage.

Thursday, I saw some buds on the trees in my yard, and it rained. Well, it sprinkled and tried to drizzle, a bit. But it was honest-to-goodness rain that actually made the street wet.

That's the first non-snow precipitation we've had since ... uh ... since early November. I think that's right, but don't quote me.

Having said that, we're having some taku winds. (What? You don't know taku? It's the opposite of chinook. Come on, folks, keep up!)

So spring seems to be, well, springing about four weeks early. It's a big deal for us.

Be blessed!

2 comments:

GUYK said...

Alaska Spring always amazed me..all of a sudden one spring morning the whole area would be green...and more shades of green than an artist could ever mix paint for. Beautiful. And not even a week later the tundra flowers would be in full bloom and within a month or so wild berries were on the vines...and by mid August it was all over until the next May Spring day when it started all over..

Rev. Paul said...

You nailed it: it's "all of a sudden". We'll go a faint green haze on a hillside to lush, semi-tropical growth in 72 hours or less.

At this point we're just waiting for the ground temp to reach a certain point. The long daylight hours take care of the rest.