Premature Snow

The weather report has been talking about a snowy Thursday all week, but I admit to being skeptical. Maybe a few flakes in the air, but surely no more than that.

We haven't had a killing frost yet. The leaves have hardly started to fall off the trees. The hostas are still standing. It's way to early in the season to have snow.

These are snow date statistics (sorry to mention statistics, Dorothy) for Southwest Michigan:

• October 22 - average first fluffy flakes seen in air. We beat the average this year.
  
  
• November 6 - average first measurable snowfall. I'm sure today is measurable, so beat this average by over three weeks.
  
  
• Months with measurable snow: November, December, January, February, March, April. Putting it this way, it's obvious to understand why Michiganders are more than ready for the first warm, spring day.
  
  
• April 10 - average date for the last measurable snow. This is when we take our snowy daffodil pictures. In 1976 we had two feet of snow during spring break.
  
  
• April 18 - average date for last flakes in the air. But we're ignoring them.
  
  
• Elapsed time from the very first flake to the last is 5 months and 28 days.

It's only a tiny wee bit of exaggeration to say SW Michigan has snow six months of the year.

Sunny took one look at the snow this morning and decided to do a quick outing up by the house with Bob.

Pappy, Glory and I went for a walk. They thought the snow was grand - all the better for chasing those pesky rabbits.


Good-by summer.

Good-by bluebirds.

See you next year.