Back when I was a wee child growing up in Gordon, I was walking across the park to get to elementary school on a chilly December day. We had gotten quite a bit of snow a few days earlier, so I figured it be a little tough going, but hey, I was a kid who liked to walk in the snow! The going was easier than I thought because the snow had crusted over and I could walk right on top of it, or so I thought. About halfway there, my feet started crushing through the hard top down into the foot of snow under it, making for a very difficult rest of the way! I had to find out what caused this hardening of the snow and how to avoid it. What I learned is that after a snowfall, if the temperature gets near or above freezing for a period of time, the top of the snow starts to melt. Once the temperature drops again, it refreezes. By then the once fluffy snow has turned into a liquid and when it refroze, it was much more solid. But why was I able to walk on it for so long before I broke through? Turns out I was walking in an area with not a lot of shade trees so more of the snow had melted and then refroze. The area I broke through had shade and not a lot of crusting had happened!
Weather Last Week
Jan 26: -22/37/0”
Jan 27: 13/42/0”
Jan 28: 7/46/0”
Jan 29: 20/43/0”
Jan 30: 17/35/Trace
Jan 31: 17/52/0.02”
Feb 1: 18/56/0”
Forecast discussion for the week ahead:
A warm front has passed through our area and that is going to drag with it much warmer air that plans on sticking around for a while. We’ll see mainly sunny skies the next several days with a lot of 50s and 60s for highs each day. It’ll be a little breezy most days, as well, with precipitation chances low through the weekend into early next week.