Post card from Siberia

Winter does not want to let go.  This is a picture from February 9th.  And we have not had the heavy snow month of March yet.

It is a huge pile of snow, about 16 feet tall.  It is part of a range of snow mountains surrounding the hospital parking lot. Its where the snow plows dump the darned stuff.  I call it "Mount Despair" and have started a pool trying to guess when the last icey remnants will finally melt away.  One pick is out into June.

We are in an area with a lot of winter recreation, so not everyone is unhappy about this.  Local merchants see green, not white.  Heck, I bet they have some secret cloud seeding machinery hidden away somewhere.

But the horrid amount of snow coupled with what looks to be a pending record for sub-zero days has gotten most of us feeling rather glum.

I mean....what if we got an extra cold spring and cool summer?  Is there any chance at all of some chunk of slushy ice actually making it all the way to next winter?  Go ahead and laugh, but I can hear the slight tinge of crazy in that chuckle.  This is how Ice Ages begin.

I guess some good has come of all this.  We are being told that several invasive insect species that have been damaging trees just can't take this sort of abuse and will likely retreat for a few years.

But the darned thing about climate change is that it is "always something".

There have been some semi serious discussions about cloning Woolly Mammoths using tissue found in specimens unearthed in Siberia.  It sounds challenging but perhaps possible if anyone wanted to put the money and effort into it.  Which is another way of asking "who really needs a woolly mammoth"?

Oh, I can just imagine the glee of our local Chamber of Commerce if they could announce THAT as a new tourist attraction.  And heck, if it goes well establish a breeding population and lobby for a hunting season!

Sure, we get rid of the Emerald Ash Borers and Pine Beetles and get a new invasive species...