Finally a early winter......

Finally a early winter...........

The last few winters have been late winters. Last year, the elk were in the meadow on February 9th, and then it was followed by a epic dump over a period of two weeks.

This year the snows started before Thanksgiving.  But they gave no clue about December.  We got a good snow in December and that was followed by rain. This settled the snow pack and provided a firm base.  A couple of inches of powder snow on top of the base made for perfect snowshoeing and skiing.

And then it started snowing and snowing and snowing.

Now we are pretty close to our normal maximum snow depth of four feet which normally occurs at the end of January. After the rain it has all been cold, powder snow. This pattern of early, heavy snow is pretty typical for a El Nino year. In the past, the large storms do not make their appearance in January and February like in a "normal" year. However, a good base develops and the small storms do put a nice cover of powder snow on the base.

Not sure what the winter will bring this year. It will be interesting to see if the El Nino pattern holds.