Monday, February 14, 2011

My Town Monday: 6 More Weeks of Winter

Puxatawny Phil predicted an early spring.  Livingston County's own woodchuck (aka groundhog) Woody predicted 6 more weeks of winter.  Now, Woody's record is 9/12 correct so far, so my money is on her.

That said, in Michigan, 6 more weeks of winter WOULD be an early spring.  Sure, the vernal equinox falls March 21st (ish), which is about 6 weeks after February 2nd, but that's hardly the start of spring in the Mitten shaped state.  Not weather wise at any rate.  There is often still snow on the ground and one last snowfall in late March. 












Spring doesn't really start here until mid or late April.  That's when the weather starts to stay above freezing during the day.  And the sun comes out from behind never ending piles of gray clouds.  It feels so good to Michiganders, that winter coats are often prematurely shed in the "warm" weather.  By the end of April, it feels like spring is finally starting.


That's also the start of road construction season...

4 comments:

Clare2e said...

I remember that from Chicago, too, winter and construction season!

We have a local one, Staten Island Chuck, who's also more accurate by % than Phil, and besides, Chuck had the good sense to nip Mayor Bloomberg's finger. Yuck-Ptoohy Tastes like politican!

Travis Erwin said...

We have no groundhogs here, closest thing is prairie dogs.

Reb said...

We have been known to have false spring in March, then again in April, and real spring in May. With the occasional snow storm in June or July, it makes life interesting up here ;)

pattinase (abbott) said...

Lucky enough to miss a month of it I am bringing warm weather back with me this week.