January Thaw

Back in the fifties and sixties when I was growing up right here in what is now often referred to as the Maine highlands it was common to have a "January thaw". My mother always talked about it as a certainty, something that could be expected each year no matter how cold a winter we were having. As I write, a brisk west wind is rapidly pushing this year's first January thaw off to the east.

For the past few weeks winter here in Maine has been brutally cold. My snow blower blew a drive belt two snowstorms back and the cold and wind were so severe I didn't even want to diagnose the problem for fear of freezing my face and fingers. It was so cold I didn't even want to walk the machine downtown to the repair shop. Finally this past Tuesday it was warm enough to attempt a repair. I wound up making a trip to Bangor for a new auger drive belt discovering along the way that the reservoir for the windshield washer in my pickup had frozen to a solid block of green ice, green from the summer wiper fluid which I forgot to change when fall and winter came along. This demonstrates how isolated I am in winter when it's early January before I even think to use my windshield washer. I haven't been out of town much in the past couple of months.

Last Thursday we had the big snowstorm. I managed to shovel maybe a quarter of the driveway but left it at that. At one point I used snowshoes to get to one of my compost piles with some seriously outdated squash and apples, sinking about a foot deep in the crust-free snow that had accumulated since the start of winter. This part of Maine had accumulated an adequate enough amount of snow to please just about any New England snow enthusiast. Then came the forecast for the second half of this week.

The first signs of the thaw came on Tuesday. My Bangor trip began with cloudy skies and gusty winds blowing a light early morning snowfall onto the highway. South of Dover-Foxcroft the sun was out. The road from there to Bangor heads southeast facing pretty much directly into the sun, low on the horizon of course since it is, after all, January, and it was reflecting directly into my eyes from the soaking wet salt-slurry slicked pavement. Fun driving holding one hand in front of my face blocking the glare and driving with the other. Bangor, though, felt like the first day of spring, sunny and warm with snow melting everywhere. I wasn't ten miles from Bangor on my return trip, though, before it was cloudy again with stiff cold gusts of wind blowing powder snow across the road just as it had done on the drive south. The further north I drove the farther from spring it felt.

I was able to get my snow blower back together and after hours of work get my entire driveway cleared again. I was in a rush to get the job done before the thaw, forecast for Thursday and Friday, turned everything to mush. And turn to mush it did, especially Friday. I'm going to say we lost a good half of our snow accumulation between Thursday evening and Saturday morning. It rained and rained and rained.

So now the freeze begins again! Mentally I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the idea that it's still only the second week in January. There are still months of cold weather and snow ahead for us Mainers. January thaws are such a tease!