50 Degrees At One O’Clock AM In January Upstate New York
I am quite happy to save money on my heating bill, and not to wake up with a cold dash to the closet for an extra robe. I don’t miss the chapped lips and parched feet. I like to see the rich green of my lawn without having to mow it. I’ve got extra time to weed out the garlic mustard seedlings that next year would go to seed from my woods, because they yet died back. The phlox ought to be very lush after at least half a winter’s extra light to store up in its roots.
Nonetheless, when it is 1:25 in the morning on January 5, and the temperature outside is 50 degrees, I am unnerved. I look at the radar maps, and see rain, not snow, and it’s coming from the southwest. I haven’t yet shoveled my driveway, and though I rarely look forward to that work, it doesn’t feel right to miss it.
I see that the the Trumansburg Golf Club has been open April through November. I wonder if they are considering extending the season for a couple weeks.
Only a month now until the groundhog looks for his shadow.
[...] I was born and grew up in Central and Western New York, and I don’t remember such long stretches of balmy winter weather when I was a kid. This year, we didn’t even get a frost until almost November, and though we’ve had some very nippy days, the winter has been mild on the whole so far, like last year’s. [...]