A Winter to Remember
Feb/05/10 10:49 PM
Here on the Crystal Coast, we have managed to get our temperatures up to 63F at 11PM on Friday night. Just three hours inland from us, the temperatures have stayed in the thirties all day.
Many areas of western North Carolina and Virginia saw snow, sleet, and freezing rain this morning, We got by with just a gloomy day until the rain started this afternoon. I figured we were in for some nasty weather since our pelican and big blue heron were hanging out in the water in Bluewater Cove this morning.
Tonight it has rained as hard as I have ever heard it. We truly do not need any more rain for a while.
The only good that we might get out of this storm is the all that warm rain might help to moderate the water temperatures. Of course the White Oak River will have such a shot of fresh water that all the salt water fish will head offshore anyway.
I had a mission when I was driving around Wednesday taking pictures. That night I was scheduled to present to the men of the church at the Cape Carteret Presbyterian Church. I was tagging the pictures with geographic information so that when they were posted on the web, they would also show up on a map and be a very good introduction to geo-tagging. The online album that I created has some interesting photographs of the area if you are thinking about visiting in the summer or retiring to Crystal Coast.
Blue sky pictures like I took on Wednesday help me get through the winter when the weather turns cold or wet. This winter has turned out to really be a winter to remember. While we have seen colder than normal temperatures and more ice on the quiet waters than normal, the massive amount of rain is quickly becoming the real problem. We had a very wet fall, and now we are receiving one soaking after another during the winter. I think the farmers are already behind schedule in preparing their fields. I doubt anyone will be working the land for a long time after tonight's rains.
Days when you could enjoy some time on the beach have been harder to find this winter. Still I am thankful that we are not in the snow belt which seems to have dropped south a few hundred miles this winter. Tonight's Snowmaggedon in Washington, DC might break their all time record for a snow storm.
Both DC and the New Jersey coast are under a blizzard warning. Even the Canadian side of me is not very interested in joining friends battling this storm.
I just heard on Twitter that Interstate 66 in Virginia has been closed tonight. There was also a mud slide in the Maggie Valley this evening that damaged or destroyed a number of homes. With all that happening, I feel fortunate to have grabbed some blue sky this week. Our sheltered location in Bluewater Cove has been a good place for us, the pelicans, and the herons to winter.
We will dry out long before Washington manages to shovel itself out. It will not be long before the power of the February Carolina sun makes itself felt. Only then will we be able to start forgetting this winter to remember.