Well, it was a weird year of winter weather – 2020-2021.

We got a surprise dusting of snow on Halloween – much to the chagrin of the kids collecting candy, — but then stayed pretty much snow-free for the next 12 weeks, and the temperatures were wintery, but not Arctic degrees.

Then, sometime in early or middle January, the snow came.

And came and came.

It didn’t really let up until mid-February: We had several big snows – 4, 6, 11 inches, – but the worst of it was that it just kept coming. Like summer rains in Florida – every day at 3pm it rains for 27 minutes and then the sun comes out – we woke up almost every morning with an inch or two of snow.

For the most part it was light snow, and easy to deal with, but combined with some pretty cold temps, the snow never went away – it just kept accumulating.

The picture shows the snow along the front sidewalk (front step to easement sidewalk) and you can see that it is not mounded or drifting. Almost 16 inches, and that includes a month of settling. The mounds at the end for the driveway made it a challenge to back out – you couldn’t see anything potentially coming.

And then – on February 17th, a couple of ducks landed in our backyard, picking at the seed under the birdfeeder. This isn’t unusual, we often get ducks during migrations (some are locals that often come in the summer). But it was still weird to see them inside the almost snow fort that we had carved out at the base of the feeder.

And then their friends came – some 50+ mallards landing in more than a foot of snow in the backyard, completely covering the base of the feeder with others spread all over the back yard. They didn’t stay too long, but it was a strange sight.

As I write this, we are predicted to hit the mid-60s and I plan to barbecue for the first time this year! While I expect a little more snow (it is March in Chicago….) generally cooler weather for the next few weeks, it feels like we’ve turned the corner on winter. Phew!

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