During these strange days, you can make use of this surreal “slowed down” time to take in everything around you, things that you might otherwise miss in a world operating at “normal speed.” One fun exercise that is wonderful to do with kids of all ages is for everyone to be outside, while being completely still and silent for a full 30 seconds (it will feel like an eternity). During this half-minute, count and mentally catalog, how many different sounds you hear. Afterwards, it’s fun to compare notes.
Another family-friendly activity is to simply notice things, and then try to reason out why they happened.
For example, I recently noticed a twig that was sunk a good 3 inches into the snowpack. It happened because the twig was dark and absorbed the sun’s heat, melting the surrounding snow and ice, allowing it to sink down into the snow.
On another note, if these days are making you anxious, a good stress-reliever is, when taking a walk, to stop once in a while and deeply listen. This deep listening can be most helpful to bring down anxiety, as it serves to slow the mind down.
A natural way to force a mind-shift, even if only for a moment, is, when a bird flies by, to see how far you can follow it with your eyes. You’ll be amazed, when you focus on one, how fast they are.
Let’s shift gears to talk about snow, specifically, how much is on the ground. Even more specifically, how much water is locked up in that snow on the ground. At this writing, the NWS had measured a general 9 to 12 inches of water in the snowpack in Aroostook County. The important thing to know is that major river flooding in snowmelt season does not happen from snowmelt alone. It’s an “ill-timed”, region-wide rainstorm, such as happened in April of 2008, that can push things past the tipping point. April 30 of 2008 saw a record flood crest on the St. John River, as measured in Fort Kent.
Ice jam flooding is another threat we have to contend with each season. As the tremendous amount of river ice starts to break up and move, it sometimes gets hung up, blocking the normal river channel for hours or sometimes even days. The water keeps backing up, flooding areas behind the jam, until the pressure of the water bursts the jam, at which point it becomes a “look out below” situation, as all of that ice and water comes roaring down the river channel.
And if you think ice jam releases can’t happen on small mountain streams, enter this URL into your browser. Have the sound up.
Other than keeping a vigilant eye on our rivers, things certainly begin to feel more pleasant in April. For one, the sun’s strength, in terms of its ability to melt (and to give early-season sunburn to the unsuspecting) will continue to increase, as the sun gets higher in the sky. The month begins with an average high of 40, but ends with an average high of 56 (these figures are both for Caribou, and are both based on 30-year climatological averages). However, before you get too hopeful about spring, Caribou does average 7.4 inches of snow in April.
And how about this — in all of the years of record-keeping at Caribou, and they’ve been keeping them since 1939, there have only been six midnight-to-midnight snow accumulations of 20 inches or greater, and number three on that list is the 21.1 inches which blanketed Caribou on April 7, 1982. You want later? I’ve got later. Accumulating snow fell through the morning hours of May 16, 2016, just thirty-four days before the summer solstice. By the time it was over, one resident out on the Marston Road in Presque Isle sent me a tape-measure photo from his driveway of eight inches, right on the nose.
I just had another idea for younger kids, while they are learning from home. Have a “sky field trip.” Take them outside to look at the clouds, and have them describe what the shapes remind them of. It will be a nice break from indoor lessons, and an excellent way for them to work on their powers of observation.
Ted Shapiro holds the Broadcast Seal of Approval from both the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. An Alexandria, Virgina native, he has been chief meteorologist at WAGM-TV since 2006. Email him at tshapiro@wagmtv.com.
