Are we about to get absolutely pummeled by snow? I’m not sure about the rest of the state, but down here in the southeast corner, we didn’t have any snow to speak of all last winter. And then the spring was dry as a bone, and that carried into the first half of the summer. At the end of August, everything was brown and dry, looking like all it would take to set the entire state ablaze would be one carelessly flicked cigarette butt. But then the rain came. And it came with all its friends.
I drove the wife up to Torrington for a barrel race last weekend, and it was green. Really green. Not quite the Ireland green we get out here in the spring in a particularly wet year, but it was close. There’s green grass everywhere. The farmers’ fields are finally growing. The prairies are flush with new growth. It’s like the spring just got delayed by a few months.
The same is true up in the high country. It was getting pretty dry up in the forests, and we’ve had more than a few big forest fires because of it. But the rains came late, and a lot of the vegetation that looked like it had decided to give up for the season has come back to life.
So with that late – and impressive – rain we’ve had, is that going to evaporate and build up to some massive snowfalls? Are we going to get our snowpack back on the mountains this winter? Are we going to get snowed out of our later-season hunts? Will we finally get to use the game sleds we didn’t get to use last hunting season, because there wasn’t any snow to drag them on?
I’m hoping we do, even though it might make it more difficult to get to the hills in the first place. But if the forests and the critters that live there get the moisture they need, I’ll take it. I’ll just pack my snowshoes for the elk season.
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