The Groundhog was Wrong

I'm virtually certain that Punxsutawney Phil and Wiarton Willie, the weather prognosticating Groundhogs in Pennsylvania and Ontario, did NOT see their shadows back on Groundhog Day in early February.  That's supposed to mean that winter will come to a quick end.  The alternative, had they seen their shadow, would have been six more weeks of winter.

Well, we had really mild weather through the last half of February, and the snow was going quickly.  Then, here we are, almost exactly a month after Groundhog Day, I woke up to this out at the cottage in Nordegg...!

Now we have to hope that the other spring weather prediction proves correct and saves us.  March comes in like a Lamb and goes out like a Lion... or vice versa.  We've had the lion part, so bring on the lamb....!

For the past week or so we have been seeing high temperatures up to as much as +12C.  On March 3rd I woke up to about 4 to 5 inches of fresh snow.  Fortunately it was not really cold... only about -2.  I suppose that on the plus side, this will be good for the forest fire situation.  Fire season officially gets underway in Alberta on March 1st, and crews are preparing for what might happen.  A few days ago, an old fire from last year, was whipped back to life by some strong winds.  It must have burned down into the ground and been relatively dormant through the winter.  This fire was located about 30km south of Nordegg.  I imagine that it has probably been doused now...!?

If you look really closely at this photograph of my back yard you can see a raven up in the trees.  There is also a deer, right near the center of the image, behind a small spruce.  Shortly after I took this snapshot we had nine White Tail Deer running around out in the snow.  Four were now antlerless bucks, two were Doe's and three were yearling fawns.  In another two or three months those fawns will be chased away and the Doe's will be dropping this year's fawns.