HURTIN' SOME !
Lots To Make Up
we'll see "what if"
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| IS THIS O.K. ?? |
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.. The eternal optimists cry of "it's early," pales in the face of this year's strong La Niña weather pattern. We won't give up yet - BUT - it is looking a bit bleak for the neighborhood river basins... Our head is wrapped around the fish of the neighborhood and that is our focus. Lots of snow means stirring up of the stream bottoms during spring runoff = that's good for the biota and the health of the streams. Lots of snow means good stream flows during the summer = cooler river temperatures and less stress for the fish. Lots of snow means that groundwater is up = better herbage and lower fire potential.
.. Montana has a slew of fair weather fans. They look forward to the snow melt. Most of our neighbors, however, enjoy a good snow year. Skiing is better. Snow sports of all kinds are better: hockey, sledding, biathlon, ice fishing, etc.
.. For just a little while yet we will play the optimist game. We will pretend that it's too early to worry about the snow water content of our snowpack.
.. Statewide we're not where we would like to be. In this chart the colors of YELLOW, GREEN, and BLUE are the best.
.. RED and ORANGE are not so good. We will give it another four or five weeks before we whine. We won't cry until we are hurt.
.. Park attendance is down, park tours are down, skiers and ski races are down. The ukulele festival has been canceled.
..There are fewer foreign license plates in the Hebgen Tailwater region: catching is good and the redd count seems to be high for this time of year.
.. Even church attendance is down. There are restrictions on dark corners in the pubs and fewer giant fish are talked about.
.. Our near term forecast is for very little snow and occasional diurnal temperatures above freezing. As we said = it's early.
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| WALLPAPER: BLACK BEANS, BEAN AND CHEESE BURRITO, MEXICAN RICE |