Cascading Waters can be found at 135 Olean Street on the eastern edge of Worcester's northwest parklands, the Cascades. The Cascades are 350 acres of park and conservation lands along the borders of Worcester, Paxton, and Holden, Massachusetts. Home to countless species of plants and animals, the Cascades are open to passive recreation year-round.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Bare ground one day means..... Snow the next!

It is presently snowing out at Cascading Waters.
This likely means that we are about to have the wettest February on record, ever!
This is the sort of record that is fun to make and break.

[As an aside, no one is particularly sure what the local ramifications will be for global climate change.
There are guesses with computer models to back them up.
Personally I saw a far out one once a few years back that included both the jet stream and the ocean currents changing their circulation patterns pretty dramatically, and failing to mix as much with more equatorial and warmer areas. It had a NORTH AMERICAN ICE AGE REDUX!
Naturally I was very much enamored of such wildness.
Odds on this are practically 0, but I am still holding out hope.

By contrast the Union for Concerned Scientists did a much more probable scenario for the northeast. It involves more rainfall overall, more local flooding generally, more incidence of hurricanes specifically, and an overall temperature more in line with Virginia entering into Massachusetts future.
I prefer this option over desertification in New England.

So as I watch the snows fall and watch another weather record fall (rainfall) in a series of years that set records (high temperatures) I wonder if we are dipping our toes into the future here.]

Conditions:
The hiking is pretty nice with the snow falling.
Careful of underlying ice and consider using poles, staff, or a stick for extra stability.
Good traction boots are in order.

The brook is running, as are the falls, though gently compared to last Sunday and Monday.

As of 9:45 am it is:
22.6 degrees F and steady;
78% humidity and steady;
30.15" of mercury and steady.

Snowfall is over 1/4" and building quickly with a solid blanket over the landscape.

1 comment:

joef said...

Nice rant man, that is the extra sabor we have been craving for on "the lodge..."

See you in the woods.

joef