March 27, 2012

Last week saw historic weather records being shattered all over the North Country. After what seemed an incredibly short winter for our region, it was suddenly summer! Temperatures ranged from the 60's all the way to 80 degrees in the middle of March. Every day the sky seemed more blue than the last and every night we heard the weather forecasters report new temperature records broken by huge margins.

St. Paddy's Day w'face
Revelers on St. Paddy's Day at Whiteface - 75 degrees!

While we were all really loving the summer temperatures, the early summer weather caused most of the meager amount of snow we did get this winter to melt and ski areas closed much earlier than normal. The funny thing about it was that I didn't hear any visitors complaining about the weather. It was kind of strange. Most of the visitors to Lake Placid this time of year are here for Spring skiing or hockey. Of course the hockey events are unaffected by weather as they are all held indoors on one of our 3 ice sheets. Many of the comments I heard were a positive spin on how the visitors would adapt to the unexpected warmth. "We'll just go hiking" I overheard one visitor exclaim gleefully. At this time of year hiking is usually pretty difficult due to muddy trails and still very deep snow in the mountains. Last Saturday I counted dozens of cars parked at the Pitchoff and Cascade mountains trailheads. It's unheard of this time of year. People seem to be adapting quite nicely to the weather conditions they're handed.

Mergansers and Geese in open water
Spring plumed Canada Geese and Common Mergansers ready for mating

Fishing season is about to launch here in the Adirondacks. In many years the West Branch of the Ausable River is still fairly well filled with ice and waters run very high. Not this year. Ice was minimal during the winter and disappeared altogether in late February. With the low amount of snow pack melting from the mountains the levels in the rivers are also down, allowing anglers easy access to slower moving waters. While regular fishing season doesn't start until April 1, in the "no kill" trophy fishing waters of the Ausable, one can fish any time of year, since fish are not taken. So this year we saw anglers taking to the waters in mid-March during 70 degree weather, believe it or not. Whether the fish were actually biting is unknown, but the guys were out there practicing their casting at any rate.

ML Iceout '12
Ice went out of Mirror Lake on March 22, 2012 - earliest on record.
The locals were out in force walking the Mirror Lake walkway and kids were frolicking in the playgrounds. Some local National Sports Academy students were photographed taking their annual ice-out plunge in Mirror Lake, just after the ice out date became the earliest in history, on March 22, smashing the record set in 1946 by 5 days. Lake Placid ice out soon followed a couple of days later.

Of course, all good things must come to an end and the summer of 2012 turned back to winter again this week. There was snow on the ground yesterday and the temperature on my front porch this morning registered six degrees - yes, six! A bit of a reality check after the two weeks of historic record shattering heat. Summer will return, probably the way it normally does after the big tease. 

St. Paddy's Day w'face
Revelers on St. Paddy's Day at Whiteface - 75 degrees!
Mergansers and Geese in open water
Spring plumed Canada Geese and Common Mergansers ready for mating
ML Iceout '12
Ice went out of Mirror Lake on March 22, 2012 - earliest on record.

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