Once the Iditarod is over we know spring is WELL on its way. How can we tell? It’s generally faith in the nature of things because you won’t be able to tell by the weather.
It was JUST “spring break” this week and we had a 2-day windstorm with drifting snow and 40 mile an hour north winds. And then less than five days later we had 4 inches of fresh snow. And then a southeast wind storm blew in for a refreshing change. This does not scream Spring!
Looking around you wouldn’t know it either. Nothing really looks different when “spring” starts. But there are clues.
Such as the snow in the yard being kind of pitted on top, looking like a “golf ball” as one of my kids said once.
It could be the steady drip drip drip on warm days that gives it away, even if it refreezes at night. You might not even see it, it might just be a background sound that you can’t quite put your finger but it IS there.
The road graders give it away too. They work long days to grade the snow berms on the sides of the road and push them back in on themselves so they melt but not onto the roads.
Chickadees are hot on the trail of spring and you can them making their telltale peep peep peep mating call as the days get longer. If you hear that it’s either spring OR unseasonably warm in the dead of winter.
The carpet in your car might give it away too, the way it goes through melt and freeze again and again, and that aroma it gets. When that happens you know you need to pull your mats and let the heater run in the car to dry the carpets out.
Or your kids lost their mittens and you give them two different mittens to get them through because you just can’t even buy one more set. And if they’re anything like my kids, their boots are soaked through and through and have a certain stank to them but you’re not giving in and replacing them just yet because you know spring is just around the corner. Hopefully, anyway.
There are so many small intrinsic ways to know spring is coming without the snow actually melting that it’s easy to skip one that is so very Alaskan, the Nenana Ice Classic Cans on the counters of all your favorite stores.
For 106 years the ice on the Tanana River has been monitored to see when it breaks up. First by railroad engineers in 1917, most probably as a way to have a little fun waiting for the river to break up. I don’t know if you can tell but the winters in Alaska can be very long. VERY LONG. And we will do what we can to get through even if it involves guessing when the river will melt.
And all these years later it’s the Nenana Ice Classic. You can buy a guess for 3 bucks in your local stores. Write your name, and address, and specify days and times you think the river will break up and in the can it goes.
A large tripod sits on the Tanana River in the same spot every year. Once the river starts flowing and the tripod drifts downstream a clock is triggered. That’s the day and time the river went out. All the guesses are combed through and the winners, and yes there are always multiple winners because you can win based on days, or times, are notified.
In 2022 the prize totaled over $242,000! And was split between 18 winners.
How does spring come to your area? All at once? Maybe never, in the case of warm weather readers in which case we don’t really want to know. Or does it stealthily sneak in on the songs of chickadees, the grind of a grader, and the flow of a river?