June Is Doing Its Job

Forecast for today? High of 47 and solid rain. Cold and wet, just like June is supposed to be here.

The first half of June was drier than usual, but this week is making up for it. While the sunny days are so pleasant, too much sunshine in June makes people around here nervous about the coming fire season. Smoky days in August can be miserable.

Steve and I attended a talk by Bob Keane, a longtime Forest Service scientist, earlier this year on what kinds of changes the forests are likely to see due to climate change. He showed a picture from the 1930s of a boat on Flathead Lake shrouded in a haze of smoke. Smoky summers used to be normal, but fire suppression efforts in recent decades have changed that. As the climate warms, Keane said we can just expect smoky conditions every summer. Ugh, that is an effect of local climate change that I hadn’t thought of.

Evening Sky

8:00 am temp: 46
Yesterday: 61/46
Normal: 72/45

A bonus to the storms that move through in June are the lighting effects the clouds can create in the evening. On this recent evening there was also a double rainbow.

Sad Sight

8:00 am temp: 14
Yesterday: 32/17
Normal: 29/14

Corn spilled along the train tracks

This morning I saw a young doe get hit by the train. It was the Amtrak train that hit her, but she was on the tracks feeding on corn spilled from a freight train.

We went down and dragged her body off the tracks and called the food bank to see if they could come harvest the meat.

Rest in peace girl, you just didn’t understand about trains.

Fresh Ice

8:00 am temp: 12
Yesterday: 11/3
Normal: 30/17

Ice has started forming along the edges of the lake.

Looking out toward the street this morning.

The ice grows mostly at night. It started three days ago, and each day it extends farther out into the lake. Already more of the lake is covered with ice than at any point last winter.

It warmed up to 12 at our house yesterday, so Tess and I resumed our mid-day walks. A couple weeks ago that would have seemed cold.

This morning we woke up to 7 or 8 inches of fluffy snow and big flakes coming down.

River Skate

8:00 am temp: 6
Yesterday: 8/-14
Normal: 31/17

Well, I didn’t hibernate yesterday after all. The sun came out and we were lured outside to try skating on the Whitefish River.

There was good, thick ice on the river. Steve chopped a couple holes with his hatchet and at about 4 inches down there was still no sign of water. The surface was pretty good, slightly bumpy, and there was a thin layer of snow on top.

We skated for miles, the only ones on the river, except for…the person who had planted the idea, Don Scharfe, and his wife. I forgot my camera, so above is a video Steve shot.

I enjoyed the changing views and the quiet of cruising down the river. There’s snow in the forecast, which may mean the end of ice skating, but there could be some good skiing on the river ahead this winter.

Winter Gray

8:00 am temp: 30
Yesterday: 29/26
Normal: 20/27

Just a typical winter day at State Park. Tess and I decided to forego the swimming.

There was a fine, light snow falling today. More in the forecast the next few days, along with a cold front. Calling for a low of -3 Fahrenheit Wednesday. Last year we didn’t have any subzero weather.

We’re headed to the town of Hot Springs, where even if we don’t see the sun we can sit outdoors and soak in hot mineral water. It’s a good winter coping technique.

Skating the Wild

8:00 AM temp: 14
Yesterday: 33/11
Normal: 35/22

Avalanche Lake

We put the ice skates in the pack and strapped the snowshoes to the outside of the pack and went on a winter outing to Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park this weekend. Predictably we did not need the snowshoes as enough people had walked the trail to pack down the snow – but, hey, we were hopeful.

Frost pattern on the ice

Fortunately we were luckier with the ice conditions. We’ve only had about a week of consistently cold weather, but the ice was 3-4 inches thick and deliciously smooth for gliding along while looking up at the light on the peaks above us. It was darn cold up there, probably in the high teens. Hoar frost had formed in beautiful patterns on the ice, logs, and on top of the snow.

Icy creek

Still waters

8:00 AM temp: 31
Yesterday: 50/29
Normal: 47/27

Mountain reflection

Yesterday evening we walked down by the lake after a rainy afternoon. Water had pooled on top of the small amount of ice that is left, creating a still surface for reflections.

It wasn’t so still along the edge of the ice, however. There the waves were causing the ice to fracture and were pushing smaller pieces of ice on top of the larger slabs. You could hear a tinkling sound, like ice cubes in a glass, as the waves jostled the ice fragments against each other.

Ice breakup

The mountain

8:00 AM temp: 30
Yesterday: 44/16
Normal: 47/26

A February morning on the mountain

Despite the mild winter, the local ski hill has had a pretty good snow year. As of today, Whitefish Mountain Resort, formerly known as The Big Mountain, has a snowpack of 112 inches (285 cm) at the summit (elevation 6817 ft or 2078 m), and 30 inches (77 cm) at the village area (elevation 4464 ft or 1361 m). That’s a little less at the bottom of the hill than in recent years, but very respectable at the summit.

Most of the lifts and ski runs are on south-facing slopes, which may make the area particularly vulnerable to warming temperatures in coming years. Fingers crossed that we have many more winters of skiing there.

Receding ice

8:00 AM temp: 45
Yesterday: 54/30
Normal: 45/25

For Tess it’s swimming season again. For the rest of us…well, we’ll wait.

The ice by City Beach shrank noticeably the past couple days, but hasn’t broken up yet. Usually the Whitefish Lake Institute has a fundraiser where they suspend a large rock above the ice and people guess which day in the spring the ice will melt enough that the rock falls into the water. Typically that day is in April, but that part of the lake never froze this year.