Snow then, snow now
By Roberta Cannon
As I watch another round of snowflakes cover the already white ground or “snow lawns” that now grace the Northeast and Cape Cod, I thought about the snowstorms that brought so much fun in my childhood. I had a way of knowing if school was going to be canceled the next day just by the sound of the snowplow.
We lived next to a very large field and the wind would send the snow whipping across our road. There was marsh on the opposite side that enhanced the combination of the snow and wind to form huge drifts. At night, if I woke up during the blizzard and heard the snowplow go down the road past the field, there would be school the next day. If the snowplow suddenly lurched and stopped, unable to proceed down the road easily, that was a good indication that there was too much snow and there would be no school the next day.
The day off from school was time to go sledding on whatever was available that would go downhill. My sisters and some of our neighborhood friends had wooden sleds or metal discs called flying saucers. Sometimes there was a shortage of sleds or flying saucers so we would resort to using a metal garbage can cover with the handle pounded flat, as long as it worked to get us down the hill.
In the back part of the field next to our house was a small sandpit and when there was enough snow to provide a good base, we could slide down the hill over the sand. Another favorite spot was a neighbor’s side yard. The only drawback was the split-rail fence to the left of the bottom of the hill. If one veered off course for any reason that could be a major obstruction and do a lot of damage to both sled and rider. I actually watched one of my sisters lose her direction one day. We all yelled for her to get back on the path but she didn’t hear us. Just as she sped toward the split-rail fence, she ducked at the last minute and soared under the bottom rail and landed on the other side of the driveway. We all gave a sigh of relief and celebrated her accomplishment.
There were the usual snowball fights from our established snow forts erected to hold off even the most formidable enemy. Snowman creations were pretty basic with buttons for eyes, a scarf, a carrot nose, stones to dot the outline of a mouth and large twigs for arms. It seemed we could almost clear an entire front lawn by rolling the three layers of sticky snow to build the required levels of the snowman, a very large snowball for the base, a medium size for the middle and small one for the head. Any hat would do to top the head of a perfect snowman. I haven’t seen that many snowmen this winter although the snow has been rather powdery, which makes it difficult to roll. But I don’t recall that we ever gave up on the opportunity and would use warm water to make the snow soft enough to create whatever form we chose to build.
The number of snowstorms we’ve had this year feel like they must be record-breakers and many lament the fact that they are getting tired of the white stuff and the bitter cold that keeps coming back. But according to past stories from my mother and in The Enterprise, history seems to repeat itself, at least weather-wise.
My mother tells of the many big snowstorms we had years ago that would keep us homebound for a few days. She said that the day she delivered me, which was March 13, there was snow up to the top of the windows of our house. When she went into labor, my dad called the ambulance driver, who was also the police officer in the next town. He drove the hearse/ambulance to our house and he and my father had to shovel a path to get my mother into the ambulance to go to the hospital.
Another March snowstorm in 1956 was the worst blizzard late in the season, according to Wilfrid Wheeler of Ashumet, who was a frequent weather contributor to The Enterprise from 1920 to 1961. He estimated that 10 inches fell on March 16 and 17 and another 15 to 16 inches fell on March 19.
Otis Air Force Base (now Joint Base Cape Cod) got 20 inches on March 19 followed by another snowstorm, which closed down the base. Mr. Wheeler compared this storm with the March blizzard of 1888 that began in the early morning of March 12 and ended in the afternoon of March 14. A total of three feet fell in New England overall. Mr. Wheeler kept many records of precipitation, storms, snow and winds.
Among other blizzards and major storms he recorded, another that stood out occurred in 1952 from February 27 to 28. The snow was generally 14 inches deep but 35 mph northeast winds created up to 17-foot snow drifts.
As weather forecasting has evolved, meteorologists track storms on computers these days and try to decide which model is going to give the best forecast. There were others in the past who relied on research of weather patterns as the basis for their predictions.
In 1960, Captain John J. Owens Jr. was a research forecaster of the 12th weather squadron at Otis Air Force Base. He reported that from January to early April, storms that developed in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Carolinas usually tracked east of Cape Cod. The storms along the eastern seaboard could develop into very intense storms in a matter of four hours, which made it difficult to give ample time for forecasters to give the warnings of heavy snow. Some dropped more than a foot of snow in 24 hours and caused drifts three to six times the usual depth, due to 50 mph winds. He also reported that storms that developed in the interior of the United States usually passed through the Great Lakes and would result in the Cape getting more than two inches.
Now that schools have been closed many days this year due to snow amounts and bitter cold that has frozen melted surfaces, the challenges of transporting students have led to discussions on how to meet the state requirement of school days that must be completed in a school year.
Back in 1961 students were asked by their student council at Lawrence High School to vote on how they would make up missed days due to snowstorms. The Falmouth and Mashpee students voted in an opinion poll to make up lost time during the winter and not in June. Of the 619 students in the high school, 307 voted in favor of giving up two of the three days of February vacation, 294 wanted to keep their vacation and attend school on four Saturdays, and 18 chose to make up lost days in June. Teachers voted as well, the majority requesting two of the makeup days occur during February vacation plus two Saturdays. The advantage to Saturday classes was that the lunch period would be eliminated and the school day would end at 12:30. The school board voted to cancel two days of February vacation and the high school students also went to school on Saturday, March 11 and March 25.
As the daylight hours get longer, the onset of spring is around the corner, and the birds are singing, hope is on the horizon that the snow will soon be gone and the weather will get warmer. Even though the pattern we are in seems to be a snowy one that may continue for a while longer, pretty soon we will be complaining that it is too hot and remembering days when it was cooler. Many say that our weather patterns are all due to global warming and some of that may be true but my guess is that this is one of the many cycles of Mother Nature repeating her right to provide whatever weather deemed necessary.
So I recommend a sleigh ride, snowshoeing, cross country skiing or plain old snowball fights to pass the time and who knows—maybe the fun in winter may begin to creep back in and bring out the kid in all of us even if only for a few brief moments outside.
Originally published by The Mashpee Enterprise- Mar 2, 2015
We lived next to a very large field and the wind would send the snow whipping across our road. There was marsh on the opposite side that enhanced the combination of the snow and wind to form huge drifts. At night, if I woke up during the blizzard and heard the snowplow go down the road past the field, there would be school the next day. If the snowplow suddenly lurched and stopped, unable to proceed down the road easily, that was a good indication that there was too much snow and there would be no school the next day.
The day off from school was time to go sledding on whatever was available that would go downhill. My sisters and some of our neighborhood friends had wooden sleds or metal discs called flying saucers. Sometimes there was a shortage of sleds or flying saucers so we would resort to using a metal garbage can cover with the handle pounded flat, as long as it worked to get us down the hill.
In the back part of the field next to our house was a small sandpit and when there was enough snow to provide a good base, we could slide down the hill over the sand. Another favorite spot was a neighbor’s side yard. The only drawback was the split-rail fence to the left of the bottom of the hill. If one veered off course for any reason that could be a major obstruction and do a lot of damage to both sled and rider. I actually watched one of my sisters lose her direction one day. We all yelled for her to get back on the path but she didn’t hear us. Just as she sped toward the split-rail fence, she ducked at the last minute and soared under the bottom rail and landed on the other side of the driveway. We all gave a sigh of relief and celebrated her accomplishment.
There were the usual snowball fights from our established snow forts erected to hold off even the most formidable enemy. Snowman creations were pretty basic with buttons for eyes, a scarf, a carrot nose, stones to dot the outline of a mouth and large twigs for arms. It seemed we could almost clear an entire front lawn by rolling the three layers of sticky snow to build the required levels of the snowman, a very large snowball for the base, a medium size for the middle and small one for the head. Any hat would do to top the head of a perfect snowman. I haven’t seen that many snowmen this winter although the snow has been rather powdery, which makes it difficult to roll. But I don’t recall that we ever gave up on the opportunity and would use warm water to make the snow soft enough to create whatever form we chose to build.
The number of snowstorms we’ve had this year feel like they must be record-breakers and many lament the fact that they are getting tired of the white stuff and the bitter cold that keeps coming back. But according to past stories from my mother and in The Enterprise, history seems to repeat itself, at least weather-wise.
My mother tells of the many big snowstorms we had years ago that would keep us homebound for a few days. She said that the day she delivered me, which was March 13, there was snow up to the top of the windows of our house. When she went into labor, my dad called the ambulance driver, who was also the police officer in the next town. He drove the hearse/ambulance to our house and he and my father had to shovel a path to get my mother into the ambulance to go to the hospital.
Another March snowstorm in 1956 was the worst blizzard late in the season, according to Wilfrid Wheeler of Ashumet, who was a frequent weather contributor to The Enterprise from 1920 to 1961. He estimated that 10 inches fell on March 16 and 17 and another 15 to 16 inches fell on March 19.
Otis Air Force Base (now Joint Base Cape Cod) got 20 inches on March 19 followed by another snowstorm, which closed down the base. Mr. Wheeler compared this storm with the March blizzard of 1888 that began in the early morning of March 12 and ended in the afternoon of March 14. A total of three feet fell in New England overall. Mr. Wheeler kept many records of precipitation, storms, snow and winds.
Among other blizzards and major storms he recorded, another that stood out occurred in 1952 from February 27 to 28. The snow was generally 14 inches deep but 35 mph northeast winds created up to 17-foot snow drifts.
As weather forecasting has evolved, meteorologists track storms on computers these days and try to decide which model is going to give the best forecast. There were others in the past who relied on research of weather patterns as the basis for their predictions.
In 1960, Captain John J. Owens Jr. was a research forecaster of the 12th weather squadron at Otis Air Force Base. He reported that from January to early April, storms that developed in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Carolinas usually tracked east of Cape Cod. The storms along the eastern seaboard could develop into very intense storms in a matter of four hours, which made it difficult to give ample time for forecasters to give the warnings of heavy snow. Some dropped more than a foot of snow in 24 hours and caused drifts three to six times the usual depth, due to 50 mph winds. He also reported that storms that developed in the interior of the United States usually passed through the Great Lakes and would result in the Cape getting more than two inches.
Now that schools have been closed many days this year due to snow amounts and bitter cold that has frozen melted surfaces, the challenges of transporting students have led to discussions on how to meet the state requirement of school days that must be completed in a school year.
Back in 1961 students were asked by their student council at Lawrence High School to vote on how they would make up missed days due to snowstorms. The Falmouth and Mashpee students voted in an opinion poll to make up lost time during the winter and not in June. Of the 619 students in the high school, 307 voted in favor of giving up two of the three days of February vacation, 294 wanted to keep their vacation and attend school on four Saturdays, and 18 chose to make up lost days in June. Teachers voted as well, the majority requesting two of the makeup days occur during February vacation plus two Saturdays. The advantage to Saturday classes was that the lunch period would be eliminated and the school day would end at 12:30. The school board voted to cancel two days of February vacation and the high school students also went to school on Saturday, March 11 and March 25.
As the daylight hours get longer, the onset of spring is around the corner, and the birds are singing, hope is on the horizon that the snow will soon be gone and the weather will get warmer. Even though the pattern we are in seems to be a snowy one that may continue for a while longer, pretty soon we will be complaining that it is too hot and remembering days when it was cooler. Many say that our weather patterns are all due to global warming and some of that may be true but my guess is that this is one of the many cycles of Mother Nature repeating her right to provide whatever weather deemed necessary.
So I recommend a sleigh ride, snowshoeing, cross country skiing or plain old snowball fights to pass the time and who knows—maybe the fun in winter may begin to creep back in and bring out the kid in all of us even if only for a few brief moments outside.
Originally published by The Mashpee Enterprise- Mar 2, 2015