I have a question for you. Tell me what you think.

A couple of people who have been reading the blog have asked how all the snow we got so early this year will impact the ice depth on the pond.

I suppose they are trying to calculate whether the ice is likely to go out sooner - or later - than usual because of all the snow.

A couple of things I'll throw into the mix: We had pretty cold temperatures earlier than last year, but about on schedule for other years - so I'm thinking it could go either way. Then there is the snow depth - it could insulate the ice so it won't freeze as deeply this year as some years when we haven't had much snow cover.

Soooooo - since we've got lots of weather ahead, and it could continue to dump snow on us daily, or we could have a really big "January thaw" that would dump lots of warmish water into the pond from runoff on the hillsides. Then again, March is usually a big snow month and sometimes pretty darned cold, too. If you look at the dates we've recorded throughout the history of the Ice-Out Contest, it's hard to find a pattern. So for this year, my guess is it's anybody's guess. That's what makes the Ice-Out Contest so much fun!!

I'm sure some weather-gurus or scientist types may be able to make clearer assumptions, so I hope we hear from them.