This latest March storm is over and we have beautiful sunshine today. Fred was out early clearing away the remaining few inches of snow in the three driveways, and I got out there pretty early (for me) in order to get a measurement of total snow on the ground.

I've been putting off going out to do that - it is not an easy task. Actually, I didn't realize just how difficult it would be until I stepped out of our garage and realized I was totally hemmed in by 7 ft. snow banks. I'd strapped on Fred's snowshoes - mine were still stored overhead in the garage and I didn't want to bother getting them out - which are several inches longer than mine, which proved to be cumbersome, to say the least. Here's the think. I have to have tools to do this. The 4 in. diameter tube to take a core sample, a yardstick, a pan to hold the snow sample, a shovel to dig down beside the tube, and a spatula to slip under the mouth of the tube to hold the snow from sliding out.

This is where I made my first try - right at the corner of our garage where the snow isn't piled quite as high. I placed my tools on top of the snow bank and began to dig to make steps so I could climb up the bank. There was a crust, but I knew it wouldn't support me without the snowshoes, so I dug far into the bank. On the first try, the bank gave way and I slid backwards into the driveway. Knowing that wasn't going to work, I looked for the lowest bank surrounding our driveway, and found a spot where Fred had gone before the storm on snowshoes to get to the back of our house. That's the spot - before I attacked it this morning. I packed everything up and headed down the driveway. That took some shoveling, too, but it worked far better than my first try.

Once in the deep snow beyond the driveway, I located a spot that seemed to be fairly level with snow, that is, not a drift and not windswept. Not easy to find such a spot. When I thrust the yard stick into the snow, it didn't hit bottom right away - there are two layers of crust - but once through, I measured at least 40 inches of snow on the ground. I tried a few more spots and got the same measurement.

Next I had to get a sample core. The first cylinder full is always easy. About 14 inches tall, it was easy to shovel a space and slip the spatula under. The next core was not that easy. I was now on my knees (try that on snowshoes!) digging out around the cylinder and wondering how on earth I'd get upright again. I decided I'd estimate what would be in the third cylinder. After all, this snow measuring business is not an exact science - all the weather people tell us that.

Finally, I had my sample snow cores, gathered my tools, and managed to get on my feet again, but not without a struggle and the assistance of the shovel to lean on. Ok. I'm up, standing in 18 inches of loose snow with too big snowshoes that I cannot back up with. Do I proceed in a large circle or try to turn around in place. I opted for turning around, and carefully inched the big shoes around until I could follow my trail back to the driveway. I even made it down over the bank without spilling any of the snow or dropping any of my equipment.

I just hope those CoCoRaHS folks appreciate my effort this morning and use the information, such as it is, to help anticipate runoff and potential spring flooding.
It was really quite nice out there - about 18 degrees at about 8:30 a.m. - and I was happy to have had success. Hopefully, the next time I go out to take those measurements, there won't be quite that much snow to navigate.

These pictures were taken early this morning by Fred when he was out clearing driveways. The top one is Henretta Splain's driveway and garage; below is a car navigating down West Shore Road early this morning - the plows hadn't been through yet.