billnuke1 

That's it! Shut down the thread! Winter is over! Whoo Hoo! Spring Riding! Yee Haw! Roll'em out!

digibud

four days ago we had -20F. Today it was +36F and it was the first time we road with patches of ice melting into water. This is the first water to touch my bike for several months. Now I hope the thaw is quick (although that's not a good thing for flooding on the Yukon and other rivers. I'll let them have their own version of hope) and I can get on my road bike sooner rather than later. Happy to report that Denali Park will be plowing the road; the sequester isn't going to affect that. That's my favorite spring ride.
Winter may not be over locally but it's on it's way out.

billnuke1 

Here on Cape Cod we hit about 52*, maybe a bit higher! Sun shinnin'! Oh! And no wind!

Bekologist

side roads still holding ice, melt is freezing overnight, and snow is forecast.


You might be able to see the gulls standing on the blue ice in the middle distance.

Today was great riding though!

gecho

We are just starting to get into the melt but its starting very slowly. The temperature isn't supposed to get above freezing until Wednesday. I was out tonight as everything started freezing up. I absolutely love the sound of frozen slush crunching under a bicycle tire, and a fat tire makes for extra crunchy.

A storm channel that I have been riding across as a shortcut had water in it for the first time today. A shame since it let me avoid a road with lots of large puddles.

billnuke1 

We would run the beater bikes through the slush, in the tire tracks, until the slush start to freeze up, then we would run in the deeper snow!
We'll be out for a while today! The rains have washed a lot of the salt/sand off the roads!

gecho

10-15cm of snow forecast for Friday. I'll have to squeeze in a highway ride tomorrow while the shoulders are clear.

Even before this new snow they were forecasting creek levels 60cm higher than we had 2 years ago, and those were pretty high.

Bekologist

at least you can see brush!

We are still knee deep in snow in the woods, freezing overnight, and snow in the forecast.

MichaelW

Over here in Europe, Spain is getting all our damp, mild spring, we are getting Siberian cold, dry winds (0-5C)with a bit of snow. What is Siberia getting?
Winter is far from over.

werwer2012

Here in Brampton winter is still here. 11c today then tomorrow back down to -5c. Not spring yet but I'm sure it is just around the corner.

YukonLT

Meteorologists say today is supposed to be the start of true spring in our area...I hope they are right for once.

gecho

Nope, that photo was from the flooding 2 years ago, those bushes are currently under a meter of snow.

Bekologist

well, that's not good, but at least other people still have snow -I had thought we were the only place left with significant amounts of snow.

Yeah, the forecast is foul for the weekend. Snow and greasy roads. Have I said "polar vortex collapse" in this thread yet?

Myosmith

Can't prove it here. Snow yesterday, snow again tonight with 30 mph wind, blizzard warnings to the south of us. Temps in the teens F in the morning rising to a high still just around freezing. Forecast for 15-25 degrees below normal for the next ten days. Still cycling in my winter hiking shoes and wool socks, when riding is even possible. Most years I'd be putting away the long sleeve jerseys about now instead of layering up just so body parts don't go numb. On my last ride I stopped at a convenience store and bought a hot chocolate. I just held it for the first 5 minutes to warm my hands until my fingers quit stinging. I had been wearing full-finger, winter-weight Thinsulate gloves.

Photo taken about two blocks south of Great Northern Bicycle in Fargo, ND.

FanaticMN

...and six+ inches in the forecast for Minneapolis! Time to put the studs back on.

gecho

We had fresh snow on the weekend. Tonight the temperature is going down to -21C which is just wrong. I was out on my mountain bike today, the streets were fine but parts of the MUP that they haven't got around to in 3 weeks are unrideable with regular width tires. I'd be happy if the current forecast of +4C for Saturday holds since I have a 200km ride scheduled.

The flooding is going to be epic when it finally warms up. Its nice to live on a hill.

Sixty Fiver

I took this at noon today...

Bekologist

So, i'm out in the garage yesterday, cleaning the winter salt and grime off the bikes, taking the studded tires off, when i hear over the radio a winter storm is forecast with a foot, foot and a half of snow potentially headed our way.

What a winter.

The skiing in town sure was great yesterday though.

Luckily, the roads have lost the seasonal ice pack and bared up, making road riding out of town viable in the last two weeks. but not this coming weekend.

gecho

More snow for us too today and on the weekend. The forecast was originally for up to 30cm over the next few days, but has been reduced to about 15cm. We set record low temperatures two days this week. Its been 3 weeks since the section of the MUP closest to me has been plowed and is not rideable on a regular bike anymore.

I also took the studded tires off my Pugsley and gave it a good cleaning since I was expecting to do mostly road riding for the next month.

DJ Shaun

Our forcast has 15 of snow plus ice pellets & freezing on top of that.

At least that stuff won't stick around long since it'll average +10C all of next week.

gecho

We just can't get out of this cold rut, nothing above +1C all next week. The little bit of melting that is going on is causing snow to shift on buildings with flat roofs. We have been averaging 1 roof collapse a day over the past week.

Bike Gremlin

SHUT... IT.... DOOOOWWWWNNNN..... AAAARRRRR!!!



THis has been one of the nicest, but also the longest winter. Until yesterday we had bad weather, cold... Enough is enough.

Burton

Well ..... the geese say yes ....... large formations have already started flying north - but the weather for ast says no ..... winters not quite done with us yet. More snow on the way.

I have till tomorrow morning to decide if the studs go back on.

Machka 

It's autumn ... winter starts in about 1.5 months.

So far, however, it's been quite a warm autumn.

Bekologist

Machka has forgotten she grew up Canadian, or how to talk to people about weather.


Aren't you still in NA right now anyway, Machka?

Pithy 'it's not winter' comments by expats who've shipped off to the south pacific aren't that funny. Really.