April 1: Winter wasn’t over in southern New England on this date in 1997; Boston was clobbered with 22.4 inches of snow.
April 2: If there’s enough snow left, the Adirondack Connections Guide Service will cling to what remains of snowshoe season withn a snowshoe paddle and spring cookout in northern New York. Late comers are out of luck though, the event is booked.
April 8: An uphill snowshoe race on this date will no doubt go to the dogs. Competitors chug up the hill with their furry best friends at Sun Dog’s K-9 Uphill, billed as “A Snowshoe Event for Dogs and Their People.” It’s at Buttermilk Mountain, Aspen, Colo. The event benefits local animal shelters. See http://www.sundogathletics.com
April 9: Yeti Ascent is today in British Columbia. It’s one of the last, best snowshoe races of the season. Be prepared for a 4,500 ft. climb. And it is spring, so the race starts as a trail run and turns to a snowshoe race up in the high spots, where snow remains. See http://www.theyeti.ca
April 12: Rainier Paradise Station in Washington had its greatest snow depth on recod on this date in 1974 – 293 inches or a little less than 24 and a half feet. Also on this date in 1934, it was a spectacularly bad day to snowshoe trek up to Mount Washington’s Tuckermans Ravine. The top of the mountain recorded a wind gust of 231 mph, the highest wind ever recorded on earth outside a tornado.
April 13: Full moon.
April 14: Silver Lake, Colo. had 75.8 inches of snow in 24 hours on this date in 1921, a world record, though some weather watchers said the record was broken by a 77-inch lake effect snow squall in Montague, N.Y. in January, 1997. We’ll let Silver Lake and Montague duke it out for the honors.
April 22: Lyrids meteor shower should reach its peak. It’s a so-so event, with about 20 meteors per hour expected. A near quarter moon will hide many of the dimmer meteors. Also on this date, in 2001, winter showed it could still offer a powder day: 18 inches of snow came down in Rapid City, N.D.
April 23: The sun rises at Thule, Greenland and stays above the horizon until Aug. 21. Good, because people in northern reaches of the earth are starving for sun after a hard winter; bad because of recent reports that parts of the Greenland ice cap are melting, probably because of global warming. Sun only encourages melt, at least when combined with a warmer climate.
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