Sunny skies, spring finally here?
Photo by Snotty Moose Photography
Has there been a more difficult April to be in Ely?
At least when it comes to weather, this one takes the cake.
Save for a few warm days in the middle of the month, which served to tease us rather than cure our cabin fever, April has been a complete downer when it comes to weather.
Now we know that this can be among the gloomiest months in our neck of the woods, and April snowstorms are commonplace.
But this month we seemed to get hit with everything.
As April began, we remained covered with feet of snow, as late March brought little of the spring thaw days for which it can be noted.
It made us wonder if spring would ever arrive and area spring sports teams remained confined to gymnasiums or in the case of baseball and softball squads at Vermilion Community College - long trips south to turf fields in Mauston, Wisc., and Saint Peter, Minn., or domed softball facilities at Blaine and Rochester.
But Mother Nature seemed to take notice and around April 10 came a rapid, and we mean rapid, thaw. Temperatures climbed to the 50s, 60s, and even the 70s and close to 80 in a wonderful week that brightened moods across the board.
Our snow, suddenly, rapidly and almost instantly, was gone.
But alas, it proved to be only a temporary reprieve from the April gloom. In a matter of days there was not one, but two snowstorms.
And they weren’t small. Both packed several inches of snow, and were followed not by sunshine and 50s, but clouds and 30s.
Even this week, temperatures hovered in the teens overnight and we know of Ely area residents who took out snowmobiles and skis over the course of the last several days.
Plows that were removed from trucks for the spring were put back on, while elementary kids packed snowpants into their backpacks for much of the month.
We can relate to any and all who’ve been suffering the springtime blues: this weather has been downright depressing.
It seems on track to continue through the weekend, and prom photos may be dampened by overcast skies, rain, wind and (gasp!) even the prospect of snow.
April just won’t let up.
But the calendar turns on Monday and so too may the conditions.
A glimpse at this week’s forecast and 10-to-15-day long-range outlooks reveal something absent for much of April: the sun.
Sunny skies abound this week and next, and temperatures finally look spring like.
It’s great walking weather, jogging weather, playing outside weather and doing just about anything weather after a month of doom and gloom.
There’s a good chance that spring sports teams in Ely - the baseball teams at Ely High School and Vermilion Community College and Ely’s softball team - will have home games within a few days.
The track squads will have their first varsity meet - albeit a month late - and could it be that golf courses may soon open?
Even the fishing opener is around the corner and perhaps this might be the year that it occurs without snow flurries and biting winds.
It seems like indeed we’ve finally made it to the other side.
Sunny skies are ahead and summer will be here before you know it.
We all deserve to enjoy it after this crazy month.
