Downtown Rochester snow less January 31st 2012

Beautiful weather has made its return to the area this week with plenty of sunshine and highs in the mid to upper 40s as the snowpack continued to take a big hit during our winter which has been off an on at best. The raising sun angle and lengthening days seemed to further enhance the snowmelt somewhat. Many were taking advantage of the weather getting outdoors and getting active, some people even braved to wear shorts. I myself was able to take afternoon walks without a coat, which is fairly odd considering its the middle of winter!

Backyard scene January 31st 2012

This being my 1st time living in a large city, I am seeing quite an interesting contrast take place between our yard and Downtown in terms of snowcover, when one gets away from the sheltered, warm and blocking power of all the tall highrises, you find quite a bit more snowcover across the rest of the city more or less like in our yard, but even the snow in our yard has been melting away quite fast in the past 2 days. We started off near 6 inches, now there is probably an increasingly patchy 2-3″ left. The snow already melted along the southside of the garage uncovering the spring bulbs, today walking around I some of the Crocus that sprouted in warm ups earlier this month were showing signs of coloring flower buds. Earliest bloom I’ve seen?, the question is, will break bud before this warm spell is over which is supposed to last into the weekend, only time will tell.

Highs today.

The warmest temperature in the area was in the inner parts of Rochester. All 4 of my thermometers here in West Downtown reported 50.F. Officially at the airport 7 miles and outside of the city it was 44.F. I am doing ongoing research as to why the temperature is so different between my station and the airport, for now I will go with it since I have been for the past few months.  The coolest reading was a balmy 43 at Preston.