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Boston, it would be kinder not to let you see this, but February out here is treating us rather differently from what you are enduring. Most years at this time eastern Washington State is likely to be covered in white.
Today, it was winter on the calendar but spring in the valley. The high temperature was in the sixties. I took the bicycle along a road halfway up Ahtanum Ridge, looked west and saw snow only on the summit of Mount Rainier, 14,400 feet high and 60 miles away (in the middle of the photograph). That’s good news for stir-crazy cyclists but bad news for skiers and for orchardists and other growers. Without a substantial snow pack in the mountains, this big old agricultural region faces the possibility of a severe water shortage this summer. That could mean we’ll all have fewer and more expensive apples, peaches, pears, cherries, asparagus and—god forbid—hops for beer making.
Boston: too much snow? Send it west.