Deth

I noticed it last night, but especially this morning when I took out the trash. Now that the sun is starting to peek out, the remaining snow and sleet is melting off the trees and roofs more quickly. We had more sleet than I realized, I guess.

As much as I love the sound and feel of fresh snow, there’s also something really deeply satisfying about hearing it begin to melt when the sun first comes out after a storm. When it’s not windy, the snow slowly melts and forms large drops that make a soft thud sound when they impact the snow on the ground. This sound really brings up the nostalgia for me of being up in the mountains. The other thing it reminds me of is going outside to play in the snow when I was a kid.

The snow dripping often occurs the next day. Normally, when we get snow here, the wind picks up as the storm departs and the temperature drops. That is, if it doesn’t rise during the storm as warmer ocean air mixes in. If it was a wet snow like we had yesterday, chunks of snow could often be heard falling. That’s a little louder, but still a soft thud.

There’s also the soft sound of the water running or dripping down through the gutters and downspouts. This isn’t really something I remember from the mountains because we had trailers, and they didn’t have downspouts. You did hear the water running off the roof and the snow dripping on the metal roof.