FIRST SNOW: Did everyone enjoy the taste of winter we got on Wednesday morning?
The snow was pretty much melted by lunchtime here in Bradford, but we enjoyed the view of snow falling outside our window for a little while that morning.
We asked our readers recently when they thought the first snowfall would happen.
We had a few guesses. None were right on the nose, but the closest was Bradford native Jim Pringle, who guessed Nov. 3 — today.
Jim now lives in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., but he tells us he lived here “the first 20-something years of my life.”
He explained he didn’t really have a system for picking the day, but he did pull from his memories of Bradford weather when he did it.
On Thursday when he talked to him, he said it was 70 degrees in Martha’s Vineyard.
Jim explained that winters tend to be milder on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.
“The water keeps us a little warmer than the mainland,” he said, though he noted that winter can be miserable there some years.
He said folks there say of the quickly changing weather, he said: “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.”
Jim does not miss Bradford’s weather.
Bill Moore of Bradford didn’t win the snowfall contest this year, but he had a neat story behind his guess.
Bill writes, “50 years ago, a neighbor gave me a plant to be placed in a corner of my back yard that has done a pretty fair job of predicting the first frost as well as the first snow that sticks.
“It blooms in early August each summer and I was told to count ahead six weeks from the date of the first bloom to give the time of the first frost.
“Likewise, I was instructed to count ahead six weeks from the day the last blossom fell in late summer to come with the first snow as described by you.
“This year, it missed the first frost by three days. There have been years that both dates have been right on!”
Bill guessed Nov. 19. Maybe that will bring the first snowfall that stays for a whole day?
We plan to make this an annual contest, so keep that in mind that we’ll be asking again next fall.
