Joseph Back

According to the traditional calendar dating, the annual Fall season is officially booked in Stanley-Boyd Country through December 21, at which time the annual Winter Solstice heralds the official start of the cold stuff. Forecasts notwithstanding and showing flagrant disregard for longstanding astronomical predictions, Winter staged its first invasion of the area this past Friday, as fluffy snow flurries first predicted for Saturday, October 17 arrived in the area just before noon on Friday—otherwise known as “ahead of schedule.” Closely resembling sleet (a cold rain that freezes before it hits the ground) but of a fluffy and expansive nature that defied easy categorization to the layperson, the Friday snow performance extended along Highway 29 from the second Highway X curve just past Cadott in the west, to just before the village of Edgar on the other side of Abbotsford to the east, per snowfall data on the National Weather Service website at www.weather.gov. So what did local residents think of the performance?

“It was beautiful,” a Kwik Trip worker named Renee shared. “I don’t think I’ve seen such big snowflakes in my life.” Others weren’t as impressed with the brief winter intrusion.

“That stuff sucks,” SBHS Senior Peter Nulph shared as his opinion of the frozen water crystals of Friday. “Way to early for that.” As it happened on Saturday, the previously forecasted snow came down instead as a cold if very light rain, with the temperature on West Maple Street near Broadway registering at 48 degrees Fahrenheit toward 8 p.m. Meteorology wrong again! Or maybe not, at least in blameworthy terms. Another area resident noting the finnicky nature of the fall crossover, wasn’t too surprised.

“The only thing I thought about that was, oh…normal…snow for October,” said a clerk at Stanley Travel Stop when queried for input on the brief pre-season invasion by Old Man Winter. With seasonal overnight parking restrictions not in force locally for several weeks, the time is now to enjoy the fall weather—it won’t last forever.