We don’t expect rain in February

It was Family Day in Ontario on Monday and here in Fort Frances, we had a thunderstorm and rain for most of the day.
Needless to say, it was not the most wonderful day for outdoor family activities.
Driving back from Dryden under a sunny sky Saturday afternoon, I could not help but notice all the snowmobile tracks across the snow-covered lakes. By the time I reached Rainy Lake, the trails criss-crossing the bays suggested hundreds of snowmobilers were out and about.
There was only one lonely partridge picking up stones on the edge of the road both going to and coming from Dryden.
The other thing that caught my attention was all the ice-fishing huts and tents dotting the ice as I drove over the Noden Causeway.
Snowmobiling had slowed for almost a decade, but today’s machines are so much more dependable that families feel safe travelling the trails and routes to their cottages. Summer cottages now are becoming winter getaways, too.
An ice road runs north up the Canoe Channel of Rainy Lake. The construction crews working on the causeway structure have flooded the ice under the bridge, building up the thickness.
I had thought that I should put my SUV through the car wash Saturday afternoon, having picked up lots of road grime and salt from the back-and-forth trip to Dryden. But on the drive to the car wash Saturday afternoon, after splashing through potholes and puddles, I changed my mind.
The warmth of the sun has knocked the snow piles down. The steady rain of Monday reduced them even more.
Writing from my dining room table, I was watching as the water rose higher up on the southeast corner of Second Street East and Victoria Avenue. The storm drain there is plugged and the water now is reaching over the curb.
The puddle is now higher than the centre of Victoria Avenue and is flowing across the street to a catch basin on the west side. Vehicles approaching and turning at that intersection are showing more caution and slowing as they tiptoe through the collected water.
The town has done a great job of clearing the storm sewer catch basins.
As well, the town crews come along daily to fill in the potholes on Second Street. It is a never winning job. Within half-a-day, those holes reappear as is the town crews had never been there.
We don’t really expect rain in February. My eaves all have melted out, as have my downspouts. Those drains that normally move rainwater away from my house are still buried under snow.
I know the weeping tile is working.
Meanwhile, the four months of accumulated dirt has risen to the top of the snow. The town looks dirty.
A snowfall will make everything white again–burying the dirt until a longer warming trend begins and the snow really disappears for good.