The snow is gone

Almost all traces of the snow are gone.

After a very dry December, January was an awesome month. Lots of snow, even in the city, that held for (I think) three weeks—very rare for Zürich. This happened because the temperature never went above -5°C, even during the day—proper winter for the city!

It was awesome to bike in these conditions. At first fresh snow (best! but slow), then packed snow, it never actually became dangerous ice.

And then, at the end of last week, temperatures started climbing. First near zero, then 1-2°C above, then it finally started going warm (above freezing even during the night). And the snow started melting a bit, then more, and then it started raining.

And it rained for three days. The worst thing, seeing snow being rained upon. Dirty grey snow, slowly melting away… I don’t like this picture.

At least now the snow is gone, and the streets are almost dry, and we can look to either some more snow (I wish…) or spring.

I’d rather take -2°C global average temperatures than +2°C. I’m not sure what -5° would mean, but compared to no winter…