By Ken M. Blomberg

“It started with a single snowflake. One flake followed by another and yet another, until a mountain of flakes became a blanket. A blanket of snow – that for the most part, has made many folks around here weary of winter. Last Sunday’s snowfall stopped most of us in our tracks – enough already!”

Two years ago this week, the author’’s granddaughter found wading in the family’’s pond to her liking.
(Ken M. Blomberg photo)

That was 10 years ago. I wrote an essay I dubbed “counting snowflakes.” At the tail end of a particularly snowy winter, I pondered yet another snowstorm.

Record snowfalls at the time were piling up across the state, with no end in sight. Our memory of the winter of 2008 may have faded, but at the time snow was on everyone’s mind. Here along our stretch of the Wisconsin River valley, nearly 60 inches had fallen – far short of a 1922 high of more than 80 inches – but one for the record book nonetheless. Portage County has an average snowfall of 44 inches. Last weekend’s 20 inches, was nearly half of that total.

Although it’s a curse for those nursing sore backs and wielding snow shovels, abundant snow is in fact a blessing in disguise. In short order, warmer temperatures will turn abundant snow cover into groundwater – and if it melts slowly, avoid flooding by either soaking into the soil or running off downstream.

In my essay I also wrote, “Individual snowflakes, when put under a microscope, bring the world of art and science into concert. To view a single snowflake – and for that matter, designs made by frost on windowpanes – is to draw the observer into another dimension. To count a billion snowflakes would be laborious.”

In 1880, 15-year-old Vermont farmer Wilson Bentley, drew pictures of his “tiny miracles of beauty” – snowflakes. By age 20, he had devised a method to catch flakes on velvet cloth and photograph their image before they melted. Over a lifetime, he recorded over 5,000 different ice crystal shapes. He long contended that no two snowflakes were alike, each with a unique design and shape. He went on to photograph other forms of water, like ice, raindrops, clouds and fog.

Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley died a single man. Just as well, a woman married to a man whose passion was counting snowflakes would surely have suffered. Mixing the incredible complexity of nature, crystalline science and snowflake art – his legacy brought science and art together, answering yet another piece of nature’s puzzle.

Two years ago, I took the photo accompanying this column. What a difference a couple of years can make. A 20-inch snowstorm this week compared to 60-degree temperatures back then is a sharp contrast in April weather patterns. Next week a shift to more normal temperatures may bring melting snow and April showers. With luck and a slow meltdown, flooding should be minor.

Stepping beyond science, we can only grin and bear it and embrace nature’s way. As the snow melts over the next few weeks, recall the unpredictability and power of Mother Nature. For those that live in heavy soils and low-lying areas – make sure your sump pump is in good working order.