It was just last month

It seems only yesterday I was diving off the dock to cool off in the lake.

It was just last month.

Now I’m digging through my drawers looking for long underwear, regretting not putting the snowblower on the tractor, and trying to find the water hoses under the snow.

Winter arrived abruptly last week.

It wasn’t the usual fall equinox storm. That one usually hits in September and gives us a preview of what’s to come. This year, however, September was warm and dry from beginning to end.

October provided little change. It was 84 degrees up here for the pheasant opener on Oct. 11.

Temperatures plummeted the next day, offering a bit of relief from the relentless heat, choking dust and wildfire smoke.

Then it got western. Snow, wind and bitterly cold temperatures filled the forecast. There was no relief in sight. The extended forecast showed only more of the same.

I’m not surprised when winter arrives in early November. It doesn’t happen every year, but it’s not unusual. But mid-October?

Fortunately the forecast no longer looks so dire. There’s even a fifty-degree day or two on the horizon. The snow and ice may disappear yet.

I remember not too many years ago hunting in shirtsleeves on New Year’s Day. I also remember snow that started falling Nov. 9 in 2011 and didn’t let up for months.

In Montana we nearly always need the moisture. There’s rarely too much, and this year it had been extremely dry for a long time before it snowed.

It was simply the curtain of winter falling so abruptly that had me concerned. Now that it’s raised a bit I have hope I’ll still be able to do those chores I’d put off for too long like picking up leaves and finding the hoses.

Who knows? It may even begin to look like Halloween and not Christmas by this weekend.

That is probably wishful thinking, however. I celebrated my first Halloween in Montana at the Watuck Lodge in Cooke City, sitting at the bar watching a blizzard rage outside. It was hardly unusual.

While I don’t know what it was like in Cooke last year, trick or treaters in Livingston battled similar conditions. Handwarmers have become as popular as popcorn balls there.

Winter’s arrival is imminent. I can accept that. But in the meantime I’m going to enjoy watching the snow melt.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected].