In Which The Week So Far Is A Washout

Yeah, I wish I had taken this photo--clearly not today's Iowa  rain, which would not reflect many daisies. Photo from wikicommons, originally from audreyjm529 on Flickr or "Audrey from central Pennsylvania" as wikicommons describes her.

Rain, rain—well, don’t go away. We need you, although I would prefer you in March when the ground has no frost and you can actually do us more good. Today, it’s very odd to wake up to air in the 50s and thunderstorms in the sky. Not a good day for climate change deniers.

Anyway, so far it looks as if this week could be a total loss, from a biking point of view. I considered riding yesterday, but took the garbage out in the morning and discovered that Sunday’s ice had not totally melted and that sometimes what looks merely wet is very slick—not conditions I want to encounter on a bike.

Today is Tuesday, and thunderstorms are rumbling through. The eerie early spring is set to end is snow overnight tonight, and then the temperature will tumble. The tumbling temperatures alone are not that big of a problem—I have pretty good winter biking gear to wear—but they mean that any sloppy snow that is not quickly cleared will freeze and hang around.

Winter temperatures won’t keep me off a bike. Icy roads certainly will.

It remains to be seen how the interface between rain and snow works itself out, and how much snow we get and how long it takes to clear. But if we tally the days:  Monday, no go due to ice; Tuesday, no go due to thunderstorms; Wednesday likely no go due to 2 inches of snow—Thursday is probably a driving day, too, and Friday looks iffy (and I think snow comes back into the weather picture around then anyway).

Wah. Oh well, it’s Iowa, stuff falls from the sky. There will be good biking days ahead—just, probably, not this week.