Snow (Continued)

Since it snowed again yesterday, and is meant to snow again today and tomorrow, I thought I would write a short bit about it. Despite what it may sound like, I actually quite love the snow here - it makes everything incredibly beautiful.  The pure white against the near-black of the spruce trees or the craggy mountains is stunning.  The snow also makes the animals at the Preserve look particularly magnificent (see field of muskox to the left). 

Having had the opportunity to shovel several times now (don't tell Mike, this is definitely not something I did in Ottawa), I can talk first hand about how incredibly different the snow is here from back East. For most of the winter, the arid climate of the Yukon means that the snow here has no humidity in it at all. It is like grains of sand that floats down from the sky, making it incredibly easy to push aside with a shovel. 

Over the last couple of days, however, the snow has had somewhat more humidity.  It was explained to me this week by a member of the Champagne First Nation that, according to her aunties, this snow is the heavy snow. It comes around this time of year and pushes itself into and throughout the other snow to help it melt very fast when the weather warms up.  I have not done justice to what was a beautiful and very logical explanation. 

It will be interesting to see Spring come. I have heard from many people that the snow doesn't melt so much as disappears, with a lot of it being simply absorbed by the infamous Yukon winds. 

ps, everyone should be able to comment now. Sorry I had no idea that was the default, thanks Amanda for pointing that out.