A high of 28F, bright and breezy with swirling cloud sweeping through the valleys bringing low-lying flurries.
Daily Catskills: 02/11/21
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Monthly Archives: February 2021
Daily Catskills: 02/10/21
A reprieve: a bright milk glass sky, slight breeze, a high of 27F and a ploughed road on the way to the sap bush. Late evening flurries.
Daily Catskills: 02/09/21
Another whiteout: steady snow until mid-afternoon. Two or three inches of soft, fluffy snow and a high of 29F. A surprising, brief hour of sun late afternoon.
Maple Tapping
Maple tapping has begun and it’s complicated, arduous, physical labor in freezing cold weather. The “sap bush”, which is an area of trees that get tapped, needs specific equipment and so does the person doing the tapping. Each tree gets tapped by hand in a different place on its trunk each year and some of the tubing – called a dropline (in darker blue above) – is replaced. The sap line (in turquoise above) stays in place. Every year the tree gets a new tap and Tree Juice Maple Syrup has roughly 8,000 taps to replace. Tapping began this year on January 31st, 2021 in 15 degrees Fahrenheit and it continues this week even in a foot or two of snow, into which even the snow shoes are sinking.
“The tap network is a lot like the body,” says Jake Fairbairn part-owner of Tree Juice Maple Syrup. “The dropline is the capillary, the bigger arteries are the sap lines that lead to the bigger main lines (in black above). As you get more centralized you get bigger and bigger arteries”.
Continue readingDaily Catskills: 02/08/21
A frigid morning of 7F but the sky remaining mostly bright with thin, wooly cloud slashed through with ribbons of blue. A high of 27F. Another winter advisory pending.
Daily Catskills: 02/07/21
Another stormy day with clouds like puffs of grey gun smoke, and a steady two inches of snow. Whiteout on the peaks and a high of 34F. A thick layer of ice underneath the new snow makes the going treacherous.
Daily Catskills: 02/06/21
Another dazzling day: endless bright blue and a high of 34F.
Daily Catskills: 02/05/21
A stormy morning: a few more inches of snow with whiteout conditions, clearing by late lunchtime to reveal some sun and a sky dappled with cloud. A high of 41F and a mostly clear early evening.
Daily Catskills: 02/04/21
A bright day in the week: cloudless sky all day. A high of 36F. Icicles dripping in the brilliant sunshine. Perfect hiking weather.
Daily Catskills: 02/03/21
Steady, light snow most of the day with the occasional breeze shaking snow out of the trees. Overcast with a high of 32F. An enigmatic week in the sap bush.
Daily Catskills: 02/02/21
The winter storm dumped over a foot of snow, but had dissipated by morning. Overcast with a high of 32F. A winter wonderland.
Daily Catskills: 02/01/21
Despite a winter snowstorm advisory, we have a warmer start to February: 23F at 7.30am with a steady flurry of dry snow. A high of 27F with the winter storm well established by dusk.
