Melting
Published at 17:56 on 22 January 2012
When snow melts here, it tends to melt fast compared to more continental climates. Our winter mildness is driven by marine influence, not ample sunshine. When temperatures normalize, they stay above freezing day and night. Our thaws don’t happen incrementally in daylight hours only, they go on 24/7, often with winds and rain to expedite the process. There is also no thick layer of frozen ground to slow down the melting.
Because the ground seldom freezes deeply, the grass is green when the snow melts. I remember I once had a dream while in my teens of snow melting to reveal green grass, and I thought it unrealistic, because everyplace I had lived where it could snow always had brown grass in the winters. Not here.