Storm ends drought
Last week, The Current asked in a front-page headline, “Where’s All the Snow?”
This week, we had the answer.
The 6 inches that Mother Nature dropped overnight on Monday (Feb. 27) fell far short of the 2 feet that blanketed the Highlands during the first week of February 2021. But there were no complaints from the snow-starved residents of Beacon and Philipstown who massed on the frosted hills at Memorial Park in Beacon and Winter Hill in Garrison.
The area received its highest amount of snow this winter, enough to close every school in Beacon and Philipstown and end the season-long drought. In Beacon, snowfall totaled 0.6 inches in January, 3 inches in December and none in November, according to data from a weather station in the city.
As children, adolescents and teenagers barreled down the hill at Memorial Park, Regan Thompson stood at its crest. She had grown up in Texas, but after more than two decades in the North, she knew the importance of a snow day.
Watching her daughter romp up and down the park’s snow-covered hill marked the return of a daylong ritual: sleeping late, pancakes, television, hot chocolate, playing in the snow, dinner, more hot chocolate.
“We are very excited that we actually have a snow day this winter,” she said.
Zachary Schetter enjoyed what the last day of February brought. Lugging a snow sled, he lined up with other Beacon High School teenagers waiting to race downhill toward a pile of snow shaped into a ramp for jumping. Some teens flopped and others achieved liftoff.
“This is the most-fun thing to do,” he said.
By Tuesday afternoon, dozens of people had made the pilgrimage to Winter Hill in Garrison. They included Bryan Morvay, whose two daughters, Cecilia and Mia, had been looking forward to snow all winter.
Winter Hill photos by Ross Corsair
Valerie Scanga brought Piper and Olive, the two Haldane Elementary students she babysat. The children started playing in the snow before 8 a.m. and after lunch, joined the scrum at Winter Hill.
The snowfall also drew Meghan Auten and her two children. Auten said her daughter woke at 6:30 a.m., ready to head out as soon as Philipstown highway crews plowed the roads. “It’s fun to be out with the community, and with our neighbors and friends, and sledding together,” she said.
