Cold days in Seattle

 

This lovely photo (photo credit: Seattle Times) was taken a couple of blocks from my house, in the Arboretum.  The skating rink is normally a quiet, woodsy pond occupied by ducks swimming about in a placid and proprietary manner.

The past few days have been cold in Seattle.  Lows around 13 degrees (minus 11º C.).  Highs not exceeding 32 degrees (0º C.).  And it will remain cold for several more days, although the high may creep up a degree or two above freezing tomorrow afternoon.  Some of the coldest weather on record for a January.

It's not that we're California.  We generally get some snow most years, sometimes up to a foot (30 cm) of snow.  I've taken pictures of snowy scenes about my neighborhood, some taken in this same Arboretum.  See, for example, Another February snowfall, which documented eight inches of Seattle snow as recently as 2021.  (Photograph below-right, taken in the Arboretum.)

What we rarely get, however, is ice.  I mean, sure, we see puddles freeze over.  But we rarely see ice thick enough for kids to be playing hockey on.  I can think of only once in my lifetime that ice on a lake (down near sea level) was deep enough to warrant crowds of people walking, skating, and otherwise frolicking on it.  And that was in the mid 1950s.

Hockey in the Arboretum!  Where did they even come up with hockey sticks?  Indoor rinks, probably.  It looks like the sort of scene we see in comic strips or paintings, showing "typical" American fun, or that we read about in books (Hans Brinker!).  It ain't Seattle.  But, this year at least, it is Seattle.  

So enjoy it, kids.  It may be a while until you can skate again in the Arboretum.  With global warming, maybe the last time.  But it's great to see it while we have it.