Do You Remember a January Thaw?

Sometimes January seems like such a long month.  It is usually cold and the days are short.  If you work full time days it seems you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark.  Usually there is snow and ice.

Every so often where I live we get Pogonip where everything is coated with white frost.  It can be beautiful to see.  Snow is beautiful too.  Even fog can be beautiful if you don't have to travel in it.

To be honest though, when we have a January Thaw it gives me hope to make it through the winter.  We just had three days of sixty degree weather.  It was so nice I went outside and cleaned up some of the yard with only a light sweater on.  But today was cold again.

Remembering back there has usually been a January Thaw.  Depending on where I lived it might have just warmed up into the fifties instead of the sixties, but it still would feel so good.  If there was a lot of snow, it would start to melt.

One year back in the 1980's after Mount Saint Helen's had erupted I remember a winter without a January Thaw.  It was at least three months before we saw any sunshine.  We lived in a high mountain valley and the clouds never lifted out of the valley for those three months.  The snow stayed on the ground the whole time.  That was one winter I was glad to see end.

Do you remember any January Thaws?  How did you feel when the temperatures started to get warmer?  Did you feel discouraged when it got cold again?  Record your memories of January Thaws in your life story.