Stay Away Chinook Winds

A merry Christmas without snow is like spending Christmas in the south where palm trees sway and everybody wears a coat of tan. Tempting? Sure, but that’s not the proper setting for a real Christmas. If Old Man Winter would get down to business before Christmas he would spread layers of snow, one on top of the other. It would delight us all if it snowed a little every night when the Christmas lights go on. 

Yes, lots of snow and joyous children makes old Santa very happy. The sleeping winter wheat plants under the snow can take a long rest and be all ready to produce lots of wheat next summer. Snow also makes it possible for field mice to enjoy making tunnels at ground level so they can feast on the winter wheat. Rabbit tracks on snow go erratically from one sagebrush to another. Perhaps the rabbits are playing a game of hide and seek as they look for shoots to nibble on. 

Sugar’s flower garden has been cut down and her bushes have been tucked under to avoid winter’s blast. Colorful winter birds raiding the berries from our mountain ash tree make a pretty scene against the background of snow.—Who wants to see winter break dormancy ‘til spring? So, stay away Chinook winds until the smell of spring enters the air. 

"Let's Have a Snowy Winter" Kik-Backs No. 3, page 21, part 1 (continued)     (home)

Walt Kik
Walt Kik
Title: Tin pants sledding at Mount Rainier / Photographer: Lindsley, L. D.
Two images, ca. 1930, of a group of visitors on the Paradise Glacier at Mount Rainier National Park watching as individuals slide down on tin pants. / DigitalArchives.WA.gov

Walt Kik
Walt Kik

Walt Kik
Chinook winds, or simply Chinooks, are föhn winds in the interior West of North America, where the Canadian Prairies and Great Plains meet various mountain ranges, although the original usage is in reference to wet, warm coastal winds in the Pacific Northwest. (Wikipedia)

Walla Walla statesman - February 01, 1879

Walt Kik
"...the berries from our mountain ash tree make a pretty scene against the background of snow."
DepositPhotos.com

Walt Kik
Washington State University Yearbook Covers

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