Commentary
A huge snowstorm that brought blizzard conditions and record snowfall to much of the Northeast a day after Christmas was comparatively kind here, where only a light snow fell. Still, with winds gusting to nearly 70 miles per hour on the Vineyard and extreme high tides, the severe storm left thousands of down-Island homes without power, many holiday travellers stranded, Island roads flooded and icy enough to cause several accidents, and erosion transforming some Island beaches.
Wet, windy, warm and sunny are terms to describe weather, and there was plenty of it on the Vineyard in 2010. There was record rainfall. The National Weather Service cooperative station recorded 56.18 inches of precipitation for the year, 10 inches above average.
Yet for all the rain clouds, the Vineyard had one of the sunniest, hot, dry summers in a while. Much of the drama of bad wet weather, or the threat of bad weather, came late in the summer, making the year good for tourism and also fine for the aquifer.
Nature’s Everyday Strength
High tides follow low, the full moon follows the new, the spring ever follows the bitter cold. Nature freely offers us her perspective; the nature writer Hal Borland said, “If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.” So as we pause to make sense of this year’s elections, selectmen, line items and legal battles, we offer a selection of the Gazette’s observations of our natural world from throughout the months of Two Thousand and Ten.
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West Tisbury’s Mill Pond was all white;
The snow on the cattails a pretty sight.
The mallards were swimming up and down.
For the Love of It
From The Christmas Instinct by William Caldwell:
Last Friday, after weeks of shopping, wrap ping, packing and fund-raising, Red Stocking joyfully distributed clothing, food and toys to 419 Vineyard children from 274 families. This represented an increase of 43 children over last year. We anticipated this additional need due to the current economy and thankfully we were able to meet it only because of the tremendous generosity of our faithful supporters — Vineyarders, off-Islanders, individuals, businesses, organizations, churches, schools, etc.