Column by Hal Walter
Climate – February 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
IN THE EARLY DAYS of the New West we didn’t blame El Niño for our weather-related hardships. We were simply too busy digging out from a “hard winter” or “heavy snow year.”
That was back when winter was an old man, not a little boy. Those of us who had lived in this country for any amount of time sought out homes on county-plowed roads, and squirreled away extra food, firewood, and camp-stove fuel because we knew it wasn’t a matter of if — but rather when and how much — it would snow.