What a wild and wacky winter it has been, thus far.

East Kootenay residents have enjoyed the best and the worst of winter weather, with cold and snow keeping clear (from the lower reaches of the region) in the first couple of weeks of the month.

And then, just when we all thought we were going to dodge winter’s nasty blasts, it rolled in with a vengeance in the third week of the month, making our roads treacherous, forcing closures of some roads, causing accidents and more.

Annual events, such as the Bootleg Dog Sled Races in Kimberley have had to be cancelled due to lack of snow or other events, such as the Family Fishing Derby at Horseshoe Lake, having to be postponed until conditions were more ‘winter-like.’

It is likely we shall yet experience the normal ‘cold snap’ that descends on the region at least once a winter, and often twice, but winter is running out of time, even with the extra day in February this year.

March signals time for winter, usually in these parts, so let’s all be grateful for (so far – knock on wood) a mild winter, as we are past the halfway point and spring is beckoning!

This month we have images from the Columbia Valley, Elk Valley and the Cranbrook/Kimberley areas, as well as a couple from the Crowsnest Pass area of Alberta.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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