Cold Snap

by Wolf Schneider

Santa Fe in Winter

Santa Fe is one big sheet of ice right now. You don’t only need a hat—you want a facemask too. Our coldest spell of the winter is here, along with snowstorms that brought a few inches in town but more than a foot to nearby Chupadero and Glorieta. Tuesday night: -4. Wednesday night: -14. Daytime highs? Try 5 today. So much for that Santa Fe saying: “Oh, it snows here but it’s all melted by noon.” Yeah, in March or April, that is. As of Wednesday morning, there were more than 291 weather-related crashes in New Mexico. The Albuquerque Sunport website (http://www.cabq.gov/airport/) is tracking flight cancellations and delays, as are individual airlines like Southwest Airlines (http://www.southwest.com/).

A friend did manage to get off yesterday on the small American Airlines jet leaving Santa Fe Airport for LA.Wish the “TODAY Show” would include New Mexico as they report about the monster storm swath from Texas to Maine! We’ve all got our faucets dripping and cabinet drawers open so the pipes don’t freeze. The sub-zero temps can destroy young trees--adding a bed of pecan shells, bark, straw, and wood shavings to their roots can help. Now’s the time to give horses extra feed!

The forecast is better for this weekend, when the Terra Bar at Encantado will be serving Truffle Pommes Frites, Howlin’ Beef Sliders, and Red Chile Wild Boar Stew with Gouda Polenta for the Super Bowl.

                   

Santa Fe-based Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean, editor of Living West, and consulting editor of Southwest Art. She also blogs at www.wolfschneiderusa.com. 

Photographer: David Alfaya, Taken in Artist Studio: Gregory Lomayesva