|Carl Wilcox|
Intervale means land between two hills. Our house sits on one hill and a bunch of houses sit on the long hill on the other side of the Intervale.
As a kid southern Maine was about 95% assured of a white Christmas. Now it is a crap shoot. There was enough snow to Nordic ski in the fields for about 5 days but that all washed away.
Between the snow melt, rain, and the high runoff from frozen ground and no growing vegetation that all make for high runoff, this is a relatively big flood and a big flood for winter. Years back the spring floods were much bigger because there was typically a deep, some years approaching 3 feet, snow pack by the middle of March. The last half of March the days get longer fast so between a heavy spring rain and big snow melt the spring floods were much higher. Now a snow pack never really develops.
The expanse of ice is neat to walk on. The water is only two feet deep or less under the ice. The water is leaving the flood plain with the ice having already dropped close to a foot in the last 24 hours. Ice gets hung up on the tree trunks scaring the bark as it falls. The high ice scar marks can be seen for several years until the tree bark heals.
The river channel is wide open with water rapidly flowing downstream towards the ocean about 14 miles away.As the water exits the flood plain, the ice settles in loud crashes that can be heard at the house more than a 1/4 mile away. With the water gone under the ice, the ice will no longer be flat going up and down as it crosses the flood plain drainage ditches. The whole area has hand dug ditches to aid in drainage. With every flood a little silt is deposited across the flood plain filling the drainage ditches. The river drops a lot more silt where it first spills over its banks, quickly filling the ditches closest to the river. Due to the dropping of silt, the land near the river is noticeable higher than the flood plain away from the river. This is really noticeable on big rivers such as the Mississippi. There at the river bank home foundations are on the soil. Miles away from the river homes are on stilts about 15 feet tall.
