This picnic table was completely buried by Februrary. This photo was taken in mid-January 2010.

For those who have followed my Facebook updates, you know that this past winter in Helsinki brought maddening and never-ending amounts of snow. We haven’t yet heard how much snow ultimately fell over the course of the entire winter for 2009-10. Suffice it to say, it was buttloads.

Upon our return from our holiday in mid-January, we were greeted with about 20-30 cm of snow. The snow kept coming. For much of the winter, we had more than 70 cm of snow covering the ground, with mountains of snow lining the roads and sidewalks and well…everything. It made the snowpocalypse that hit the Eastern US look like a few flurries. Through the end of March and into April, the snow continued to fall.

It’s taken the snow several weeks if not a full month for the snow to melt. It’s now the second full week of May and remnants can still be found here and there. The piles that grew to mountains as roadways and sidewalks were cleared are now almost gone. We have one remaining pile behind our building that at one point was nearly level with our windows on the third floor.

This got a friend of mine and I thinking: where did all that snow go?

As saturated as the ground is, there isn’t too much standing water around. The Cuban and I have seen some swamp-like areas in the forest around our flat. Yet, it’s amazing how the snow just seems to disappear.

Winter this past year was enchanting if not a little intimidating. However, spring is most welcome and just as beautiful.