Washed away by the rains and the snows by Himring  

Washed away by the rains and the snows

After the Fell Winter came the floods. All that snow and ice, when it melted, had to go somewhere. Beleriand turned into a sea of mud and all the rivers ran high. That was not a pretty spring! It also made travel difficult and even dangerous.

And yet it was not without advantage for refugees and anyone who had reason to fear the pursuit of the Enemy. Unlike the cold and the dark, this weather was no help to orcs or other servants of Morgoth. The flooded valleys blocked access from the North.

Some drowned; others arrived safely at Sirion. 

Chapter End Notes

The title is from The Children of Hurin and refers to Turin failing to find tracks of Finduilas's captors. But it seems to be the only acknowledgement of the consequences of snowmelt for this period. The Fell Winter of the Third Age, on the other hand, canonically led to severe flooding.

100 words in MS Word.