Sun - April 6, 2008
Contrasting Spring Vistas
As a follow-up to last week's snowy
scene, compare today's view.
Since the snowfall featured in my last
entry, we've had several days with high temperatures above 50F, so
there was little snow left this morning. Below are the photo from last Monday
and one of nearly the same area today. I rather prefer the snowy scene. It was
just beginning to rain when I took today's picture, so things were especially
dreary. We may get yet more snow tonight and Tuesday, but the lows are scarcely
expected to dip below freezing this week, so little of it will last. Over the
next few weeks, spring will show its glory as green emerges in the grass and
trees, but for a while things will be mostly rather
drab.
Posted at 03:03 PM
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Mon - March 31, 2008
Spring 2008!
The sunny South has no monopoly on scenic
springtime vistas!
Janice has posted some lovely spring photos from
Atlanta: flowers, green leaves, green grass. But spring here in
Minnesota can also be beautiful. Here's a picture I took just this
evening.Beautiful,
pure white snow on the trees, on the ground, in the air! It's been snowing all
day, and it's expected to continue through the night, right into April. Of
course, spring snow tends to be heavy, wet and short-lived. It also tends to
make lots of people cranky, but I just love it (as long as I don't have to drive
much).
Posted at 07:22 PM
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Wed - April 4, 2007
The Flurries that Blow in the Spring, Tra La
Bring memories of chillier
times...
With apologies to Gilbert...and Sullivan, too (as if
they'd be reading
this
blog)!The snows
of early March have been gone for some time. In fact, on March
26th, temperatures here reached into the 80s F. But April is upon us now, and
last night we got a new dose of snow. It didn't amount to much here, but more
northerly parts of Minnesota got several inches. I could say we had only a
dusting, but it came with stiff winds, so it was more like a blasting of snow.
The temperature this morning was 17 F, with a wind chill around zero. The chill
will remain through the week.Some
people, eager to enjoy the splendors of spring, find these wintry relapses
annoying. I count winter and spring as my two favorite seasons, and that may be
why I prefer these unsteady transitions. Winter doesn't give up easily, but
spring eventually prevails. And in due course winter returns. I would like it
to be so, at least as long as I'm here to enjoy it.
Posted at 06:45 PM
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Fri - March 2, 2007
Snow Obsession
Lots more snow in the last 48
hours!
This
photo of the back of our house may give you some impression of the amount of
snow we now have. What a difference a week makes! Last Friday there was
scarcely any snow at all, but two storms have now dumped maybe 20 inches
here--though it's hard to gauge due to drifting, and it's still snowing a
bit.
I'm thrilled. Even most
Minnesotans don't get as excited about snow as I do, and I don't think I can
even explain why it cheers me so. I'm not much into winter sports (or any
sports), though I've certainly done some sledding, cross-country skiing, and ice
skating over the years, and we'll probably do some snowshoeing this weekend. It
helps that I have a short commute--little over two miles--so I don't usually
need to drive very far.
I just like
snow. I like the look of it falling--or blowing. I like the way it utterly
transforms the landscape. I like the wind-sculpted shape of snow drifts, and
the way sticky snow can cling to trees. On clear days, I like the blue shadows,
and the way snow sparkles in the
sunlight.
Of course, snow can be
inconvenient and even dangerous. But snowstorms are certainly among the
gentlest of natural disasters, and in all but the most extreme cases, they are
not much of a threat if you can stay inside.
Posted at 07:55 PM
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Fri - February 23, 2007
A Winter Storm for the Weekend
It looks like Minnesota is finally
getting a good dose of snow!
Minnesotans are bracing for a good old-fashioned
winter storm. The wind has been blowing hard all day, and some snow has started
falling here in the Twin Cities this evening. According to the forecasts, the
snow will continue right through the weekend, tapering off Sunday night or
Monday. Though the temperatures will stay mostly in a moderate range of 20 to
30 degrees Fahrenheit, it looks like wind speeds will be in a corresponding
range of 20 to 30 mph much of the
time.
Fortunately, I don't expect to
have any very compelling need to go anywhere, so I can stay home and enjoy the
storm if travel conditions are as bad as the forecast suggests. Peg is
scheduled to work at the library both Saturday and Sunday, but we'll see whether
the library even opens!
Last winter we
bought snowshoes. We used them only once, just to try them out, in snow that
didn't really require such equipment. Maybe now they will actually prove to be
useful.
Of course, weather forecasting
is still an imprecise enterprise, so who knows what will actually happen?
Assuming we don't lose contact with the outside world, I'll try to post an
update or two as the weekend goes on.
Posted at 08:35 PM
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Sun - January 21, 2007
In Need of Snow
Jim likes snow, but Minnesota hasn't been
getting its share this winter.
I like snow. Sure, it's cold, and it can be sloppy,
treacherously slippery, deep enough to impede most ground transportation, and
heavy enough to break tree limbs or to collapse buildings. But otherwise,
what's not to like? It falls gently out of a blank sky, swirling in the wind's
least eddies, and blows into gracefully curved drifts. It transforms the brown
landscape. When the sun comes out, it is dazzlingly white, with sparkling
facets. It prolongs the dusk and brightens the night. It allows us to create
snow angels, snow sculpture, snow forts and snowballs, and to enjoy skiing,
sledding, and snowshoeing.
It's snowing
here today, cheering me, as it always does. Here in the Twin Cities area, the
historical average annual snowfall is about four feet, and we'd typically have
seen about half of that by now. But this year we've seen very little snow. A
total of less than six inches had fallen before today, and we had only two or
three inches on the ground. The weather has been both warmer and drier than
usual, we've seen some rain in place of snow, and the small amounts of snow that
fell in November and December quickly
disappeared.
Many parts of the country
have had major problems from winter storms this season, and I don't wish that on
anyone. I don't really need storms dumping a foot of snow or more in a day, and
freezing rain holds no attraction for me. Minnesota has often been protected
from ice storms by virtue of temperatures that stayed well below freezing most
of the winter. Unfortunately, the climate trends seem to be removing that
protection, and also taking away our traditional
snow.
Maybe you can help us out by
reducing carbon emissions.
Posted at 10:10 AM
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Published On: Apr 06, 2008 03:05 PM
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