5 More Weeks: until the blankety blank pink foam panels come off the windows and light can again enter our home………..sooo….depressing….Gotta go outdoors and catch the last rays of sunshine before sunset!
Walk in the Woods: I took a walk in the woods from 4:00-5:30 this afternoon. The temp. ranged from 20F - 23F, there was a very slight breeze, and the sky had a few clouds over to the west. I took the snowmobile trail behind our house to the T, and then turned left to the landing. The trail, down to the first creek, is littered with lots of limbs and debris from the logging that is occurring behind our neighborhood houses, and the forest is an absolute mess. I did as much trail clean-up as I could so that it is walkable. The snow is packed down on the trail and is perfect for walking. I had to move off the trail in only a few places where there were patches of ice.
I have never seen so many tracks on the trail, and I think this is due to the fact that there is too little snow for snowmobiles to run over it. There were tracks of squirrel, deer, cottontail, snowshoe hare, mouse, and either fox or cat.
Crystals, Upon Crystals, Upon Pond Ice
Caesar Pond: It was cold on the pond this afternoon as I went for a walk to the north end of the pond. The ice was bumpy in lots of places from all the rain we had a week ago and there are patches of snow here and there.The air temperature was 21F with a wind chill of 14F. I took a few photos of ice crystals that I found in a protected spot under a white pine at the edge of the pond. Pretty.
Wind Chill: 5pm: Well…I don’t think I’ll be outdoors photographing the moon tonight. The wind chill will be even lower than previously predicted. Right now, the wind is gusting up to 25mph, and the temperature is 10.4F. By the time the moon crests the trees, the wind chill will be approaching -20F, and it will be rather dangerous to be outdoors due to the possibility of frostbite setting in rapidly. I might just watch the moon through the window. Time will tell…
Photographing the Moon and Mars tonight: Hmmm…the feel-like temperature will be around -13F (and with a 19mph wind) at the time I would be trying to photograph the Moon, so I don’t know if I will be able to keep my fingers warm enough to do it…We’ll see…But, the sky will be crystal clear and gorgeous. If you are braver than I am, set your camera at about an ISO of 800 or 1600, f/11 with maybe a 2.5” exposure. I will be using manual focus and focusing a bit past infinity.
Mars and the Moon: Mars and the Moon are going to be close together in the sky tonight, and both will appear larger than normal. Tonight’s moon is called the “perigee Moon” as it will look almost 14% wider and 30% brighter than other full moon we see during the rest of the year. When the Moon orbits Earth, it does so in an elliptical orbit which brings it closer to Earth at the nearest part of the ellipse. In fact, it will be 50,000 Km (about 31,000 miles) closer. Check out the Jan. 29th entry on Spaceweather.com for more information.
Snow Total Thus Far: We have received 51” of snow this season. Of course, most of it melted away in the last warming trend.
Deep Freeze: The weather sure is changeable. We received 0.5” of new snow overnight, and now the wind is blowing at 20mph, the high temperature for the day will be 14F, with a feel-like temperature in the negative numbers all day. At 5:50 am, as I write this post, the feel-like temp is -10F.
Late Day Weather Update: Right now the outdoor temp. is 48F at 8:30 pm, and it is raining and very windy (gusting to 30mph). What a wild afternoon and evening we’ve had. We got lots of hard, driving rain today and are hoping there won’t be too much icing over night. We are going to get rain mixed with snow tomorrow. Ugh…….
Weather Update: We are supposed to get a deluge of rain today, from 1-2 inches over a 24 hour period. The high temp. should reach 46F. Yowzer! I am so bummed out because I did school work all day yesterday and did not get out snowshoeing. Now, I’ll have to wait until the next snow storm, whenever that will be. We are in a warming trend at the moment. Ugh…
