With ice forming in the harbors along Lake Superior, very few sailboats are still in the water as the cold winter weather is settling in for the long haul. This sailboat wasn’t too far away from a 1909 shipwreck. And on this day in 1941, many ships were sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Sailing on Lake Superior
There was blue skies and white to be found today, but the white snow doesn’t have a pretty fragrance nor was it as warm out as when these wild plums were blooming in the spring.
Wild Plum Blossoms
Some of the snow has fallen off the trees, revealing more green again but other than the pine trees, some brown oak leaves, and the orange glow from the sunset on the snow, there isn’t a lot of color to see on the white landscape. There are no bright colorful flowers with green grasshopper coated in yellow pollen to be found around here in the winter.
Grasshopper in Lily
The above freezing temperature and the sunshine today helped to melt some of the ice, but it also created more ice as the snow began to drip forming new icicles.
Snow Icicles
The sun was melting some of the snow and ice but most of the tree limbs are still coated in a layer of ice. And the blizzard also coated Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge with ice and it remains in the down position due to the weight of the ice, even after some deicing operations today, as it is too much weight for the motors to lift.
Since the bridge is unable to rise the 135 feet to let vessels into the harbor, the ships have to use the Superior entry. That can add an extra hour or more to travel and it is a shallower channel requiring extra caution to navigate. So I am sure the boat captains will be happy when the bridge is re-opened as the shipping season is nearing its end and it is a race to get the cargo loads in and out before winter freeze up.
Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge
As the winter storm moved off to the east, the sky sparkled as the sunshine revealed the ice coated tree limbs.
Sparkling Limbs
Today is the start of meteorological winter, which is the three coldest months of the year. And with the additional snow today, it definitely looks like a white winter.
Start of Winter
The weather today kept changing from snow, to freezing rain, to snow pellets, to ice pellets, to sleet and back to snow again. I don’t like the icy stuff, especially in my yard and I rather only see it when it creates the ice formations along Lake Superior.
Ice Up High
There were people do Black Friday shopping today, and the birds were doing black shopping too, or more like gathering black sunflower seeds in between snow storms.
Cardinal Cracking Seeds
The Thanksgiving meal for many included turkey, but the turkeys had to dig under the snow for their meal today.
Digging for Lunch
