Seeing frost on the trees this morning and with snow is falling now, winter is definitely still here. With snow every day this month and the weather forecasters saying significant snow for this weekend, I do believe my groundhog was correct – it will be a long winter!
Morning Frost
With another morning of snow to shovel, I think my groundhog was correct that it won’t be an early spring so it may be time to pack the wagon up and head south for the remaining winter.
Load the Wagon
In folklore, a ring or a halo seen around the sun or the moon means precipitation is coming and since it is winter, that means more snow is on the way again!
The halos are formed by the tiny ice crystals in the high cirrus clouds that reflect the light. Halos around the moon are usually just white whereas the ones around the sun can be more colorful and sometimes look like rainbows.
Ring around the Sun
With another new coating of snow overnight, winter continues on but the birds were singing loudly this morning and even a little cheerful. The warmer temperature and sunshine might be the reason to their cheerfulness but the smart birds were the ones that left their summer resort home and found warmer lodgings. The oriole’s nest still shows signs of the ice earlier in the week but otherwise seems a might cozy yet.
Abandoned Oriole’s Nest
What is an eerie noise that sounds like rain is actually the icy limbs rattling in the wind and it makes you wonder how many limbs are going to break under the weight of the ice. And can be sort of pretty to look at and it seems like snowflakes, the ice creates a unique form on every needle, branch and limb. It appears every needle on the pine tree was encased by the ‘pretty ice’.
Unique Ice
It is strange hearing thunder and watching the snow light up with the lightning on a winter night. And while that might be pretty to watch, seeing the freezing rain was not and now it is very difficult walk on the slippery ice and the trees are coated with ice.
Icy Trees
There might be a lot of critters looking for a barn or somewhere to hide today when the freezing rain arrives today. And if a lot of ice falls, some of these limbs may break under the weight of the ice.
Cozy Barn
With temperatures finally above zero (but not above freezing yet), one might be tempted to take a hike through the fields but the snow can hide objects under the snow so you might have to follow the deer trails.
Hidden Objects Under the Snow
It warmed up just enough to snow again but at least it is not a real heavy snowfall and not weighting the poor tree limbs down like some snow storms do.
Laden Limbs
After some light snow this morning, the sun is out and it is a little warmer since above zero finally but not warm enough that I would head to a frozen lake to do some ice fishing. I didn’t go last weekend either when it was the free ice fishing days. I guess I prefer my fishing when it is 72 with a light west wind and a few puffy clouds in sky and if the fish don’t bite, I can watch the bald eagles, beavers and otters. I don’t like listening to the ice cracking, wondering how thick the ice is or trying to keep warm just to catch a fish so I guess I have to wait a while before I go fishing again.
Frozen Lake
