Birthday Snow - February 2007
The beginning of January was unusually warm, but February brought colder
temperatures. Here is your typical conditions/forecast for a typical
bracing Ithaca morning:
Despite all of the cold, we did not get much snow. There were often
forecasts for lake effect snow, but in the end all of it ended up going to
the North (to poor Oswego, which ended up with 7+ feet of it).
All of that changed on my birthday though. Finally some real snow!
My birthday is apparently the snowiest week on average during the year (see
a pervious occurance here).
Here I am out and about in it:
It was 8°F out (-13°C for those of you who prefer SI units). I was
out cleaning off the cars:
That picture was taken about 2/3 the way through the storm, we got a few
hours of additional snow later. While I would have preferred to stay inside,
the apartment management was leaving threatening notes on our doors telling
us to move our cars so they could plow.
Cornell actually closed early; rumor has it that it's only the 4th time ever
they've closed due to weather.
Overall, an enjoyable birthday gift. My age is now a prime number, for
those of you keeping track.
The following weekend we had a beautifully warm day (that is, it was in the high 20s) so
Kristina and I decided to go out and enjoy the snow!
We went to the
Cayuga Nature Center and rented snow shoes. We had never done this before,
but it sounded fun. And it was!
Here I am:
The sky was clear, so Cayuga Lake was a beautiful blue color. I apologize that the best
picture I could get of it was through some trees:
Whoever led the way had the hard job of packing down the snow; everyone after had easier going.
Here's a picture of Kristina taking the lead:
In case you are interested, you can see the part of the path we took (I didn't turn
the GPS on until we had gone a ways). You can even see our circumnavigation of a farm pond...
After getting home I tried watching for birds for the
Great Backyard Bird Counter, but
I only saw one bird the entire day (a female Cardinal, if you care). Maybe more will come
to our bird feeder tomorrow.
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