Some WInter Pics from the Last Couple Weeks

I took these pictures on the coldest morning of the year, I think it was only a couple degrees. The unfrozen part of the lake, between the mouth of the Niagara River and the ice boom, was creating a freezing fog that led to the trees being coated in a layer of ice.

View of Fort Erie, Canada from Lasalle Park, Buffalo, through freezing mist

The Connecticut Street Armory, Prospect Hill

Labatt USA Buffalo Pond Hockey Tournament, Erie Basin Marina, Buffalo
Unfortunately after a month of below average temperatures it went up to 40 degrees on the day of the tournament. The ice quality was terrible, huge cracks were starting to appear everywhere. I didn't hang around too long.

Testing the thickness of the ice.

Ice & Snow

I recently needed to find a map of Lake Erie for something I was designing and I came across this incredible satellite photo of lake Erie partially covered in ice. For a closer view of the lake ice, check out my Flickr album, Seiche Damage.

Unlike many people, I can't get enough of the ice and snow, it's a big part of why I live in the north. Today we are experiencing our second storm in three days and I love it. It's getting windy and nearing white out conditions. After I shovel, I'm going to see how far I can get on my bike.

The view from my studio window this morning.

Snow covered spider web

Flight to Japan

I arrived in Japan yesterday afternoon (4 in the morning my time). The flight from DC to Tokyo was long but the view out the window was phenomenal. We flew over Hudson Bay, across Canada, over the north coast of Alaska, and over Western Siberia. It was ice all the way. More later.

Ice & Snow

It started to snow on Friday afternoon and did not stop until very early Sunday morning. The overall accumulation seems to be about 18 inches. I love winter weather, so I am always hoping for a snowstorm. Despite Buffalo's reputation for heavy snow, getting a foot or more all at once is a relatively rare event. In general I think people complain about snow too much. I realize that it is somewhat inconvenient, but the way that it can utterly transform the visual landscape in a matter of hours is a phenomenon that should be appreciated. What I find most irritating is that local newcasters constantly make value judgements about the weather. They generally seem to think that any rise in temperature is good and any drop is bad. I would rather have cold weather temperatures and crisp clean snow than have it be 37 degrees and slush.

The picture is of me, circa 1976, on Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin. Photo Credit: John Montague. Contemporary frozen photos here.

From the Projects Library #3

It is a snowy ice-encrusted morning. Luckily the ice does not seem to have caused much damage. More record covers here.

Seiche/Dead Salamander

In January we had a wind storm that caused a seiche event. The sustained winds from the west pushed the water levels at the Buffalo end of the lake 10.5 feet above normal (the max is 12). The most spectacular results of the seiche took place on the Nowak Pier, a walkway that runs along the top of a seawall that divides the Niagara river from a canal that runs along side it for over a mile. When the water receded tons of ice was dropped on the walkway causing significant damage to the railing posts and cables. Some of the iceberg-like ice chunks that were lifted onto the walkway way were over 8 ft high. There are more images on my Flickr page.

I found a dead mudpuppy salamander(which I mistook for a Hellbender, I had never seen either in real life before) frozen solid on top of ten feet of ice. It looked to be about 10 inches long. The storm must have disturbed its hibernation(?).