Last Snowfall of the Winter

Mother Nature managed to sneak in one last snowfall before the end of winter, dropping about an inch and a half of snow on Monday night that quickly melted under the peeks of sunshine that Tuesday brought us.  Wednesday - today - is the vernal equinox, the first day of spring.  Light lasts longer than darkness for the next six months in the Northern Hemisphere...day is now longer than night.  Warmer weather, more sunlight, more birds, more wildlife, the emergence of the leaves, and the blossoming of flowers are sure to follow.

But for now, I want to offer one last glimpse back at winter.  I shot a video of the snow falling along Fall Creek in my backyard and put together some music to accompany it.  This time, the music isn't completely original, but it interweaves and develops two wintry themes written by Russian composers: Prokofiev's Troika and Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Snowflakes from The Nutcracker.  The result, I think, is an appropriate accompaniment to this wintry scene.  There are two versions...if you've stumbled on this page somehow without knowing me, one of them is as close as you'll come to hearing my voice!

The all-electronic version:

 

The electronic-plus-acoustic version (twenty-some takes later...):

Ithacation

We had a mess of a storm come through late yesterday afternoon through earlier this afternoon, bringing pretty much every type of winter precipitation with it.  At times, it was simultaneously snowing, sleeting, and raining.  We have a word for this here in the Ithaca area - ithacation.  It's ithacating when you don't exactly know what's falling from the sky, but you know you don't like it.

In these two photos, I hope you can make out both the large snowflakes that were falling and the small ripples on the surface of Fall Creek due to rain and water drops dripping off of the branches.

Some branches were covered by only water drops, while others had snow on them as well.  Welcome to late winter snowstorms in Freeville. 

Last of the Bitter Days this Winter?

 I'm hoping that this week was the end of the worst.  Of winter, that is.  It was pretty frigid from Wednesday into Thursday, with Thursday being the coldest day of the week.  At Cornell's Game Farm Road weather station, the temperature hovered around 15F for most of Thursday morning, after falling from the upper teens overnight - it was 19 at midnight.  The temperature climbed just a little bit on Thursday afternoon, up to 18 degrees.  Meanwhile, we had light snow showers and flurries for much of the day: lake effect snow under breezy winds from the northwest.  In all, we picked up maybe half an inch of very light, fluffy snow.  With the breeze, the wind chill was in the single digits all day.  At the Ithaca airport, it was just a bit warmer, with a temperature climbing into the lower 20s for much of the afternoon.  

Looking ahead to the coming days, we're into a warmer period.  With each hour today, we get a little closer to the freezing mark (or should I say melting mark?)  Today through next week, we're looking at highs in the mid-30s to lower 40s...warm enough for me to maybe visit somewhere outside for the blog.  We have a storm that looks to be passing well to our east over the weekend, though we may see just a little snow from it as well.  And before long, we'll be into March!  The Climate Prediction Center issued a March forecast today expecting above-normal temperatures for the eastern half of the country.  Let's hope that it proves to be true!

Freeville Holiday Decorations

Well, it's amazing that we're already into December and I've lived here for 3 1/2 months.  Now that we're entering the holiday season (though many stores seemed to think that it began around Halloween), Freeville has been decked out for the occasion.  Winter-themed decorative lights hang from the street lights and bring extra illumination to the increasingly wintry nights...which begin around 5:00 this time of year.  With a little snow around, like the half inch or so that we received yesterday, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (or whatever winter holiday you celebrate).