Winter Theme Music

Just for fun, some music with winter/snow in the title.

Winter In The Hamptons, Josh Rouse

Early Winter, Gwen Stefani

Hazy Shade of Winter, Simon and Garfunkel

Winter, Joshua Radin

Winter, Tori Amos

Winterblue, Heather Nova

Snow On The Sahara, Anggun

Not as Cold as Last Year

Not as cold as last year, but close.



Had to check and compare.
But stick around, it'll be 20 degrees above zero for a high tomorrow.
Positively balmy. lol
Tomorrow, tomorrow...

What Is A Blizzard

Blizzard vs Winter Storm?

I came across this question at wiseGEEK.
Via the Twitter feed.

What are Blizzards?
Mentions 3 factors wind, visibility, and temp.

What do I think of when I hear the word, "blizzard"?

In a word: visibility.



There can be snow, wind, cold, but visibility is still okay, so it's not a blizzard.
A blizzard is when I look out the window and can't see the barn.
Or when I can't see past the trees, I know it's bad news.

I checked another source, weather.com.

Blizzards are characterized by low temperatures (usually below 20 deg F) and accompanied by winds that are at least 35 mph or greater, there must also be sufficient falling and/or blowing snow in the air that will frequently reduce visibility to 1/4 mile or less for a duration of at least 3 hours.

A severe blizzard is considered to have temperatures near or below 10 deg F, winds exceeding 45 mph, and visibility reduced by snow to near zero.

Image Creation Notes:
ULead Particle (snow), Wind Effect, IglooLaser Font, Layer Blends

Winter Wonderland

Whoa, more snow out there than I thought.

The trees in back (to the West) are even thicker with snow than they were (previous pic).

To the South:


To the North:


This is before the wind comes up and the temp goes down.
Blizzard, possibly.
It was about zero degrees and a gentle fluffy snow coming down on Wed morning when I took the pics.
Some areas were a little breezy already with the snow swirling around.
Winter can be so beautiful.

We have a big snowbank in front of our house already from the last windy storm.
This is looking out thru the side garage door.

Grouse In Trees Tops

About the only activity outside today are the grouse in the tree tops.



Zoom in closer:


I think they are sharp-tailed grouse.
Very common around here and common to see them sitting on the tree tops.
They look so funny, like those skinny little top branches shouldn't hold up under the weight of those big fat birds.

Taken thru the window with the S3.
The XSi shots weren't as good, more blurry.
And no, I'm not going outside, cuz it's too dang cold out there.
No wind, this is good.



npwrc1
Breeding Birds of North Dakota
See Family Tetraonidae (Grouse and Ptarmigan)

npwrc2
Sharp-tailed grouse Tympanuchus phasianellus (Linnaeus)

enature

cornell

id marks

In The Deep Freeze, Sundogs

Outdoor temperature at 6 am 15 Jan 09.
I couldn't believe it.
Had to take a pic.
That's taken from inside the house, all lights off, thru the window, with a flashlight and DSLR set to tungsten WB.



Current Temps for North America
(I like this view.)

I wonder if there will be any sundogs this morning.
One of the beauties of a cold winter's day.



"Halos near Longview, Alberta Canada imaged by Cally Coman. Frozen Alberta extends to its skies for the halos tell us that there are low level "diamond dust" ice crystals in the air. The tall bright sundogs appear in front of the hills because the crystals forming them are closer. Tall sundogs are made by large plate shaped crystals wobbling and fluttering markedly in their downward drift (at some stage, tall pillars become difficult to separate from 22° halo fragments). Smaller plates are more aerodynamically stable and deliver squatter dogs. The same unsteady crystals made the upper and lower sun pillars and the parhelic circle passing faintly through the sun and extending more brightly beyond each sundog."

Sundog Image Gallery at Atmospheric Optics.
A fascinating place to visit.

Via MeFi