SNOW?????

Well, today is April 4, 2007 and we are in the midst of a blizzard. Yep, not unheard of but not common either. The record for this area was 25 ½ inches in Negaunee in 1977. We are a ways from that but we have at least a foot outside. The snow was nearly completely gone yesterday with only spots in the woods or where the plow had piled it up. It was a “snow day” at school today (which is a pretty rare occasion) and it remains to be seen whether we will have classes tomorrow. Pretty amazing for April I think.

This storm is pretty cool. It is a classic mid-latitude cyclone in which we are sitting in the “comma” and much of the moisture is being brought up from the Gulf of Mexico as you can see in the water vapor satellite image. In addition, the moisture is being augmented water vapor brought in by high winds blowing over Lake Superior.

Many birds have begun arriving from the south and are not adapted to this weather. It is, however, not that cold with current temperatures around 18 degrees F. We have filled both bird feeders in the past 24 hours and one is already empty. In addition, I have been throwing seed out on the ground for the juncos (snow birds). I have seen a white throated sparrow, several purple finches, a lot of gold finches and juncos and, of course, my regular customers, the chickadees and nuthatches.