Winter in America

2004-2005

Images © Rich Koivisto

richkoivisto@yahoo.com

Descriptions: Rich Koivisto

14 April, 2005: We have had an East wind for many days now and when it comes down the length of the lake at 25-35kts it looks quite angry when it hits shore. Quite cool too as the water temp is still just above freezing altho our air temp has been in the +6-+12C range for daytime highs. Still dipping a little below freezing in the mornings on occasion. Just patiently waiting for the T-Storm season.Had a few come close last week but this cold mass coming off the big lake just shut them right down!!!! 

February - March, 2005

Even a huge snowbank and a Cirrus filled sky makes for a neat photo.....

February 15th - 23rd, 2005

Naked statues in front of a Medical Center here in Duluth.

Sundown on the Aerial Lift Bridge

Clear Blue Winter Sky & Birch trees at Winter's rest. Temps have been around 0C for highs and around -13C on the low side. Still 23 inches of the white stuff on the ground!

T'aint quite Uluru but it's still a large outcropping of solid Rock. It was deposited when the glaciers dug out Lake Superior. It runs the length of the city with the height ranging between 500-800 FT above the lake level.

A couple of Ice-Fishing houses out on a lake., (Fishing in the shanties ends today - 15th feb - and the houses need to be removed by the end of the month,altho with warm temps, that is not advised.

An ice sculpture carved at a small town winter Carnival about 100 miles South of Duluth. Temps were about +7C so That statue will be quite liquid in a short time!

Pic taken from the Aerial Lift Bridge looking out into Lake Superior. 

4th February, 2005 - Minnesota Sundown

1st February, 2005:  A view of the Western end of Duluth Minnesota blanketed in snow & a bunch of cattails being silent sentinels in the dead of winter. Our January was the 2nd snowiest on record with 45.7 inches . It missed the #1 ranking by 1.1 inch ( 1969 ) So far since Dec 1st we have had a total of 63 inches. Wish I could send a few boatloads your way but it sure wouldn't make a dent in the snowbanks around here! With the temps being around +2C the last couple of days we are losing about 2 inches a day due to melting and sublimation. ATM- 28 inches on the ground !

28th January, 2005: Got off my 12 HR shift this AM and saw the color of the sky so, tired or not, I made a detour from my normal route home to catch some color!  ( Temp 7:30am -10C)

26th January, 2005: Was out lookin' for pics today and caught the sun going down over Spirit Mt. Ski Hill here in Duluth. The steam from the Paper mill is in the foreground. Bong Bridge to the left goes to Superior Wisconsin . Sun-Spike created because of ice crystals in the atmosphere. Surface temp -10C .( under influence of High Pressure system)

22nd January, 2005: Ice covering the bay between Duluth Minnesota & Superior Wisconsin.The ice is approximately 1& 1/2 feet thick. One of the 1000 footer's that are wintering here in the Port of Duluth, having recently come across the length of Lake Superior during temps that were well below Zero F. The ship carries Taconite pellets to the steel mills and will also carry Western coal that arrives here from Wyoming and Montana The Taconite comes from the plants on the Iron Range of Northern Minnesota (about 60 miles to the NW thru N) It did pick up a bunch of ice during it's frigid trip. They will lay up til mid March when the locks on the upper Great Lakes open. Icebreakers will have to give them a helping hand getting out of this end of the Big Lake.

<---------  Funny thing about the photo of the ship. I was concentrating on getting the proper position to get the best photo and was using the close-up feature of my Olympus  so I paid tooooo much attention to the ship and completely missed the rascal in the fore-ground until I loaded the pics on my lap-top.
  It's a Red Fox! The year before last , I saw one in the same spot during the early summer (June) with 3 Kits . Under the snow where the fox is lying are several large diameter drainage pipes that they must live in because the little ones went scootin inside when I got to close. Red Fox are fairly abundant thru-out the northern tier of the United States. Their main food source is mice and rabbits. I will check this Spring to see if she has little ones again, and will try to get a good close up! Hope
you are enjoying the visual trip thru Winter in Minnesota and hopefully I will survive, yet another winter and be able to show you, thru more photos , just how beautiful this area can be during the Summer and Fall.

This character happened to be posing as I was out taking photos so I just couldn't help but click the shutter!!!!!

The Lake wants to freeze on our end but with temps in the -5C to +2C coming up this week it will take it's time making ice. Some of the inland lakes are already covered with 2 feet of ice. That's what temps of -35C to -45C will do real quick like!!! In my past years of fishing thru the ice, I can recall one winter with 3&1/2 feet of ice.

Duh on the sign!!!!!!!!!

Do they think we can figure????? (Chuckle) 10 inches of fresh snow thru the night for a total of 36 inches on the ground ATM !

20th January, 2005: A dome of High pressure was receding to the East and an encroaching layer of Altocumulus marched on in. Those types of clouds give the greatest sunrise and sunset photos.  It did reach -54F about 50 Miles N of here. Someone froze a banana and used it to pound a nail in a board just to show what COLD is !!!!!! You throw a glassfull of water up in the air and it tinkles like glass when it hits the ground!

Ice covered rocks along the shore of Lake Superior

"Water/Sky Transition" (altocumulus above)

18th January, 2005: The air temp was -16F and our end of the Big lake has not froze over yet. The Arctic Sea Smoke makes you feel as tho we are on another planet.

15th January, 2005: Lake Superior water temp at 36F with air temp at -20F creating Arctic Sea Smoke. ( 8AM yesterday )

12th January, 2005: Heeeeeeeere's Winter in the Northland. It started snowing about 3AM this morning and I had bumped the snow depth up on the 6 hourly Obs to 4/017 at 6AM and then went home for some sleepy time . Woke up to an amazing 10 inch dump of the white stuff. Snow-Blowing the driveway and the front sidewalks took a good hour. The temp was -1C so it wasn't the light stuff I was dealing with. When I got to work this eve the snow had just stopped so we are carrying a total of 25 inches on the ground. The temp ATM (11PM ) is 22 with the winds 300/18G25 for a wind-chill factor of -15C . The temps are going to head downhill with dangerous wind-chills of near -40C. I hope you can appreciate just what that feels like!!!!!!

Current Australian & Victorian Conditions incl AusStorm