Snow day IV: A New Hope

Went to bed last night knowing we were getting snow, just unaware that at one point it became thundersnow and the front stalled out overhead.  We received somewhere in the 6-7" range depending on where you live. Luckily, only about four inches stuck to the driveway this morning.  Roads are a little slick but should clear up since the sun is out.

Lollipop 

Infrared shot IR950. Not sure why the band is there. 

Similar shot without infrared

Snow blown through the lattice 

Snow

Last week gave us the #2 snowstorm in Wichita history.  The record was 15" in 1962, last Wednesday into Friday storm dumped 14.2".  That was Q, then Randy, his irritating cousin, showed up yesterday.  This prompted the Wichita area to go into Snowmageddon  mode.  No fistfights, but rows of empty grocery shelves.  Those that bet on Zombies for the end of the world lost out, you can't shoot snowflakes.

Luckily, with the Weather Channel in town, Randy turned out to be a little bit of a bore.  Projections of upwards to 15 to 18" have turned into maybe 4" to 7" by morning.  Wichita schools are on their fourth day of being closed.

Infrared taken a couple days before Q

Spotted my first cardinals of the near spring

Macro of snow on seat cushion. 

Meet Luthur the Weather Dog.  Yes, he's a pup and wondering what this white stuff is.

2012

2013 is starting off on a quiet note.  The weather has been dry except for a couple too brief snow storms in the last few weeks.

There are only a couple months until storm season.  Hopefully this one won't be dry river beds and burning sky.  For now, I just try to remember the gentle sound of thunder.



















Taken March 29, 2012.

The End of 2012

The new edition of the Mayan Calendar has hit shelves just in time for New Years, this one features cats.

The near full moon the last couple of nights has produced a moon ring. I've seen these several times and always thought of the folklore about impending rain, snow, or ice. The amount of stars trapped in the halo is the amount of days to the next storm.




I noticed two this week. The first being a fairly bright ring and on the eve of some expected precipitation, although it never showed.

This was one of the brighter moon rings I've seen and the first time I noticed the rainbow effect.  It faded before I could get to the wide angle lens.


This ended up being a difficult 16 shot panoramic that I could never get the physics correct on.  I took these with my fixed Nikkor lens and even with the wide angle, would have had problems catching it all.
























Then three days later, a similar effect with a full moon.  That's Jupiter in the upper right corner.

1-3 inches of snow are rumored for New Years Eve in a couple of days and will prove an interesting end to an interesting storm chasing drought plagued year.

In the next couple of days, I'll post my favorite shots of this year.

Thanks for riding along.

Santa on Radar

It will be here before you know it.

Haunted Kansas

The full moon is fading, the candy is plentiful, and October has ended.  Not much to report in the Midwest weatherwise, so I've been visiting old haunts of late.  When I say haunts, I mean the local haunted places in town.  I did a series on another blog about local haunted places and took pictures.  This may become an annual October event.

Crumm Castle in Riverside

Crumm Castle in HDR

Theorosa Bridge near Valley Center

The Strange Red Orb, why is green in front of it?

Bel Aire Water Tower

 

Tricks of Light and Magic

Look Ma, no tripod!

Look for the skull

Green Lantern

As the party lagged on and one group decided to do one thing, we took the kids (the adult ones too) gave them helium balloons and glow sticks.  This was the outcome.

Cell phone wanders by