Attack Of The Snow Storm

well, we may be getting snow up here in the Twin Cities, but this photo is not from the latest round of snow. It was from an earlier storm, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post this one. It's a snow photo, with a splash of color in there, but only a splash. Can you all think spring with me now? Someone start the chant with me "here we go spring time, here we go" "here we go spring time, here we go"....someone put that ground hog away before he sees his shadow again!

Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche: Series Tied 1 - 1

Guess Who's Back? Back Again....

Winters back, winters back, winters back....weeeeeeee! There's another movie sequel in the Twin Cities titled "Winter Strikes Back". The winter season around here in the Twin Cities has officially been renamed "The winter that wouldn't go away".

Yes, that's right, it's nearly mid April, snow is falling once again. We've had just about everything imaginable today: wind, rain, hail, ice pellets, snow, sleet, thunder, lightning. There was times where you could see rain, ice, snow, sleet all falling at once...it's been an amazing day for weather. Now here is the best part about our weather, let me get the latest high temperature forecast for the next week:

Friday: 34
Saturday: 39
Sunday: 50
Monday: 65
Tuesday: 70
Wedensday: 68
Thursday: 72

Yes, from snow to 70 degrees in a matter of days. Ya gotta love this winter, eh Minnesotans?

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One More From Hamlet Park

Another shot of the walking path in Hamlet Park. I was trying to get both sides of the path in this shot.

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It's A Madhouse

Now I'm sure you've always wondered, unless you're from the Twin Cities, what it's like to drive through a snow storm....Wonder no longer. I risked myself, with plenty of distance between the car in front of me, to take this action shot of a snow storm just for you warm climate people. Remember, I'm a professional snow storm driver....do not try this at home.

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Frozen Seats

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Ice Lake

This is the south end of the lake at Hamlet Park. This is the smaller inlet, there is a much bigger area of water the more north you walk. By looking at the water, I believe this part of the lake had warmed enough to melt. I could be wrong, perhaps just the top layer melted away. The reason I say that is the ice is clean, flat, and appears undisturbed. Plus it currently is partly frozen, I wouldn't dare walk on a small on the surface. Oh I wish I would have charged my batteries before this snow storm fell. There was so much to photograph that day.

Walk The Line

There is a great little park in Cottage Grove called Hamlet Park. There is a natural lake with an excellent walking path around the lake. The walking path starts in Hamlet Park, around the lake and back. This particular path starts from Hamlet Park.

If you've been view the photos this week, you've noticed the snow collecting on one side of objects. Today's photo is another great example of how the snow was falling. This was one great storm for photo taking.

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Weee, More Snow

More from the latest snow storm that passed through this area. Have you ever seen snow collect on an object in this manner before?

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It Was Snowing Sideways

We had a fun little snow storm pass through here at the end of last week. The temperature was right at the freezing mark, the wind was blowing east to west of all directions. The wind speed had enough gusto to give the appearance of the snow falling sideways. It was a heavy, wet snow that was clinging to anything in it's path. When I drove down Cliff Road on my way to work, I did all I could to see what color the stop light was. In reality, I had to look at what the lights on the cross streets was to decide what the color of my light was as I approached the intersection. When I made a return trip down the opposite direction on Cliff Road, the heat from the 'green' light was enough to melt the snow off, but the red and yellow shows what all three of the lights looked like.

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Made In The Twin Cities

This freshly made snowman was created in the Twin Cities area of Cottage Grove on a snowy weekend in March. Wet, very heavy snowfall covered a good portion of the state of Minnesota on Friday and Saturday. We were left with snow that was a perfect blend to make snowmen. This one was made by my two kids, with a little help from dad. I post this photo to make you warm weather climate areas jealous. We can do something that you cannot do.

Tiny Daggers

Looking out my window one evening, I noticed the street light shinning through the ice cycles that were hanging from the roof of my home.

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Snowball Fight

I captured this mother and son throwing snow at each other the other day while I was in Rice Park, downtown St Paul. It was actually fun to watch them since I had my camera in hand. They gave me about three to four minutes to capture the shot I wanted. They were really having a blast with this snowball exchange and were laughing the entire time. The expression on the boys face is pure joy.

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January Is Now Known As....Jan-burrr-ary

It's officially freaking cold outside! The coldest temperatures of the season so far this winter. It's part of Minnesota winters that one just gets used too dealing with. You may not always welcome the cold temps, but there is nothing you can do to stop it. My guess right now on what you're thinking, how cold of temperatures have I ever experienced? I do recall it being -32 F when I was in my late teens, early twenties. You would walk outside into the cold air and literally any moisture in your nose would instantly freeze. It would sort of 'hurt' to breathe in that kind of air.

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Caution Thin Ice

On January 14, I posted a photo of the Mississippi River where it is very wide and the water flows fast. Today I'm posting from the same location, yet it's the channel of water south of Raspberry Island. Less water flow, the distance from shore to shore is less, thus giving the appearance of solid ice. Trust me, it's not something you'd ever want to walk on. There is still water flowing under the layer of thin ice. What I like about the photo is, since the layer of ice developed, it has not snowed on top. This leaves the surface nice and reflective for the sun and giving a neat effect for this photo.

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Near Perfection

One of the neat parts of Minnesota winters is waking up the next morning to see the trees, lightly covered with freshly fallen snow. It has to be a light fluffy snow, there has to be little wind to get this "collection" of snow on every tree branch exposed to the above elements, and it has to be cold of course. Today's photo is a contribution from SWC, thank you once again.

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Looking For Adventure

I've posted photos of Sheppard Road at various locations before as it's one of my favorite roads to drive along. It's a great shortcut between areas, it can get you to the airport, it's not traveled my many, and the views it shares as it runs along the Mississippi River can be quite a show. I am looking west up the river. The first bridge you see is the Wabasha Street Bridge, the second bridge, which is hardly visible and is way in the distance is called the High Bridge. Mitch from Daily Minneapolis Photography recently wrote about the depth of view in photos caused by an atmospheric effect. My photo today reminded me of his post.

It's pretty rare to see ice covering this stretch of the Mississippi River. It has to be mighty cold for a long period of time for the top layer to look like a sheet of ice. I did hear, by weeks end, we might be in store for one of those cold spells to hit this area.

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The Beauty Of Minnesota Winters

Not sure of which park this is, but I believe it's a park in New Brighton taken as the sun was setting from a couple of weeks ago shortly after a snow storm pass through a New Brighton park. This a contribution photo from SWC who has passed along a couple of great photos from this area of the Twin Cities.

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Change Directions

They turned part of the road in downtown St Paul into a skating rink. I was very surprised to see this when I took a walk downtown over the weekend. To my right is Land Mark Center. The brick building in straight ahead is The St Paul Hotel, straight down the sidewalk you would run into Rice Park and then the library to give the locals an idea where this is if you haven't seen it. It was a bit chaotic watch everyone skate. There were couples skating in opposite directions, people spinning in circles, people standing still just talking, and a couple kids chasing each other. I was waiting around waiting for people to crash into each other, but it never happened while I was there. If you're going to be nearby, throw your skates in the car.

  

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All That Glitters Is Gold

I took this photo back in, I believe it was the end of February, perhaps early March. Took this through one of my windows in my kitchen. I really like how this turned out with the sun shining through the clear ice with the neighborhood as the back drop. The longest icicles were roughly three and a half to four foot long from the overhang of the roof.

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