Tag Archives: snow

And so, it’s here!

Winter (again), and in a pretty big way. As in shovel, shovel, shovel, brrrr

It seems pretty clear at this point we’ll have snow for Christmas.

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And so, it begins…

Winter, that is.

Last evening, we had rain that turned to snow after midnight. The result, of course, it a bit of an icy mess.

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Friday Notes (Nov 21, 2025)

This post begins with a bit of what I see as good news. We’re exactly one month away from Winter Solstice — December 21st at 15:03 UTC. That’s 9:03 AM USA Central Time, and I set posts to publish at 9:14 AM, so by the time you read this, it’s just under a month away.

Cue regular Solstice-Equinox reminder that the day-length changes very slowly at the Solstices and very rapidly at the Equinoxes [cue regular link: Solar Derivative].

Until then, here’s another edition of Friday Notes.

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Winter Finally Showed Up!

February 15, and winter finally decided show up:

And it’s awfully pretty, I gotta give it that!

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Will It Snow?

Long-time readers may remember my Three Winter Questions about When It Will Snow: by Halloween? by Thanksgiving? by Christmas? Each year the answers vary. Most years, though, the first answer is no.

Not this year. Bad news for trick-n-treatin’ kids.

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Friday Notes (Apr 28, 2023)

Last month I put out two editions of Friday Notes, and this month I almost missed posting any (today being my last chance). To some extent, that’s just normal ebb and flow, but it’s also that I’ve been distracted by Real Life™ (such as it is).

I’ve been doing a lot of (in many cases rather interesting) reading lately — words going in rather than out — and I think any writer will tell you that’s the easier direction. Sometimes the much easier direction.

But I do have some notes (and pictures)…

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2023: I’m Not Ready!

So. Here we are in 2023. Weird. Very weird. As I’ve said many times, I remember wondering whether the year 1984 would turn out to be anything like its infamous eponymous book. And the year 2001, also famous but more from the movie than the book, once seemed like the very distant future to me.

And now I find myself two decades beyond the very distant future. (And still no flying cars or Moon vacation resorts.) Down here on Earth, in Minnesota, our mild winter finally got its act together and gave us a proper winter snowstorm. (Oh, boy, did it ever.)

I’m still recovering from all the shoveling plus a full week with my pal, Bentley!

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Bring Back the Sun!

“Oh, the weather outside is frightful…” Bad enough that it’s three degrees above zero as I write this (with the high today only four degrees). But there’s a winter storm warning in effect until 3:00 AM tomorrow morning. (Severity: Moderate; Possible threat to life or property.) We’ve had 2.3 inches of snow so far with another 7.2 inches expected.

But we’re Minnesotans, and we expect this stuff. Wouldn’t be a proper winter without a bunch of puffy frozen water covering everything. And people scraping various forms of it off their cars. The Minnesota Winter Ballet!

More importantly: Merry Winter Solstice! Less than two hours away as I write this…

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Friday Notes (Dec 16, 2022)

Since my last post, I’ve been metaphorically becalmed. Which might sound nice, but it’s a term sailors use when there’s no wind, and they’re stuck in one place. Lately, I’ve felt as if there was no wind in my sails.

Some of that is seasonal. The short days, and then that damned “falling back” with its even earlier sunsets. The winter cold and the joy/misery of snow. (I genuinely do enjoy getting outside and shoveling, but it gets harder every year. Growing old is a pain.)

I thought maybe I could kickstart myself with a Friday Notes post.

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50 Words for Snow

Everyone knows “Eskimos have 50 words for snow.” Everyone knows that’s an urban myth. Both statements are true for appropriate values of everyone. The truth, of course and as usual, lies in the middle and is both more elusive and more nuanced.

The frosting: as with many of life’s more vexing issues, there is also a definitional component, and things depend, at least somewhat, on perspective. What constitutes a word and how does the basic language structure introduce new concepts, with new words or phrases?

But no matter because this post isn’t about the 50 words for snow.

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