An interesting day

Today has been one of those "interesting" days in regards to the weather. (The cat races were something else entirely different.) Saturday night was cold and still but quite clear when we went to bed at 10 PM, but sometime during the night two bands of snow showers pressed through and left behind a light snow that amounted to approximately 1-2 inches. The sky was clear again, however and the sun shone brightly in the 30 degree temperatures.

I drove Terry to church and ran a few errands before picking her up at 10 AM. We drove home beneath a beautifully clear sky and 32 degrees.

Then the fun started. The wind picked up from the north-northwest. Clouds started to appear. And it started to snow. Very heavily. So heavily that we had white out conditions at 1:00 PM. That lasted on and off for an hour or two.

Then the snow stopped and the wind started to get serious. The gusts swirled the freshly fallen snow about and formed "snow devils" (something like the dust devils you see over fields when it's dry in spring) that appeared and disappeared across the yard and down the driveway. And all the time the temperatures were dropping.

The Aerie creaked and groaned under the onslaught of the wind. Bird feeders swung out to near horizontal position as if they were wind socks at a helipad and a chopper was landing. When night arrived the wind continued to gust upwards of 50 mph. Yet the sky remained mostly clear. There was even a good view of the waxing crescent moon a short time ago. Tilted as it is, it looks like the grin of the Cheshire Cat in Alice In Wonderland. And as a bank of thin clouds passes beneath it, that grin fades into non-existence much like it does in the story. And the temperatures continue to fall.

Currently, the wind is still howling with sustained speeds easily in the 25-30 mph range and gusts that surely must reach 50+mph. The temperature has fallen to a very frigid 2 degrees F and I do not want to think of what the wind chill is.

I've built a fire and it's very cozy here inside as I listen to the wind blow.

I can only think of how much I would like to get my hands around the furry neck of the groundhog that's know as Phil.

UPDATE: The temperature fell through the night. Not by much, however. It was "just" -3 degrees F at 7 AM. May not come near International Falls' -39 degrees F, but it's still downright cold. And the wind has died down to a respectable (and survivable) 5 mph with little gusting and no blowing snow.