First Snow of the Season

Today, as I mentioned, we had our first real snowfall of the season here at the Aerie. That's not to say we had snow in huge quantities or even very far down into the valley. But we did have an inch or two fall here at the cabin.

As I've said before, the Aerie is at an elevation of 2100 feet on the northwest side of a long ridge that runs from the east-northeast to the west-southwest. We have a grand view of the valley that is home to US Route 6 to our north and can almost see into New York State--or at least into the gap carved by the Tioga River and along which US Route 15 passes as it heads toward Corning, NY.



As you can see in the photo above, the snow did not accumulate in the valley at all. When I went down to get the mail at the post office (almost straight ahead in the center of the photo) I found the snow actually stopped on the northern most edge of our property--just about 100 feet down the hill. Terry made the same discovery when she came back from Wellsboro at noon. The snow did npt begin until you reached approximately 2000 feet in elevation.

The snow fell until around 2 PM and by then it was mostly blowing sideways as the winds whipped in from the north. If you look at that second photo above, that view is to the north-northwest. You will notice the abundance of wide open space with absolutely nothing to slow the wind down. I was watching the hanging baskets on the deck rock back and forth in the very high gusts. Occasionally it appeared as though the baskets were held for a split second at a 45 degree angle from the perpendicular. The baskets are not empty. They still contain the potting soil for the petunias that grew in them this spring and summer. They aren't super heavy, as they haven't been watered in weeks (the plants got sun burned and died) and the soil is dry as a bone. Still, the strength of the wind, to blow them to a 45 degree angle...impressive.

And cold. The high temperature today was 37 degrees at 12:30 AM. It hovered around 32 degrees all day but it felt much, much colder with the wet snow and very strong winds. Just before we sat down to dinner the temperature had slid down to 30 degrees and I decided it was time to build the first fire of the season in the fireplace.



I even got it lit without having too much smoke drift into the living area. (The secret was to pull the ash shelf and light a half dozen sheets of newspaper to warm the chimney before trying to light the wood fire.) The fire has warmed the box and the circulating fan has kicked in to blow warm air into the living room. I'm surprised one of the cats hasn't staked out the sofa in front of the fireplace...yet.

The snow showers are supposed to continue for the next day or so. I'll have to move some more firewood in from the stack next to the garage tomorrow and put it in the garage where it can dry out a bit more. There's some cherry and oak and maple as well as paper birch out there, some of which was cut two plus years ago. Hopefully it's still in burnable condition.