Saturday, February 20, 2010

Aerie Report, February 20, 2010

Speaking of the increased daylight.... We've been fortunate these last two days to be enjoying copious amounts of sunshine and the warm temperatures that go with it.

Yesterday (Friday) didn't start out that great with lots of dense clouds overhead and a threat of more snow shower activity. Add the very strong winds out of the north-northwest (gusts nearing 40 mph) and it looked ominous. But those same strong winds blew that whole mess away. The sun came out and things really warmed up. Got close to 40 degrees but didn't quite make it before the sun started to set.

The sky stayed clear and the crescent moon and stars shone brightly. The winds died overnight to a much more reasonable 10 mph or so and the sun came up this morning with little or no competition. This despite one of the weather services saying it would be partly cloudy while the other said mostly sunny. Half filled/empty glass, I guess.

The temperature this afternoon did cross over the 40 degree mark this afternoon, but there seem to be more cumulus clouds in the sky as I type. Perhaps that's because of the increased amount of moisture in the air due to the snow melting.

Tomorrow promises to be more of the same which will be nice. Some snow is forecast for Monday, however. Not much just another PITA event that will--they say--slip past on our north. It's later in the week we'll have to keep an eye on. AccuHunch is saying things like "potential monster" but we shall see.

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Nothing new on the birdie front here yet. We're several weeks away from the north-bound migration beginning. The owls should be starting to nest around now but I've not heard but one little "hoot" several evenings ago. Perhaps they are putting house building on hold until there's a break in the weather. If so, it could begin any day now. They usually time things so that the chicks hatch about the time the snow melts away and the little rodents and rabbits haven't anything to hide under.

1 comment:

Rev. Paul said...

The daughters' cats sleep with them, and generally don't bother us. We get up earlier anyhow, but the cats typically don't come upstairs until said girls are a-stir.