June Is Doing Its Job

Forecast for today? High of 47 and solid rain. Cold and wet, just like June is supposed to be here.

The first half of June was drier than usual, but this week is making up for it. While the sunny days are so pleasant, too much sunshine in June makes people around here nervous about the coming fire season. Smoky days in August can be miserable.

Steve and I attended a talk by Bob Keane, a longtime Forest Service scientist, earlier this year on what kinds of changes the forests are likely to see due to climate change. He showed a picture from the 1930s of a boat on Flathead Lake shrouded in a haze of smoke. Smoky summers used to be normal, but fire suppression efforts in recent decades have changed that. As the climate warms, Keane said we can just expect smoky conditions every summer. Ugh, that is an effect of local climate change that I hadn’t thought of.

Evening Sky

8:00 am temp: 46
Yesterday: 61/46
Normal: 72/45

A bonus to the storms that move through in June are the lighting effects the clouds can create in the evening. On this recent evening there was also a double rainbow.

Got Snow? Yup

8:00 am temp: 8
Yesterday: 29/8
Normal: 29/15

Plenty of snow out there, and the most ice we’ve seen yet this year on the lake.

We got 8 inches of new, fluffy snow in about an hour on Friday evening. It’s made for great skiing.

Today is going to be sunny, cold, and beautiful. Forecast high of 11 with wind chill of minus 10. We’re headed out for a day of cross country skiing.

Sad Sight

8:00 am temp: 14
Yesterday: 32/17
Normal: 29/14

Corn spilled along the train tracks

This morning I saw a young doe get hit by the train. It was the Amtrak train that hit her, but she was on the tracks feeding on corn spilled from a freight train.

We went down and dragged her body off the tracks and called the food bank to see if they could come harvest the meat.

Rest in peace girl, you just didn’t understand about trains.

Christmas Morning

14 °

Fresh Ice

8:00 am temp: 12
Yesterday: 11/3
Normal: 30/17

Ice has started forming along the edges of the lake.

Looking out toward the street this morning.

The ice grows mostly at night. It started three days ago, and each day it extends farther out into the lake. Already more of the lake is covered with ice than at any point last winter.

It warmed up to 12 at our house yesterday, so Tess and I resumed our mid-day walks. A couple weeks ago that would have seemed cold.

This morning we woke up to 7 or 8 inches of fluffy snow and big flakes coming down.

River Skate

8:00 am temp: 6
Yesterday: 8/-14
Normal: 31/17

Well, I didn’t hibernate yesterday after all. The sun came out and we were lured outside to try skating on the Whitefish River.

There was good, thick ice on the river. Steve chopped a couple holes with his hatchet and at about 4 inches down there was still no sign of water. The surface was pretty good, slightly bumpy, and there was a thin layer of snow on top.

We skated for miles, the only ones on the river, except for…the person who had planted the idea, Don Scharfe, and his wife. I forgot my camera, so above is a video Steve shot.

I enjoyed the changing views and the quiet of cruising down the river. There’s snow in the forecast, which may mean the end of ice skating, but there could be some good skiing on the river ahead this winter.

Time to Hibernate

8:00 am temp: -5
Yesterday: 4/-13
Normal: 31/17

Thin sheets of ice collect along the shore

I came home last night around 11:30. It was -10 at our house. It took a while to warm up my toes. I’m hunkered down at home today.

We saw the first signs of ice forming on the lake yesterday, thin sheets that the wind had pushed up against the shore.

A friend who lives south of town told me she saw what looked like a big cloud yesterday morning, which was the plume of steam coming off the lake. It’s amazing how long it takes, even in this severe cold, for the water temperature in the lake to drop to freezing.

Big Chill

Forecast for tonight, Dec. 6

Tonight’s forecast contains some numbers we don’t see very often. Minus 46 F, wonder what that feels like. Should I venture outside in the night to find out?

Cold Mornings

8:00 am temp: 1
Yesterday: 18/-4
Normal: 32/18

Steam rising off the lake this morning. It was 2 degrees F according to our thermometer.

It’s been cold here this week, and will get even colder. A second Arctic front is expected to arrive tomorrow, bringing wind and lows of -16 and -19 F the next couple nights. That’s serious winter the likes of which we haven’t seen in several years.

I’m thinking it looks good for the lake to freeze this year. That usually means some good skiing.

Winter Gray

8:00 am temp: 30
Yesterday: 29/26
Normal: 20/27

Just a typical winter day at State Park. Tess and I decided to forego the swimming.

There was a fine, light snow falling today. More in the forecast the next few days, along with a cold front. Calling for a low of -3 Fahrenheit Wednesday. Last year we didn’t have any subzero weather.

We’re headed to the town of Hot Springs, where even if we don’t see the sun we can sit outdoors and soak in hot mineral water. It’s a good winter coping technique.

Icy Wonders

8:00 AM temp: 21
Yesterday: 28/23
Normal: 34/21

Four-legged icicle.

There were some interesting ice formations along the edge of Whitefish Lake yesterday.

What a beautiful planet we live on.

Skating the Wild

8:00 AM temp: 14
Yesterday: 33/11
Normal: 35/22

Avalanche Lake

We put the ice skates in the pack and strapped the snowshoes to the outside of the pack and went on a winter outing to Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park this weekend. Predictably we did not need the snowshoes as enough people had walked the trail to pack down the snow – but, hey, we were hopeful.

Frost pattern on the ice

Fortunately we were luckier with the ice conditions. We’ve only had about a week of consistently cold weather, but the ice was 3-4 inches thick and deliciously smooth for gliding along while looking up at the light on the peaks above us. It was darn cold up there, probably in the high teens. Hoar frost had formed in beautiful patterns on the ice, logs, and on top of the snow.

Icy creek

Snowshoeing on the mountain

8:00 AM temp: 7
Yesterday: 38/11
Normal: 37/23

Winter evening on Big Mountain

I took the dog and the showshoes and headed up to the mountain after work. It’s a good start to the winter for the mountain. There’s 50 inches of snow at the summit, and a week of cold weather ahead. The snow making machines were running full blast today. Opening day is Dec. 7, so we locals can tromp all over the mountain until then.

Somebody loves the snow

Welcome to Our World

8:00 AM temp: 59
Yesterday: 63/45
Normal: 73/45

The neighbors

We finally saw a fawn yesterday. I’ve been watching for weeks, but apparently they come later in the spring than I expected. This one was born next door, on a fenced lot of nearly an acre. The fawn is out of sight in the brush most of the time, but ventured out with mama this evening. Mama comes and goes, but the fawn will be on that property until it is old enough to jump the fence.

Last year a fawn was also born on that property, and one evening later in the summer we saw several adult deer on the outside of the fence and the fawn frantically running the fence line but unable to get out. It was hard to watch, but it is probably actually a safe place for a young deer to grow up, out of reach of neighborhood dogs.