The Blizzard of 2013

Back porch as the snow is starting

This will be a long blog encompassing Friday through Saturday afternoon. A blizzard watch was in place from 7 AM Friday through 1 PM on Saturday. At my condominium complex the snow's started following about 8:00 AM but didn't start getting heavier till around noon and the real heavy snow did not start to evening. When the heavy snow started it started coming down extremely hard, the winds picked up and we had to driving snow all night. In fact, in the morning could not look out my windows and doors since they were covered with snow. The snow's started dissipating by 11 AM, when everybody went out the clean off the cars and wait for the plow to come by and clean out the parking spots. Even though the sun had come out in the sky was a nice shade of blue with clouds, when there was a gust of wind and because the snow was dry and powdery it still cause some white out conditions. I did pose some of these pictures on Facebook but I am including them here for those people who do not follow me on Facebook.

Early evening

Back porch after the snow became heavier

Heavier snow

Blizzard

View through the front door

My car

Our parking lot

Grandson Shoveling the Walk

Conifer covered with Snow

Plowing

Sky and Clouds after the Blizzard

No Mail Today

Enjoying the Snow

Snow-covered Condominiums

Downed Conifer

Main Driveway

If any of the othe treesa fell we would have lost power since they would have taken down all the wires

The sky still had hint of weather

Nighttime Snow Event

The weather forecast for Tuesday evening and night was for snow with accumulations of the 3 to 7 inches depending on your location. When it was all over, only a couple inches fell, due to the storm staying offshore. Reading a weather forecasting blog the reason for this is this was a very small system and did not follow any of the normal computer models.

It did make for some nice photographs. I took a series from my front landing of my condo complex. The first picture shows what apparently is the snow coming down extremely fast and hard, but, this is due to a slow shutter speed. The snow was actually coming down very light and fluffy and there was really no wind.

The next picture is a composite which shows a car going by with its lights as a blur, overlaid with soft snowflakes falling.

Tuesday night, was when looking in the sky Jupiter will be the closest to the moon until 2026. The moon did show through the clouds, but no Jupiter.

The last picture is the peaceful night scene after the snow stopped.

Jupiter and the Moon

Night sky with Jupiter and the Moon

Today January 21, 2013 in event will occur that will not be repeated until the year 2026. The event is Jupiter being the closest to the moon. I would love to photograph it then tonight, however here in southeastern Massachusetts it will be snowing, so the skies will be obscured by clouds. On the 19th, I did go out to Lake Rico and photographed the sky to show Jupiter closing in on the moon.

Night sky with Jupiter and the Moon - Labeled

Foggy Morning in Taunton Town

This morning there was a weather alert for dense fog secondary to were very still air and temperature differences. We travel down to Lake Rico in Taunton Massachusetts, which is part of Massasoit State Park to try hands at some fog photography. The differences in color change as the sun slowly burnt through the fog. It went from cool to warm as that occurred. So no matter what the weather is there is always subjects to photograph and for you to use your skill to capture what nature is presenting to us.

Cold Cattails in the Fog

The sun slowly breaking through the fog Number one

The sun slowly breaking through the fog Number Two

The sun slowly breaking through the fog Number Three

Warmed Up

Indian Pipe

This blog is about an unusual plant, it looks like a fungus since it is white in color, however,The plant is known as Indian Pipe or Corpse Plant. It is a flowering plant that is related to the dogwood. It does not have any chlorophyll and must get its energy and food from an outside source which includes fungus. It lives in areas that have decaying vegetation. And does not need any sunlight in order to live.

The coloration of the plant is sometimes completely white, but it does have black flecks in it and a pale pink coloration. There is a rare variant that can have a deep red color. when it is broken it turns black in color and will also turns black as the plant ages.

It size varies from 10 to 30 cm and it has small leaves that are 5 to 10 mm long. The stem has only one flower that has 3 to 8 petals. It flowers from early summer to early autumn.

This specimen I found today was on my walk up to my mailbox at my condominium. It was located beneath pine trees pine trees in a large area of mulch. I picked up my mail and then return home to gather my macro equipment so I could take photographs of this plant. In some areas the plants is scarcer rare in occurrence and can be very common in other areas.

So when you are out walking whether it's around mulched flower beds are in the woods keep your eyes open for the Indian Pipe.