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Author Topic: Weather thread
Boom Boom
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posted 06 September 2008 04:20 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Those hurricanes and tropical storms down south - I wonder if they're impacting the weather here? I woke up this morning to see ponds of water outside everywhere - the house is dry, thank goodness, but our forecast is for rain from now to Wdenesday. I know the Atlantic provinces are expecting to get hit by the remnant of one of these hurricanes Monday or Tuesday. But I don't recall ever seeing so much water on the ground in early September.
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 06 September 2008 08:50 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Make sure you order up "seasoned" wood this fall, Mr. B. More birch than spruce.

What's the temperature like, starting September?

And you're too far east for the congregation of snow geese, aren't you? Anything else coming down in numbers?


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 06 September 2008 09:07 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I finished bringing my wood back from the bush yesterday, George. It's mostly spruce, maybe 20% birch. That woodpile won't be used until next year, as I already have dried wood for this coming winter, again about 80% spruce and 20% birch. Birch is far more difficult to find here, and very highly desired, so there's enormous competition for it.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'snow geese'; a large flock of Canada geese flew overhead (in V formation) a few weeks ago.

Temperatures can be seen here. Currenlt 18C and overcast - we had very heavy rain last night.


From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 06 September 2008 10:24 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I see rain for 5 days in your forecast. Labrador, as I recall, could be damp.

The "greater snow goose" is googleable and a map of their migration route shows them just west of you, upstream. Here's a bit on them:

-------------------------------------
(quote)
Only one population of Greater Snow Geese exists in the world. It is almost entirely confined to the Atlantic flyway of North America. Greater Snow Geese breed in the Canadian High Arctic, from the Foxe Basin to Alert on northern Ellesmere Island. Some breeding colonies can also be found on the western coast of Greenland. This makes the Greater Snow Goose one of the most northerly breeding geese in the world. It winters along the United States Atlantic coast, from New Jersey to South Carolina, with major concentrations around Delaware and Chesapeake bays.

Greater Snow Geese undertake longer migrations than most other North American geese: they usually travel more than 4 000 km. In spring and fall, they fly in flocks of families and individuals, travelling day and night. The spring flocks are smaller than the autumn ones: between 35 and 400 birds fly together in the spring, whereas more than 1 000 can travel together in the fall.

In Canada, the Greater Snow Goose migration follows a corridor between the eastern seaboard and the eastern Arctic. The spring migration begins in March, and the first geese arrive in the St. Lawrence River area by the first week of April; the last leave on the final stage of their northward journey by May 25. The entire population of 700 000 to 800 000 birds stages, or gathers, in a few localized areas, making their migration a most spectacular event. Striking concentrations of more than 500 000 Greater Snow Geese can be seen in early April at Baie-du-Febvre, on the south shore of Lac-Saint-Pierre, between Montréal and Trois-Rivières. Large groups of geese also gather at Cap Tourmente, Quebec, about 60 km east of Quebec City, from about April 25 to May 20.

In the fall, the birds leave the Arctic breeding grounds in early September, when the soil and freshwater ponds begin to freeze, journeying more than 1 000 km during the first segment of their odyssey. This takes them rapidly southward across Baffin Island to the central portion of the Ungava Peninsula in northern Quebec. There, they stage for several days, moving between many sites.

The second major part of the migration occurs when the birds are close to the tree line. Once again, they fly more than 1 000 km, following the boreal forest to the St. Lawrence River, where they arrive during the first half of October. About 80 percent of the geese stay there an average of 19 days—with the greatest concentrations from October 5 to 20—to replenish the energy reserves they need to continue their migration in early November to their wintering grounds in the United States. The geese that do not stop here fly directly to the United States Atlantic coast.

Since the 1970s, an important change has occurred in the way the Greater Snow Geese use the St. Lawrence staging area. The geese used to stage almost exclusively in the bulrush marshes near Quebec City before heading north in the spring, and flying non-stop to their wintering grounds in the fall. Now, in the spring, they gather at the Lac-Saint-Pierre and other sites, moving west to east along the St. Lawrence River, before they head north. In the fall, the birds disperse from the Quebec City area in late October and move a short distance southwest towards Lac-Saint-Pierre or northern Lake Champlain, where they feed in corn fields and where some remain well into November and December. Wildlife biologists have also noticed greater use of the more northerly Lac-Saint-Jean area in Quebec since 1995.

Feeding Back to top

The Greater Snow Goose is herbivorous, eating only plants. At the breeding grounds, it feeds on the roots and leaves of a large variety of grasses, sedges, and other plants 24 hours a day in the Arctic’s round-the-clock summer daylight. Near the St. Lawrence River, it feeds primarily on the rhizomes, or roots, of bulrushes. Its strong, sharp bill is effective for digging the roots from thick mud. The snow goose also forages, or searches for food, in farm fields, where it feeds on waste oats and corn or grazes on grass, weeds, and clover. On the wintering grounds, it feeds on the roots of cord grass and other aquatic vegetation, but the goose is also found on farmland feeding on corn, soya, or winter wheat. Often, the Greater Snow Goose will forage in large flocks of 1 000 or more.

---------------------------------------------

Are you right on the shore, or back a bit to the north?


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 06 September 2008 11:07 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by George Victor:
Are you right on the shore, or back a bit to the north?

I'm on a cliff overlooking the shoreline. We're worried about shoreline erosion, although I haven't seen any this year. Over the past 40 years or so there has been quite a bit, so I'm told.

Thanks for the snow goose info - I don't think I've ever seen one.


From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 06 September 2008 11:34 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'd google up a spotter scope from Santa's workshop. He's not far from you.

Certainly something for springtime (if a gardener could could tear himself away from the soil, occasionally look up and outward, as it were.)


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 06 September 2008 01:21 PM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think Santa's mad at me for filling his arse with buckshot one time (I thought he was a burglar) and for shooting one of his reindeer (for food) another year. He avoids this place.
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 06 September 2008 03:07 PM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 

From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 15 September 2008 01:56 PM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Very high wind and heavy rain here all day. I shut down the computer for a few hours during the worse of it, fearing a power outage.

Has anyone heard from Caissa or any other Maritmers today? I wonder how they're doing.


From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
Tommy_Paine
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posted 15 September 2008 04:07 PM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think the snow goose population exploded a decade or so ago, to the point where they were actually devastating the plants in their nesting grounds.

I cannot be 100%, as I like to be when I identify birds, but I'm almost certain I've seen snow geese in the fall, flying over London, Ontario. We get a lot of incidentals around here.

A reliable harbinger of the first significant snow fall here is the return of the dark eyed junko. They winter down here.

The remnants of Hannah and Ike must have blown through to you quick, Boom Boom. We weren't done with it here until early this morning. Tonight is going to be "cold". Everyone is still acclimatized to the heat, and yours truly has put a pit bull and a pad lock on the furnace thermostat. I ain't turning the heat on until at least October, and maybe not even then.


From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 15 September 2008 04:49 PM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Tommy_Paine:
The remnants of Hannah and Ike must have blown through to you quick, Boom Boom. We weren't done with it here until early this morning. Tonight is going to be "cold".

According to our weather web page, we had bewteen 50 - 100 mm of rain last night and this morning, and wind of 70 km/h.

Tonight we're expecting the temp to drop to 4C; right now it is 9C. I expect to have my furnace on in the morning.


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Timebandit
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posted 15 September 2008 08:11 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
We used to wind up with a few snow geese in hunting season here when I was a kid. You sometimes see them on their way south over the city, too.

While you easterners have had crappy weather, it's been a gorgeous couple of days out here on the prairies. Warm, low to mid-twenties, sunny and just lovely. We took a trip out to the valley on Sunday to a "petting farm" -- a couple just outside Lumsden take in unwanted animals and charge a small fee to roam through their barns and yard. Llamas, various goats and sheep, Vietnamese pot bellied pigs, racoons -- they've had 5 orphans brought to them this year to be cared for and then release back into the wild -- horses, kittens, bunnies, rats, ferrets, ducks, chickens of many colours, even a pheasant and a pair of chinese pheasants. Ms T fell so in love with a ginger kitty that she wept all the way home when we couldn't take it with us.

We hiked in the hills, the trees all green and orange and gold, scruffy original prairie grass smelling of sage. We won't get many more of these sorts of days before it all turns brown and then snows.


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
al-Qa'bong
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posted 15 September 2008 10:24 PM      Profile for al-Qa'bong   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I remember one time when our barley stubble was covered with snow geese. They always flew over our place, which was south-east of Yorkton, near the Manitoba border.

And yes, Timebandit, the weather is great right now (it hit 28 this aft.), although my relatives in Potashville said they had frost Saturday night.

[ 15 September 2008: Message edited by: al-Qa'bong ]


From: Saskatchistan | Registered: Feb 2003  |  IP: Logged
Tommy_Paine
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posted 17 September 2008 01:45 PM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Many years ago, I was out near Delaware, Ontario, fishing for pickerel that run up the Thames in early to mid April. It was a foggy morning as we crossed the stubble of a corn field that edged the Thames valley. It seemed I sensed them because I turned to see a flock of swans materialize, solid white set against ephemeral white, just a few feet above our heads.
From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 21 September 2008 03:10 PM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Our high today was only 14C, and going down to 2C overnight (presently 7C). Overnight low tomorrow will be 1C according to our forecast, and it will warm up only a very little bit by Thursday. I've got my wood furnace on - unusual for September.
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
Timebandit
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posted 21 September 2008 06:39 PM      Profile for Timebandit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Mixed bag, out here. Started off cool but sunny, got warm and windy in the afternoon and now it's pissing rain.

At least it's unlikely to freeze, but I have no idea what the kids should wear to school tomorrow.


From: Urban prairie. | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 24 September 2008 07:04 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
We had light snow in our forecast earlier this morning, but it's changed now to cold and sunny.

[ 24 September 2008: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]


From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 27 September 2008 12:09 PM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
We have four days of rain coming at us, starting tonight. Is there a tropical storm nearby?
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M. Spector
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posted 27 September 2008 12:44 PM      Profile for M. Spector   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 

From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 23 October 2008 04:21 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm trying to get the house warmed up - the power went off at 2 am, back on at 630 am, and it's -7C outside. My guess is that Quebec Hydro is upgrading some equipment. Wish they would tell us about these things ahead of time.
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Caissa
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posted 23 October 2008 07:42 AM      Profile for Caissa     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Where is the global warming dividend? It's 0.5 degrees outside. Parenthetically, I'm currently reading Kim Stanley Robinson;s Forty Signs of rain which addresses this issue.
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Boom Boom
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posted 23 October 2008 08:31 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
More like the advance of the next Ice Age than any global warming dividend here. I think last winter was the worst since I moved to the coast in 1995. I'd actually prefer another ice age to global warming, as long as it means sea levels don't rise.
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 26 October 2008 05:59 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
News flash.

With winter tires required by law in Quebec this winter, all available stocks have gone east (2,000,000) and Ontario drivers are left facing possible shortages.

You guys certainly take weather seriously, BB!


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 26 October 2008 06:09 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well, in most Quebec jurisdictions, winter drivers will switch over to winter tires, but not here in Kegaska, and a few other villages as well - such as Chevery, Tete-a-la-Baleine, Mutton Bay, La Tabatiere, and St. Augustine - because the roads are not plouwed from mid-January and until mid-April, so our cars and trucks are off the road for a full three months. We get so much snow here it's impractical to keep the roads open, and, besides, we have no connecting roads to the rest of the province and indeed Canada. My truck, a 2004 Mazda, was brought new in 2004, and has never been driven in winter. I expect it to last me 20 years at this rate, although there's a very small possibility Kegaska will have a connecting road to the outside in two or three years. But I'll probably keep it parked all winter and just use my skidoo, like we do here all up and down the coast - although the roads are kept clear from St. Paul's to Blanc Sablon, and then all the way through Labrador. Amazing that Newfoundland can build connecting roads throughout Labrador but Quebec can't for the Lower North Shore.
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 26 October 2008 06:39 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think that, given new economic prospects, the road out from Kegaska may have just become a bit more problematic.
From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 26 October 2008 06:50 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm told the money is in the bank already, and that the problem is a lack of contractors here. The one company doing road work on the coast, Polaris, is over-stretched. They're finishing up work in St. Paul's River, then movng to Anticosti, then bringing all their equpment here to start road work next spring.

Eerything has to be moved by expensive barges and tugboats, so that's eating up a lot of the cash as well. Polaris was here last summer, blasted and crushed 800,000 tons of gravel for the road, and they did a similar amount in La Romaine and other communities on the coast as well. The company needs more workers and equipment is how I see it.


From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 26 October 2008 02:48 PM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
How are you informed about such developments, BB?

Or even municipal government events? What IS municipally directed/controlled, such as building code enforcement?

Is there "regional" government?


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 26 October 2008 07:15 PM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
All of our municipalities have a Local Committee voted in, and I know most of them in the English speaking communities personally. The guy that runs for the Liberals federally is a friend of mine and also the mayor of one of our larger municipalities, and he keeps me informed. In addition, there is a French weekly out of Sept-Iles that reports on developments here.

ETA: I have been a resident of the Lower North Shore since August 1995.

[ 26 October 2008: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]


From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 27 October 2008 06:14 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What are the responsibilities of "Local Committees", and where do they report? (Hope all the questions don't aggravate - I'm interested in local government there on the edge of political life ...in "the land God gave to Cain."

[ 27 October 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Boom Boom
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posted 27 October 2008 07:10 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Same responsibilities but on a smaller scale as a city council - water, garbage pickup, utilities, roads, etc... I don't have a copy of the Quebec act that explains all this. We have an appointed Administrator that oversees provincial spending here. I don't have a copy of his actual responsibilities.
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Boom Boom
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posted 03 November 2008 03:03 AM      Profile for Boom Boom     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
-9C outside right now, but we have a warming trend this week.
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
jas
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posted 03 November 2008 09:32 PM      Profile for jas     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Winnipeg must have been the warmest in the country today. My temp gauge on my bike touched 20C briefly today. It was 15C at 9pm tonight. Not bad for November. May be the last day of riding tomorrow, though.
From: the world we want | Registered: Jun 2005  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 05 November 2008 11:08 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

Winnipeg must have been the warmest in the country today. My temp gauge on my bike touched 20C briefly today. It was 15C at 9pm tonight. Not bad for November. May be the last day of riding tomorrow, though.



And your weather has come to us here in old Ontariario. Used to call in "Indian summer", but in these days of record temperatures, climate change and political consciousness, we are afraid to give it a name.


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Tommy_Paine
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posted 05 November 2008 04:23 PM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I was looking for this thread last week and couldn't find it.

Last week we had our first snow fall here in London. A disaster, really. It started out wet and ready to melt, but during the wee hours of the night, the temperature dropped, the wet snow froze, and the result was something like a good ice storm. Lots of tree branches down all over.

However, most of the damaged trees were Norway Maples, which have yet to drop their leaves. The snow froze to the leaves, and broke the branches.

London has a history of doing a lot of tree planting over the years, however, it's always done in a monoculture kind of way. Street after street of Norway Maple, or mountain ash. Bad urban forestry.

Anywho, since Friday last, it's been unseasonably warm, particularly today.

First time I've seen a significant snow fall here arrive before the junco's.


From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
Tommy_Paine
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posted 05 November 2008 04:24 PM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I was looking for this thread last week and couldn't find it.

Last week we had our first snow fall here in London. A disaster, really. It started out wet and ready to melt, but during the wee hours of the night, the temperature dropped, the wet snow froze, and the result was something like a good ice storm. Lots of tree branches down all over.

However, most of the damaged trees were Norway Maples, which have yet to drop their leaves. The snow froze to the leaves, and broke the branches.

And, it's the first time I've seen a significant snow fall arrive before the juncos.

London has a history of doing a lot of tree planting over the years, however, it's always done in a monoculture kind of way. Street after street of Norway Maple, or mountain ash. Bad urban forestry.

Anywho, since Friday last, it's been unseasonably warm, particularly today. I think last week's snow was some freakish lake effect thing.


From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged

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