Head in the Clouds Amherst: April 2015

Friday, April 24, 2015

Bring back spring!

Quabbin Cumulus - 4/23/2015
Quabbin Reservoir - Photo by S. Vardatira

Okay, enough of this. I nearly froze my fingers off at Quabbin yesterday. From inside, it looked like a beautiful sunny morning, but the wind was whipping off the water, sending the temps (with wind chill) below 32 F. What was I thinking to pack my gloves away for the winter?!

The cold continues today, with slightly diminished winds.

Bring back spring!

Friday, April 10, 2015

Salamanders Crossing !

Just about perfect weather out there tonight for the salamanders to make their crossing. Rainy, cool 50 degree spring night. About an hour ago, I decided to trek out into the darkness to see if my hunch about the weather might be right, To my delight, yes, indeed, the salamanders are crossing. More to tell in tomorrow's blog post, but for now a few pics - if you go out, however, watch out for foggy patches. As dense as I've ever seen it.

Slow down to a crawl and hope-there's-a-line-down-the-middle-of-the-road kind of fog.

And in the meantime, enjoy this Boston.com article that came out a few weeks ago about Amherst's very own Salamander Crossing, and the very thing that was taking place tonight.

On Puffer's Pond

Saturday, February 4, 2023, 3:35 pm: The past two days have seen record-breaking cold in the area, with the temperature dipping to -14F overnight, Friday into Saturday. To make matters worse, the wind was unyielding, whipping through the trees and driving wind chill readings down to -40F. In a season that had been unusually mild up until that point, it was something of a shock. Local residents were suddenly forced to think about warming up their cars, preventing pipes from freezing, and dressing in multiple layers to walk their dogs. By Saturday, while many were happy to hunker down and wait for temperatures to stop breaking low records, this was the moment that ice fishers and skaters had been waiting for all winter. With temps hovering around 12F (albeit above zero) by Saturday afternoon, Puffer's Pond was the place to be for about 30 people, many of whom were spread out over the ice, either ice fishing or playing hockey. While this is a fairly typical sight at Puffer's in the coldest winter months, our current lack of snow made it unique. No one had to contend with snowpack - the skaters didn't even have to clear a "field" for their game. And with all the hiking paths snow and ice-free, photographers had no trouble capturing water flowing through, under, and around layers of ice on the water. And, still, at 12F, without hand and foot warmers, I did not linger long. The temps will be rising quickly in the coming week, climbing well above freezing, even to 50F in the days to come. So, I'm guessing the skaters and ice fishers also won't be here much longer.

(Read past entries here.)

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Friday, April 24, 2015

Bring back spring!

Friday, April 10, 2015

Salamanders Crossing !