Walking along Puffer's Pond

Looking for a brief respite from the noise and negativity of today? Come for a 90-second walk at Puffer's Pond. There is nothing like the solitude of nature (even brief and from a computer screen) to sooth the soul.

Video by regular Head in the Clouds Amherst contributor, Joshua Wolfsun.

Clouds at a Stoplight

Stoplight Clouds - Hadley MA
Photo by S. Vardatira, 1/16/2017

I snapped this picture while at a stoplight, barely looking through the viewfinder. I had no idea the clouds, the power lines, and the traffic lights were so beautifully symmetrical. (And, yes, this is untouched.) That shot won't come my way again.

Snow, sleet, and freezing rain - all in a day and night

Update on tomorrow's WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY:

Take heed - tomorrow's Winter Weather Advisory for Amherst and the surrounding region has moved earlier - now starting at noon Tuesday through 7 am Wednesday. So if you, like me, were thinking you had until Tuesday night to start considering the possibility of hazardous travel, guess again.

All models are coming into good agreement on the timing. Precipitation is expected to break out in Western MA and northern CT in the afternoon and spread eastward toward evening. That said, the most difficult part of this forecast is what precipitation to expect and when. So we don't know exactly what kind of precipitation will be falling in the afternoon.

Since this morning, NOAA has expanded the Winter Weather Advisory to include Central Middlesex and Western Essex Counties in Northwest MA. They have also upped snowfall totals significantly over interior and especially northern MA.

All models are predicting at least 3 inches of snow, with perhaps as much as 6 inches occurring in the Route 2 corridor of Northern MA. Best estimate is for 3-4 inches around here. Following the snow, sleet and freezing rain will be the predominant type of precipitation in Western MA before, most likely, changing to all rain. Up to one-tenth inch of ice accretion is expected, although NOAA is not ruling out local two-tenths amounts, especially in the slopes of the Berkshires.

A lot could change with this situation. A small change in temperature, both at the surface and aloft, could result in big changes of precipitation type and corresponding snowfall amounts.

And while the difference between 2 and 4 inches of snow isn’t going to make any of us break out in a panic, ice is another beast entirely. Keep in mind that even a thin coating of ice on untreated roadways can be dangerous. Please slow down and use caution if driving Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday night.

Could this be the end of "falling back"?

The case for Atlantic Time (from The Boston Globe,
"Why Mass. should defect from its time zone")

Could this be the end of "falling back" one hour every fall?! According to the Boston Globe, "A special commission meets at the State House at 11 a.m. today to start discussions on whether Massachusetts should move from the Eastern to the Atlantic time zone, and stay on Atlantic Standard Time all year round. We would gain more daylight at the end of the day in winter, but our clocks wouldn't always mesh with our Eastern Seaboard neighbors. The time would be the same when other states spring forward from March to November, but an hour later when those states fall back."

Confusing? Sure. But more daylight at the end of the day in winter??? I'm all for that! Plus, would our Eastern Seaboard neighboring states be far behind?

Snow Morning on The Common

Snow Morning on The Common, Amherst MA
Photo by Joshua Wolfsun, 12/30/2016

Many thanks to Joshua Wolfsun for sharing this breathtaking panoramic photo, taken just after dawn last Friday on S. Pleasant Street in downtown Amherst. It had snowed overnight, as you may recall. The Town Common is directly across the street, and the sun is about to rise over Porter House (Amherst College), to the right.