Saturday, November 9, 2013

Geometric Snow Patterns

When you live in North Dakota, you can't fight the weather.  Cold and winter are going to happen whether you like it or not.  Winter might not be the most hospitable season to be outside, but if you're brave enough to venture outdoors, astounding beauty and cool stuff invariably awaits. Last winter after a storm we had awesome Snowdrifts and Icicles.  This year?  Who knows, but we're off to a good start.

We had a decent snow squall move through yesterday.  Over the course of an hour or so of moderate snowfall, we got a decent amount of accumulation.  Decent for early November at least.  I came home to find that the sun had melted the snow in the areas within reach of its warm rays, leaving stark patterns of snow and grass in the shady patches of the yard.
The 90 degree angle at the jog in the fence allowed the sun to melt the snow and form a near-perfect right angle. 
You can see where the shadow of the tree is cast.  The snow in the shadow remained on the ground, everything around it melted.
It was a pretty cool scene in the backyard for a few hours. By evening, the snow had all but disappeared, leaving these cool patterns nothing more than a memory. 

1 comment:

Karen said...

Oh boy, you've had snow already, it can't be long now for us.

Those snow patterns are really neat. Sometimes I wish I had a camera on me every time I'm outside to catch those fleeting sights.