Winter Blizzard in Grand Marais

This is the first time today I have had to post a blog update.  I had an early morning appointment at the museum, then I went snowshoeing for my daily exercise. Finally I completed and mailed some paperwork -- not one of my favorite tasks.

The winter blizzard is finally over. Winds continued to pound our town all weekend as well into the night. I did go cross country skiing yesterday, although it was quite an adventure with 40 mph winds whipping up the new snow. I skied all the national park trails, which have not yet been groomed due to the low snow totals. There were sections of trail with fairly deep snow, but all in all they were in fairly good shape.

As I pulled out of my garage, I snapped a couple pictures showing the near white out conditions in front of my house.

In the woods there were protected areas out of the wind.

On trail A there is a snow depth gauge. The official amount on the ground is 6 inches.

This is the area in which the depth gauge is located.

The northwest sides of the trees were all snow covered from the big blow.

I love the white birches on the back side of Trail D.

I checked the web to get data regarding the current water temperatures off the coast of Grand Marais.  The last available measurements were taken on December 20th.  Close to shore the lake's temperatures are in the low 40s.  Off shore the temperatures in the deeper water are in the 30s.