A SNOWY ARCTIC COLD FRONT SWEEPS THROUGH CLOSING AREA ROADS

 OUR PARK'S FRONT ENTRANCE IS LOOKING VERY CHRISTMASY ALL OVER AGAIN

A nasty weather day here.  Woke up to an Arctic cold front blowing through the area with 9F temperatures and a windchill factor of -27.  With 32 mph wind gusts blowing Thursday night's fluffy snow around causing road closures due to white-outs and severe drifting, it was not a nice morning!!  Pheebs and I ventured east out of the Park but soon turned around and headed the other way back into Bayfield where visibility was much better.  I have a short one-minute video of this morning's driving conditions underneath the two pics below.  In the video, I am not driving as fast as it seems and that may have something to do with my Nikon Coolpix P900 camera's frame rate.  If you have your volume up it sounds like I am riding the launch of a Saturn 5 rocket.  To make the video larger click on the small white box at the bottom right corner. 

 HEADING EAST OUT OF OUR PARK I COULD SEE IT WAS NOT A GOOD DAY TO BE OUT AND ABOUT ON AREA ROADS

 TURNING AROUND WE HEADED WEST TOWARD BAYFIELD AND I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE PATCHES OF BLUE SKY AHEAD

As we were driving into Bayfield I saw the county roads people in the process of setting up a northbound road closure sign on highway 21.  Although clear in Bayfield due to buildings and trees it was a different story on the roads outside of Bayfield where winds relentlessly whipped snow across roads in the open unprotected countryside.  I saw very little traffic on the roads this morning.

 SETTING UP A ROAD CLOSURE SIGN FOR TRAFFIC HEADING NORTH OUT OF BAYFIELD

 THE BAYFIELD RIVER IS COMPLETELY FROZEN OVER AGAIN

 DARK STORMY SNOW CLOUDS TO THE NORTH

 THE LAKE IS ALMOST FROZEN AS FAR OUT AS ONE CAN SEE AGAIN

 DESPITE THE COLD SNOWY DAY IT WAS GREAT TO SEE SOME LARGE PATCHES OF BLUE SKY OUT OVER THE LAKE AT BAYFIELD'S BEACH

HEADING HOME THE HIGHWAY TO GODERICH WAS STILL CLOSED

Home again, and with the exception of topping up birdfeeders, I stayed inside.  From the sunroom, I could see our front yard was a beehive of activity with both birds and squirrels everywhere.  The bright spot of this snowy cold front going through is knowing Saturday's temps will be up to 25F and Sunday 36F.  When living in these northern latitudes at this time of year, one clings to even the smallest of positive things for better weather days ahead.  

 LIBBY WAS GLAD TO GET BACK TO THE SANCTITY OF OUR CARPORT

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Jim strolls into the paint section of a hardware store and walks up to the assistant. "I'd like a pint of canary-colored paint," he says.  "My parakeet," says Jim. "See, I want to enter him in a canary contest. He sings so sweetly that I know he's sure to win."  "Certainly," says the clerk. "Mind if I ask why you need it?"  "Well, you can't do that!" the assistant says. "The chemicals in the paint will almost certainly kill the poor thing!"  "No, they won't," Jim replies.  "Listen, Buddy, I'll bet you ten bucks your parakeet dies if you try to paint him."  "You're on!" says Jim.  Two days later Jim comes back looking very sheepish and puts ten dollars on the counter in front of the clerk.  "So the paint killed your bird?"  "Indirectly," Jim says. "He seemed to handle the paint okay, but he didn't survive the sanding between coats."

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It's a nasty day, and a guy gets pulled over for speeding.  The cop says, "Isn't it kind of dumb to be driving so fast in this storm?"  The driver says, "Who's dumb here? You're the one who's standing out in the rain."

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