YEAH, IT’S COLD

There would be a lot of competition for this title over the last several days. Like many places, our winters have become gradually milder and some years we get no more than a touch of snow. Not this time. It was 0 F / -18 C when I got up Wednesday. I know, I know, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Canadian prairies, but this is Missouri. 

I must acknowledge Robert Cohen, one of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's superb press photographers, as the inspiration for this picture.               

STILL...

 

Well, it was as cold as expected yesterday and I still didn’t feel like getting out. So, back into the archives. But the real news in this country is the big storm along the Gulf coast. (And it’s still the Gulf of Mexico, no matter what someone says.) Record-breaking snow in New Orleans. New Orleans! Many streets are lined with palm trees. This stuff is an inconvenience for us, but it’s shattering for them.                

BLUE, GREEN AND BROWN

It doesn't get cold for that long here - normally - and the surface of this little lake in Forest Park is unusual. Heaven knows what the ducks find to eat. Last Thursday night the temperature got to -7 F / -22 C. By this Thursday the forecast is for 60 F / 15.5 C. That's what we get for being somewhere between the Canadian tundra and the Gulf of Mexico.          

BLOWIN' COLD

Both the crowd and the number of participants in this year's St. Patrick's Day parade was smaller than normal, perhaps because it was canceled for the last two years. There are usually a few great high school marching bands but there wasn't much beyond this group. You can see how cold it was. Can you play the saxophone while wearing gloves?                

COLD NIGHT

The view from my front porch late Monday evening. Much of the US got wapped Sunday night and Monday. We didn't come out too badly, all things considered.The light here is from a street light off to camera right and the slash is a tree branch. It was -6 F / -21 C when we got up Tuesday morning but the house is well sealed. This doesn't happen here often but it's not unknown.                              

Antifreeze

From the Loop Ice Carnival. There were many ice sculptures up and down Delmar Boulevard, several of them about alcoholic beverages.

Of course, the bottle itself it ice. Is a super frozen shot of vodka what you need to warm up in our recent frigid weather? I've read that drinking alcohol is a really bad idea in the cold. It causes the blood vessels around your skin and muscles to dilate, radiating heat away from your body.     

Semi Frozen

An artificial stream in Forest Park with a tiny waterfall and some ducks sitting on the edge. Cold enough to freeze the quiet water but not what is gently moving.           

Chilled Art

The art museum through bare winter trees on a damp, chilly day. The cold might have begun to affect my vision. The artworks were safe in the climate-controlled interior. Wonder what they did to protect them when the museum was built more than a century ago.    

             

Freezer Ball

The family went to the Cardinals game today, the second home game of the new season. It was bloody cold, 37 F / 2 or 3 C. An announcement on the scoreboard said that it was the lowest temperature at the start of a day game here in 39 years. Cardinals first baseman Jose Martinez played with a balaclava, something I've never seen before.

Cold Dog

We have a bit of Mardi Gras here, not that big but fun. It is, of course, commercialized, with several different sponsored events. Yesterday brought the annual dog parade, sponsored by Purina, the pet food maker, which is headquartered here. 

It was cold and windy, leading to the lowest turnout I've seen in some time. The smaller animals needed coats, hats and a place to cuddle up. More to come.  

Land's End

Kind of looks like that but it it's just another point on a map in the Midwest. Again, the Missouri is on the right with all the ice carrying into the stream on the Mississippi from the left. There were a couple of photographers with tripods. I don't see why it was needed unless they were trying to shoot panoramas. The scene was blindingly bright.

The river levels are very low. This area is under water some of the year.         

Madeleine Monday (Color Sense)

If she were a little bigger Ellie could have been a riverside beacon along the Missouri. She is generally allowed to pick out her own clothes, subject to the occasional veto from mom.  Hence her Nepalese leopard hat (from the organization at the bottom of the sidebar), flowered sunglasses, her grandmother's crimson scarf, pink jacket, purple pants and blue-and-orange boots. (Yet she says green is her favorite color.) Oh, and note Old Lambie clutched in the left hand.         

Ice Water

Yesterday was clear and very cold (for us). The family took a ride to the state park at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The point on the right is literally the tip of land between the two. The view is roughly to the southeast. All the ice is coming in from the Missouri, on the right. 

The Mississippi, on the left, is clear for a reason. The site is just below the massive lock and dam at Alton, Illinois. Ice backs up behind it and only clear water flows through. There hasn't been enough time and space for it to re-freeze. The drop in elevation downstream is so gradual that there are no locks all the way from St. Louis to New Orleans.             

Where To Go Sledding

The place in STL to go sledding, tubing, or your choice of sliding device is Art Hill. The great sloped arc descends from the art museum to the Grand Lagoon in Forest Park. Almost every child in St. Louis had sped down it at one time or another. The problem, though, is that if you are going too fast you could slide off the edge into the water. It is partly frozen now but was completely open when this was taken.

Today's newspaper headline says they we have stayed below freezing for thirteen days, the longest stretch in 35 years. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/feels-like-i-m-a-kid-again-longest-freeze-in/article_b42a8f29-8309-5599-ba5b-2a8310349bce.html#tracking-source=home-featured As a rule, we're not that cold a city.          

Brrrr

We have not been above freezing since before Christmas and there have been several nights sub-zero Fahrenheit (that's -18 C. Why this country does not convert to metric is beyond me.). That's unusual for here. In these pictures, freezing condensate pours off the top of the Federal Reserve Bank next to my office building (maybe they have to keep the money chilled) and ice flows throughout the Mississippi.

As I look out my office window this afternoon, there are chunks of ice in the river from bank to bank. If time and weather permit tomorrow, I may walk out onto Eads Bridge (rear of second photo) or even drive up to the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi. It's not that far away but the route is very indirect because of the shape of the rivers. And I've been trying to find the last time the river froze solid here. Hard to be sure but I think it was 1936.       

Fox & Friends

I didn't see anyone dressed like this in the frigid Mississippi after I arrived but I suspect the event began before the advertised hour of noon. There was a picture in the Post-Dispatch yesterday taken from the back of someone water skiing in a Santa suit. I didn't see it. But was it this man? The suit doesn't look soaking wet.

A couple of the TV stations always show up with reporters and camera operators. You can see them milling around below. (New Year's is usually a slow news day.) The local Fox outlet got an interview with the person who would have played Santa in Frozen if Santa had appeared in Frozen. No Fox in this household. We watch MSNBC.   

BTW, that skin color and tone is a nice example of what the Fuji X-T2 can do. My 5DM3 would have put too much magenta in the face and coat.   

The Age Of Crazy Has Not Passed

It was -5F / -20.5C when I woke up yesterday morning. At noon on the riverfront it was 4F / -15.5. The water temperature was just below freezing. Remember, we are on about the same parallel as Sicily and Athens.

Being New Year's Day, it was time for the annual water ski run on the Mississippi by the Missouri Disabled Water Ski Association, a fine organization that gets people usually confined to wheelchairs out on the water at high speed. Fine people, yes, but they don't all necessarily have all their marbles together.

I've shot this event before and on some cold days, but I've never seen ice in the river on January 1. It left the skiers with little room to maneuver. Only two people tried and only one actually got up.      

First day of  shooting with just the Fujifilm X-T2. There were other photographers with big Canon cameras and bigger white lenses. Doubt they got better shots than I did and my shoulders left in better shape.    

Definitely Not Normal

As a rule, our winters are not very severe. Not a lot of snow. It gets chilly but not that bad and not that long. At the moment, though, we have an exception.

I'm going to sound like a weather weenie to our friends up north but we got a bunch of snow yesterday. Last night through tomorrow we've got the coldest temperatures the central and eastern US have seen in maybe 20 years. The TV weather reporters, always trying to whip up a frenzy, keep referring to it as an arctic vortex. (Whatever that means. Sounds scary.) It has not been below 0F/-18C here in 15 years. I think it got to -9F/-23C last night and should reach -11F/-24C tonight.

The region was shut down on Sunday. I got these pictures in a park a short distance from my home.           

The Quiet Of Cold

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Cold weather seems quieter to me than warm. Fewer people out and about, only a few hardy birds left, no leaves to rustle in the wind. Bare tree branches have much less to say. In the summer people are outdoors and there is much more activity.

As the days become chilly some spots around town get a lonely feel. The ticket windows at the baseball stadium are abandoned. Come spring, this place will be full of chatting throngs.