Sometime this morning, Frosty went through the snowman equivalent of the French Revolution and lost his head!
Today's pictures of Frosty have been added to my Picasa album The Death of Frosty. A thick cloud cover has left everything looking dreary and grey, today's pictures are a little dimmer than from previous days. It was a sunny and warm morning, but a cold front moved through around noon and brought clouds for the rest of the day. No precipitation accompanied the front, but it will knock our temps back to average for this time of year.
I measured 9.4" of snow on the ground at 17:56. It varies from 0 to 20" throughout the yard. My high temp today was a tenth of a degree above yesterday, at 59.9 degrees, after a morning low of 45.1. Dew points have risen over the last three days by 30 degrees, 42 currently.
I took this video from the middle of my front yard, close to where I take most of my snow measurements. The video shows the large snowbank off the edge of the deck, a snow-free area under some trees on the lawn's edge, Frosty says "Hi", the deeper snow along the treeline, bushes on the south side of the house, and ending back at the deck.
Almost spring on the hill. I found a few bunches of daffodils sprouting up in the snow-free area under some trees in the front yard. I was surprised to find them over 4 inches tall already!
The snow should continue to recede the next few days, with more and more lawn and flower beds becoming exposed.
After today's cold front, the forecast calls for 53 tomorrow, 51 on Friday, and 49 on Saturday. A warm-up then takes us higher for Sunday and Monday. Between Sunday and Tuesday we may have a chance of some thunder and passing rain showers. A threat of below-freezing weather then follows as an upper-level low passes by on Tuesday.
Snow depth across the region.
This map (to the left) shows estimated snow depth from the NORHSC around western Lake Superior as of this morning.
The higher elevation of the Arrowhead of Minnesota seems to have the most snow sticking around yet. The high terrain of Wisconsin and the UP still has some deep snow yet too, but certain areas have little or none, like the sand plain around Ashland.