March in Minnesota

I usually avoid talking too much about the weather, especially in negative terms, because it is what it is and there is no point to bitching about something that is inevitable and unchangable. It will be cold (really, really cold) in Minnesota in the winter, it will be hot (but mostly not too hot) in the summer, there will be rain and snow and clouds and sun. Oh, and most of March in Minnesota will be disgusting, both because it is a bit warmer and therefore the melting snow makes it very overcast in a normally very sunny state and because I am not from here, which means that I feel like it should be springlike by the end of March. HOWEVER, sometimes said weather is remarkable enough to comment upon.

A few weeks back, we got two waves of snow less than a week apart totaling about 24 inches.

It went from this:



To this:


And then to this:

(Turns out that I don't have any pictures of the snow after the second storm. Imagine the first doubled here)

There were 8-foot high piles on snow all over, because the plows had to put the snow somewhere. This persisted for a bit, and then in the past week or so it warmed up quite a bit. On Monday, I took advantage of the 50 degree F (!) weather and the time change and went for a long walk along the creek after work. Even after almost a week of temps well above freezing, there was still quite a bit of snow. However, the presence of liquid water outside (!) for the first time in months was lovely:

Notice all of the ducks. In a few weeks they will be dashing in front of cars on the parkway honking indignantly because they are CROSSING here with their ducklings. Here are more ducks:


They honked at me for daring to be on the sidewalk.

The creek is lovely:



And still a bit frozen:



You'd never guess at some points at how close the surrounding houses are:




There are bridges:



And then I walked the few block back to my house through the neighborhood. The melting snow was trapped by the not-yet-melted snow, which meant quite a bit of water on the streets and sidewalks:



Some of the puddles, combined with the angle of the light, made for some cool pictures:







That last one is my favorite.

Then I walked down the alley, went through the gate, and I was home. You will notice how much snow still has not melted:



It was getting dark, so I went inside. I had to finish filling out my bracket (Go Hoyas!!!!)