Winter Weather Notes for the End of February / First Week of March

  This has been an unusual Winter, as far as snowfall. I've written this before, but things got a lot stranger right at the end!

  Between November 1st through February 15th, total snow accumulation for Indianapolis was just 8.8 inches. The most snow cover we'd had on the ground at once was about 2.5" and this had happened in the middle of November during a rare early snowstorm. There had been almost no snow at all during December. All through January and the first half of February we had small snow events that put 2" to 1" or less snow amounts on the ground (usually less than 1"). Few of these snow covers lasted more than a few days.

  Then from February 16th through March 1st; just 13 days time, we received a total of 16.7" of snow ... nearly twice as much as we'd had in the previous 107 days! There were small snow events from Monday the 16th through Wednesday the 18th that put 2" of accumulation down, followed by bitterly cold air. Then our first really serious snowstorm of the season arrived on Saturday, February 21st (see previous entry). This gave us just short of 6" in less than a day, and at least 7" of snow cover total.

  The last week of February itself was colder than normal with some minor snow systems. By Saturday the 28th we still had about 4" - 5" on the ground. But starting on the evening of the 28th through much of Sunday, March 1st, an even more potent late snowstorm passed slowly through the area and put down nearly 8" of new snow. We now had a foot or more on the ground! Here are photos I snapped that morning; two from the front yard and two from the back patio.

  The only good thing about this biggest winter storm was that since, this time, we'd received over 6" of snowfall, the city actually mobilized their private contractors to plow subdivisions like ours. Though our neighborhood streets were nearly impassable for most of Sunday the 1st, they were plowed by sunset. They were still snow covered, but they were drivable.

  Monday March 2nd was a mostly sunny day that got above the freezing point, so there was a little snow melt during the day. Then two more systems moved through on Tuesday the 3rd and Wednesday the 4th that made things a little strange. Both were southern systems. On the 3rd we started out with some nasty freezing rain in the morning through noon, but during the afternoon the air warmed enough for precipitation to turn to light regular rain and dense fog. After this system moved out, there was a major snowstorm that passed just south of Indianapolis and ended up bringing us hardly any snow, thankfully. Parts of Kentucky had over a foot of it, and counties close to the Ohio River also received several inches.

  There was one last big surge of Arctic air on Thursday the 5th and Friday the 6th. Low temperatures on both days were in the single digits °F while high temperatures stayed below freezing. The up-and-down weather had reduced our snow cover to about 5" - 6" by Saturday the 7th.

  Looking back, I'm going to think of Saturday, March 7th as the start of what became a much needed Spring Thaw. We reached 42°F on a sunny afternoon, and the snow and ice melt accelerated. I spent much of Saturday afternoon clearing snow and ice from most of the patio, hoping to get some Lunar Observing and Photography in after nightfall. Just to compare how everything looked six days after the first batch of photos, here are some I took on Saturday afternoon the 7th from the back yard. (Note: The cover on the grill looks beat up mainly due to hail storms last May!)
 

  There was much better spring-like weather to come as March really got underway! In hindsight, it looks like the last two weeks of February and the first days of March were Winter's Big Last Blast!
 

Saturday February 21, 2015 - Winter Weather Notes and an Evening Grouping of Venus, Mars, and the Waxing Crescent Moon

  This has not only been a tough time of year to get out to do some observing, it's been difficult to even work up the motivation to observe. Cold air, bitter wind chills, and snow all over my back porch always sap my enthusiasm to carry the telescope outside, get it assembled, and shiver while standing and staring through the eyepiece. It's especially tough on my hands; I've never figured out how to change eyepieces, work the telescope's control paddle, and take notes while wearing gloves. Usually my fingers get numb and painful within fifteen minutes of exposure, and I'm usually retreating back inside to warm up after just half an hour. Winter skies have some of the best targets and the season often features the darkest and most transparent conditions, but it also gives me the worst environment for doing amateur astronomy.

  Last winter (2013-2014) was a horrible one. It had the worst cold snaps in twenty years and the heaviest snow accumulation in thirty years! I did very little observing then. For obvious reasons!

  This winter things have been a lot different. We've definitely had some long, harsh cold snaps (with some big thaws here and there) but what was amazing, at least up to February, was the lack of snow. The most accumulation we had on the ground was 2.5" in mid-November. That was gone in days. We had some very minor "dustings" of snow cover in late November all the way through December. On January 5th and 6th we had a 2" snowfall that stayed on the ground, then more minor snowfalls through the rest of that month. There was slightly worse weather in February, with several 1" to 1.5" snowfalls scattered through the month. And, as I mentioned, we've had several surges of very cold Arctic air in those months.

  This past week has been the harshest of all for the winter. On Monday the 16th we ended up on the edge of a southern winter storm system which ended up giving us about 1.5" of snow all over the ground. This was followed by a strong, windy blast of cold air that was preceded by another inch of snowfall Tuesday evening the 17th through Wednesday morning the 18th. Wind chills in Indianapolis went below zero°F from the daylight hours of Wednesday and stayed there through Friday afternoon the 20th. We had issues with blowing and drifting snow, especially on Wednesday. It was brutal!

  (I should write here that New Moon occurred at 6:47 PM EST on Wednesday February 18th.)

  By Friday the 20th things looked like they were improving. The latest "polar vortex" had moved on and south winds had temperatures climbing back into the teens°F by afternoon. But we were under a Winter Storm Warning by afternoon, with another southern system expected to clobber us Saturday. Anywhere from 4" - 7" of accumulation was expected in Indianapolis. 2" or so of snow cover still remained on the ground.

  There were some light flurries on Friday evening the 19th. At midnight, as Saturday began, the snow started falling steadily, from big wet flakes to smaller pellets. There was an extra inch on the ground by 1:30 AM and at least 2" of new snow everywhere by 3:00 AM. Winds were light and the temperature was rising all night. At midnight we'd been at 16°F with a wind chill of 6°F but by sunrise (at 7:29 AM) we were at 21°F without much of a wind chill. Snow kept falling in bands throughout this morning and finally tapered off by about 2:00 PM. From what I can see, the south side of Indianapolis received about 5" of new snow from this system, and we ended up with 7" on the ground total including the accumulation we'd had from the systems earlier this week. This was how the front yard and driveway looked by 2:00 PM today. This wasn't a big storm by last winter's standards, but it was by far the storm with the heaviest snowfall we'd had this winter.

  Sunshine started to break out on Saturday afternoon, and winds stayed light. By afternoon we crept above the freezing point for the first time in nine days (since the evening of Wednesday February 11) and peaked at 35°F by 4:00 PM. It was actually a pleasant feeling afternoon after being in the deep freeze for over a week! Clouds started moving in again by dusk and temperatures started falling. By midnight, under overcast skies, we were down to 20°F with calm winds. I'd spent the day shoveling and sweeping the front sidewalk and driveway, and clearing the snow from the Civic. Here's how things looked by about 5:00 PM.

  Overcast skies on Friday night the 20th had spoiled my view of a close grouping of the Waxing Crescent Moon, Venus, and Mars. However, on Saturday evening the 21st the sky at dusk was clear enough to see all three of these objects in a slightly different arrangement.At 6:45 PM (about 18 minutes after sunset) I stepped out the back door with the 7x50 binoculars to have a look. The Moon was a thin bright fingernail shape just three days past New Moon, with Earthshine clearly visible on the unlit part. It was about 13 degrees above Venus, which was easy to see with the naked eye even as sunset had been happening. Using the binoculars first, then with the naked eye, I could see much dimmer Mars extremely close to the upper right of Venus (just 26' away, or less than half a degree!) I made a rough sketch of how they all looked this evening and included it below.