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By Griff Wigley, on January 27, 2012, 2:24 pm
Carleton professor Jeff Ondich is a GBM regular and this morning he stopped by my corner office to alert me to the ice circles forming below the Ames Mill dam. I blogged about ice circles back in 2009 but haven’t seen them since.
  
Jeff’s photos (left and center) of the ice circles with his smartphone turned out a lot better than those from my smartphone. However, he really does have zombie eyes from spending too much time in front of a computer. In addition to being a computer science professor, he owns a language software/app company in Dinkytown called Ultralingua; they also have word game app called Accio. Now if we could only convince him and his Twin Cities-based employees to relocated to Northfield. Hmmm.
By Griff Wigley, on January 8, 2012, 9:53 pm
  
As I walked in the Lower Arb this afternoon, it was hard to believe we’re heading into mid-January: runners in shorts; March-like mud; no snow anywhere. WTF. If it wasn’t for mountain biking, I would be really difficult to live with. I may have to start wintering in Valdez, Alaska, the snowiest city in the US, where they’ve gotten 270 inches thus far.
By Griff Wigley, on December 26, 2011, 6:32 am
  
I don’t know if my Xmas Eve post (Looking for a place to ice skate outdoors? Consider the pond in Hidden Valley Park) had anything to do with it but a game of hockey broke out on the pond in Hidden Valley Park yesterday afternoon.
It was classic neighborhood pond hockey: shoes for goal posts, goalies in their shoes, no checking, no raising the puck, no one bothering to keep score, lots of smiles.
  
By Griff Wigley, on December 25, 2011, 10:15 am
By Griff Wigley, on December 11, 2011, 11:58 pm
While digging through my photo archives to create the new winter-oriented photo banners now at the top of Logro, I browsed through my photo album of the blizzard one year ago today, which I blogged about here.
We received about a foot and half of snow that weekend. I remember thinking as I was about to cross the open field in the Upper Arb in near-whiteout conditions, Should I do this? It would be more than a little ironic if I ended up like my grandfather. (He froze to death during the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940.) I decided that near-whiteout wasn’t the same as complete-whiteout. I loved it.
See the large slideshow (recommended) or slow click this small slideshow:
By Griff Wigley, on September 14, 2011, 7:40 am
By Griff Wigley, on July 23, 2011, 11:48 pm
 I was mountain biking in the Upper Arb this morning when I noticed the approaching storm clouds had a green tint.
I got caught in the fast-approaching deluge (1.75 inches of rain about 45 minutes) but got home in time to notice that one of our window wells was about to overflow into my basement world headquarters. Bucket time. Whew.
  
  
After the thunderstorm passed, I roamed around town on my bike to get a few photos of its aftermath (with email hints on where to go from my buddy Curt Benson who was monitoring the police scanner): Northfield Police helping motorists with stalled cars; trees and power lines down; Trinity Lutheran Church recycled cans strewn over a few acres; Rice County Sheriff officers closing off streets; and artist David Allen with some new landscaping perfectly framing the business sign in his yard.
More storm photos:
By Griff Wigley, on July 18, 2011, 5:20 pm
 The power went out here in the @LoGro neighborhood @5pm so I’m blogging this via my smartphone, standing outside in Hidden Valley Park where I get a better internet connection.
What’s your heat-related story?
By Griff Wigley, on May 23, 2011, 8:33 am
I spotted this partial double rainbow over Northfield last night at about 8pm. while driving along Prairie Ave. near Jefferson Parkway. I didn’t have my good camera with me so I had to use my G2′s video cam instead.
No, it’s not on a par with THEE double rainbow video from last year.
What causes double rainbows? Why is the order of the colors reversed?
By Griff Wigley, on May 9, 2011, 7:19 am
By Griff Wigley, on April 30, 2011, 6:40 am
 
Dundas resident and All Flex Flexible Circuits engineer Paul Jesh has a local weather website up called Dundas MN Weather.
It’s considerably friendlier and more visual than the Carleton College Weather database, though nothing beats that for local historical weather info.
Thanks to Clark Webster for the tip.
By Griff Wigley, on March 22, 2011, 11:43 pm
  
David Hvistendahl showed me the high water mark from last September inside Froggy Bottoms this morning when the pub was destroyed. We’ve got a long way to go to beat that. David said that hydrostatic pressure starts forcing water up from the floor when the Cannon River tops the orange ‘danger’ sign on the 4th St. bridge. We’re getting close to that.
Like last fall, I’m continuing to add photos to the same photo album, in this case Spring flooding 2011.
By Griff Wigley, on February 21, 2011, 6:59 am
We got maybe 7 inches of snow. It stopped snowing at about 7 pm last night. There’s no wind. It’s 25 degrees. The mist is not an issue since the streets and highways are slushy with salt.
And yet, school was cancelled this morning. I don’t get it. But I think it would be helpful if the rationale was included with the announcement by those who make the decision.
By Griff Wigley, on January 21, 2011, 7:38 am
 
The bank thermometers by my house read –28 and –25 at 6:30 this morning. Downtown’s read –22 and the Carleton Weather Database thermometer bottomed out at –23. No wind, though, so it’s a refreshing morning. Photos: Downtown Riverwalk at 7:30 am with a nearly full moon.
It was equally nippy last year on Jan. 3 and on Jan. 15, 2009.
How cold was it at your house this morning?
By Griff Wigley, on December 20, 2010, 7:38 am
By Griff Wigley, on December 12, 2010, 9:18 am
Cross-country skiing on the Ann Sipfle Memorial Ski Trail in Carleton’s Lower Arb yesterday was memorable.
  
There were a few of us making the round trip from Lyman Lakes to Waterford Bridge and back, including Tim Vick and his daughter Laura.
See the album of 20 photos, the large slideshow, or this small slideshow:
By Griff Wigley, on December 12, 2010, 7:45 am
By Griff Wigley, on December 4, 2010, 6:45 am
Northfield seemed to be in the middle of the heaviest snow band from this latest storm. I’m guessing we got 10 inches of the fluffy variety. Anyone have an accurate total?
 
It’ll make parking downtown challenging today for holiday shoppers, as to-the-curb removal won’t happen till tonight. I took these photos shortly after 6 am: Division St. outside GBM and Oolala.
The forecast calls for high temps to be in the teens through next week, perfect for keeping the snow in good condition for Winter Walk 2010 next Thursday, Dec. 9.
Update 4 PM: some additional photos of Division St. between 4th and 5th.
  
By Griff Wigley, on September 28, 2010, 7:53 am
   
As some people have noted in the comment thread attached to my photo album blog post, there were a lot of smiles to be seen Friday and Saturday as citizens and students joined with community leaders and City of Northfield staff to take on the high water.
But it also appears that some things did not go well, and not just because of the power of Mother Nature.
So let’s tease out the good, the bad, and the ugly of how this ‘event’ was handled so that when the next big one occurs, we’re even more prepared.
By Griff Wigley, on September 27, 2010, 1:27 pm
Stephanie Schmidt, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies & Biology at St. Olaf, alerted me to today’s late morning effort to remove the fish that got trapped in downtown’s Riverwalk during the flooding.
Many of the trapped fish are carp, which are non-native and generally nasty fish for our waters. We’re unsure of what else has escaped to the calmer waters. It will be interesting to see. Anyway, if we end up moving fish, it might be a neat opportunity for you to get some more photos. Some of these carp are monsters.
Stephanie was prepared to use a ‘barge shocker’ but nets were enough to do the job.
I’ll have a short video of the operation later today but in the meantime, see my album of 18 photos, the large slideshow, or this small slideshow. Continue reading Photo album/video: Carp, um, rescued from downtown Riverwalk
By Griff Wigley, on September 27, 2010, 7:15 am
Robbie and I got of tour of the flooded area from the air yesterday afternoon, courtesy of Northfielder and Delta pilot Mark Carson and his wife Alice. Mark’s dad, Phil, flew his plane up from Iowa to the Faribault airport, where the four of us then took off with Mark at the controls. We then spent about an hour zooming above Northfield and Dundas.
I have a couple hundred photos and some video but for now, see the album of 18 photos (photos of downtown, Carleton’s Laird Field, the Waterford bridges, and Memorial Field in Dundas), the large slideshow, or this small slideshow:
Continue reading Photo album: aerial view of flooding
By Griff Wigley, on September 23, 2010, 1:54 pm
 
The soggy Froggy Bottoms boys, led by Jake and Dave Hvistendahl, are sandbagging today, as heavy rains overnight and throughout the morning hours have pushed the Cannon River over its banks along the Riverwalk in downtown Northfield.
See the album of 10 24 65 165 222 278 286 307 324 345 370 379 397 photos, the large slideshow, or this small slideshow:
Continue reading Let the sandbagging begin: heavy rains saturate the area
By Griff Wigley, on July 25, 2010, 10:34 am
Friday night’s thunderstorm (actually Sat. morning around 1 am) did some damage on the north side of Northfield.
   
At least four of the historic-type street lights on the east side of Hwy 3 near The Crossing blew down. And many trees near St. Olaf took a beating, including these on Highland Ave., one of which landed on a parked car according to this comment from Josh Dale who lives nearby:
I live on the north-east corner of St. Olaf property, off Highland Ave. The power went out shortly after 1am. No power=no warnings, other than a lightning strike, blown transformers or downed power lines…it was a good several minutes after the power went out that it started hailing and huge branches started ripping off trees in the area. A large part of a tree landed on two cars parked on the roadway of Highland Ave in front of my home. I’m sure many of you are now aware of the significant tree damage around town, especially on the north side. Luckily no one that I’ve heard has been injured by any debris last night, but the possibilities are always there.
We can’t all be expected to rely on media sources for weather warnings. Sirens are quite necessary. If I get woken up at 2am by sirens, I am thankful for the chance to seek shelter if necessary instead of waking up to my family, friends or myself in danger.
Jane Moline commented:
There was substantial damage from the winds with trees down, street lights down. In one case a tree on a house. We lost a bunch of big branches here on the farm, and there was a tree blocking half the road on 2nd street in Dundas.
Anyone else know of damage from this storm?
(To discuss whether or not the warning sirens should have been deployed, see/add to the discussion attached to this blog post.)
By Griff Wigley, on July 14, 2010, 3:29 pm
I got this photo via email from Stephanie Schmidt, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies & Biology at St. Olaf:
 I took this from one of our teaching labs on the 4th floor of Regents Hall. We watched it come down and go back up a few times, but never saw it actually touch the ground from our point of view.
KYMN has photos blogged here.
Strib at 3:12 pm: Tornadoes reported near Lakeville and Northfield
Update 4:30: Photos by Richard Goerwitz, taken at the Computing & Mathematics Center at Carleton:
 
By Griff Wigley, on June 19, 2010, 11:07 am
 Local photographer Joe Miller took photos of Thursday night’s storm skirting Northfield and stitched them together into this panoramic photo.
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