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By Griff Wigley, on June 18, 2010, 7:13 am
 Last night’s storms by-passed Northfield once again. (The boys of KYMN joke that we’re protected by a high-pressure bubble whenever storms head our way.) When the sirens went off at about 5:30 pm, many people on Bridge Square for the Taste of Northfield headed for shelter in nearby stores or the Armory.
But just as many looked at the sky and could tell that nothing was imminent and just hung around and socialized. People like me. The tornado sirens ended after about 5 minutes, we got a few drops of rain, and that was it.
I don’t understand the decision-making process and the chain of command for when local sirens are deployed. There’s no information about it on the City of Northfield’s emergency information page.
But it seems to me that the sirens too often are deployed too quickly, thereby teaching the public to not take them seriously because 99 times out of a hundred, nothing severe happens.
Or am I wrong?
By Griff Wigley, on April 1, 2010, 6:43 am
 It was 81 degrees yesterday so Robbie and I opened all the windows to let in the fresh air. No screens necessary, we thought, till we started swatting mosquitoes. Oy. It could be a long hot summer.
Here’s a 30-second animated slideshow looking back to a gorgeous, –20 F mosquito-free day in January in downtown Northfield. The photos are from two of my hoar frost photo albums, here and here.
Music: “Italian Movie” by Graham Wigley. Continue reading Mosquitoes hatch; makes me long for January
By Griff Wigley, on March 16, 2010, 8:48 am
   
I saw a guy wading hip deep across the floodwaters at the footbridge below the Hwy 19 Lyman Lakes dam yesterday afternoon. Alas, I didn’t get there in time to take his photo. The ‘lake’ is covering most of Laird Field.
For a comparison of this year’s high water on the Cannon River, see the June 2004 floodwaters album, the large slideshow, or this small slideshow:
Continue reading Cannon River floodwaters: no contest compared to 2004
By Griff Wigley, on March 14, 2010, 9:06 pm
By Griff Wigley, on March 12, 2010, 9:35 pm
Peter Seebach and my wife both alerted me to a massive ice jam on the Cannon River today. It apparently extended from the 5th St. bridge back to the Hwy 3 bridge by Babcock Park. But by the time I got there at 5 pm  to take a photo, it had broken up and mostly cleared.
Fortunately, Carlson Capital Management’s Tim Jackson (who also has his own web design company, Computer Titan) captured the breakup with a photo and some video.
Continue reading Video: massive Cannon River ice jam breaks up
By Griff Wigley, on February 13, 2010, 12:18 pm
I hauled out my old tripod and a new monopod this morning to try to do a better job at capturing yet another spectacular hoar frost. I got much better pre-dawn shots of downtown than last time. And I spent a couple hours in Carleton’s Lower Arb once it got light.
  
Here are three people shots. Photo albums are forthcoming but it may take me till mid-July to sort, crop and publish them.
By Griff Wigley, on February 11, 2010, 8:22 am
 The 11 inches of snow we got earlier this week have made for a winter wonderland. The snowshoeing and cross country skiing are fantastic. And photo buffs like me are having a ball.
Erin Mayberry has a blog post on Northfield.org about Community Ed and Rec’s Snowshoeing 101 class on Saturday.
I took the photo above yesterday in Carleton’s Upper Arb. Here are 6 more, 3 of them macros:
Continue reading It’s a winter wonderland out there so let’s play hooky!
By Griff Wigley, on February 9, 2010, 7:07 am
 Many local schools/districts cancelled classes two hours early yesterday and have scheduled two-late starts today cancelled classes today (Northfield school-closing info here).
I noticed some people bitching whining thoughtfully discussing this on Facebook yesterday and today. Some comments:
Continue reading If you were superintendent of schools, what would guide your snow-related school-closing decisions?
By Griff Wigley, on February 8, 2010, 11:09 am
  
Brothers Jon Feldman and Matt Feldman from Cannon River Tree Care were pruning trees on Bridge Square this morning in the middle of our gorgeous snowfall. Jon said that winter is the perfect time to prune trees.
Tim Freeland at KYMN has blogged that schools are closing early. Kids love to climb trees so why not give them some rope, saws and clippers and have them trim your trees today? If they fall, the snow cover should protect them just fine. If they cut off a digit or two, no biggie, the Northfield Hospital has a great surgical team, plus it helps the local medical economy.
By Griff Wigley, on January 3, 2010, 8:01 am
The bank thermometers read –28, –25 and –23 degrees F. at 7 am this morning. Carleton’s Weather page was showing –22.5.
 We’ve been below zero since New Year’s Day around 4 pm but yesterday morning around 7 am, the temperature was considerably warmer… above boiling, actually. What was going on over there at Carleton? (A tip-of-the-blogger hat to Brendon Etter, Textbook Manager at the Carleton College Bookstore for the alert.)
By Griff Wigley, on December 24, 2009, 6:46 am
  I got a call from Dean Kjerland at Art On Water Gallery yesterday, alerting me to some lily pad-like ice floes circulating below the Ames Mill dam. He wondered whether they were pollution related. Rob Schanilec at By All Means Graphics theorized that last summer’s repairs to the adjacent retaining wall may be causing a different circulation pattern in the water, as he doesn’t remember this phenomenon occurring.
Wikipidia has an entry on ice circles. Evidently, there are two different types. More photos here.
Update 12/25: Patrick Enders emailed me this photo of a single large ice circle at the foot of the dam that he took with his iPhone about 1-2 weeks ago. He says in a comment below that there were two of them.
Update 01/12: Another batch of ice circles has formed during the current cold snap:
  
By Griff Wigley, on December 23, 2009, 3:05 pm
I’ve loved snowstorms ever since I was a little kid and heard the stories of the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940 in which my grandfather froze to death. (I wasn’t born yet.)
I sure hope this storm, which is shaping to be similar to the the Halloween Blizzard of 1991, doesn’t disappoint. So far, so good, though west of the Cities looks like the prime target right now.
This 1:30 pm snowfall prediction map is from the Twin Cities NWS.
For you Twitterers, the hashtag to follow is #snowmageddon.
Got news? Got stories? Help keep your fellow Northfielders updated by attaching comments here.
By Tim Freeland, on December 10, 2009, 10:15 pm
[show_avatar email=tim@kymnradio.net] After three days and 8,341 still shots from our KYMN camera on the historic Scriver Building in downtown Northfield, Adam Gurno and I put together a time-lapse version of this week’s 8-10″ of snow during blizzard conditions and a full-out snow day! Watch closely as there is a quiz at the end of this 3-minute video presentation. Grab some hot cocoa and enjoy!
By Griff Wigley, on December 10, 2009, 6:48 am
  
According to blogger and meteorologist Paul Douglas, Northfield got 9.5 inches of snow yesterday, making downtown parking and walking, um, challenging. No problemo today, as crews worked all night to haul it all away. See Adam Gurno’s Winter storm round-up on Northfield.org for links to snow-related posts and photos around the Northfield blogosphere. Two more photos:
Continue reading 9.5 inches and downtown is all cleaned up
By Griff Wigley, on December 9, 2009, 6:15 am
By Griff Wigley, on December 3, 2009, 8:57 am
  I took this photo at 8:25 am. The “no parking downtown after 1pm” signs are up. Winter Walk rules, baby!
On Tuesday, the first issue of Localmotive, the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s new e-newsletter, arrived. Sign up for it here.
Continue reading Snow, Localmotive arrive just in time for Winter Walk
By Griff Wigley, on June 23, 2009, 1:20 pm
A Paul Douglas’ blog post titled Severe storm warnings south/west of the Twin Cities, updated at 12:50 pm, includes a mention of Northfield:
 Severe storms with strong/violent straight-line winds are raging across southern Minnesota. This first batch of severe storms will probably pass off just south of the Twin Cities, affecting the far southern suburbs like Faribault, Waseca and even Northfield.
By Griff Wigley, on February 22, 2008, 11:54 pm
 
Northfield’s Aug. 2006 hailstorm (and four of my photos — see my one-year hailstorm anniversary blog post) gets two full pages in a chapter on hail in consulting meteorologist Michael Mogil’s new book, Extreme Weather: Understanding the Science of Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Floods, Heat Waves, Snow Storms, Global Warming and Other Atmospheric Disturbances.
“… the book addresses many facets of our world’s current spate of wild weather, but with new perspectives and stunning photography. Global warming/ climate change issues are linked to understanding general weather processes.”
Mogil’s How the Weather Works web site has lots more info about weather and his company’s services.
Update 11/27/10: Mike Mogil paid a visit to Northfield yesterday and did a little informal book-signing at the GBM.
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