Saturday 13 December 2014

Snow or no snow?

A catch-up post from Wednesday, 10 December. I wake up, look out of my bedroom window and see - snow? Not forecast for today... strange. I get dressed and set off for work.


Stepping outside - a light dusting of snow - or freezing fog? Or a bit of both?


I wait for the bus. It takes me to Ursynów, where there's no snow on the pavements - only frost on the trees. So it looks like Jeziorki did get a light dusting today.


Sub-zero all day long. By the morning of Thursday 11 December, back above freezing. And on Saturday 13 December, the temperature briefly nudged +10C. Below: the corner of ul. Kórnicka and Trombity.


A long time-exposure, ul. Trombity looking towards the lake in the distance.


This time three years ago:
Old manual-focus Nikkor 28mm lens attached to Nikon D40

This time four years ago:
What's the Polish for 'pattern'?

This time seven years ago:
"Rorate caeli de super nubes pluant justum..."

3 comments:

student SGH said...

The puzzle unravalled! It was not the snow, but either thick hoar frost or freezing fog. Easy to recognise by the manner it sets on trees and grass or on car windows. If you can remove it from windscreen by moving wipers (before you try check whether they have not frozen onto the surface), it is crisp snow, if you need to scrape, it is hoar frost or freezing fog.

In Nowa Iwiczna there was no such white powder, in Mysiadło it was, but as I was driving off to Wielkopolska at half past four in the morning I watched it setting, those were particles of diamond dust whirling in the air, rather than snowflakes falling.

Winter in its finery anyway.

On Thursday morning Wielkopolska saw a light dusting of snow which melted by midday anyway.

Michael Dembinski said...

The denser the fog, the greater the hoar deposited... by the time my 209 reached Puławska, which had had the fog blown away by the traffic, there was far less frost in the trees.

"Particles of diamond dust rather than snowflakes" - yes, a very good description of the phenomenon.

Halfway through December, and still no proper snow...

student SGH said...

Hang on, my mistake! I meant hard rime (szadź), rather than hoar frost (szron). Easy to confuse, but the difference is to be taken note of.

And long-term forecast on Twoja Pogoda tells the weather will be stable by the end of year - warm, rainy and windy...