Competence when it counts

This week, the weather story in Ontario's Near North is the same as it is in many places in North America, it's all about the usually warm weather.  Last week, however, it was pretty dramatic around here.  There was a great big dump of snow, followed by a big melt-off, followed by an episode of blowing snow.

What I particularly noticed was the way that the people responsible for highway maintenance sent all hands on deck just before the predicted warmfront arrived to prevent a catastrophe. People with plows were pushing a winter's worth of snow accumulation off the shoulders of our country roads so that when melting occurred, the water would run off into ditches and not onto the road, where it very likely would refreeze.  Other workers with shovels moved lumps of snow that were blocking drainage, or soon would be.

They did this unglamorous job successfully and there was no catastrophe.

Just like every year.

I celebrate this competence, so easy to take for granted.

Image: somewhere in the Great White North.

Festival time in Harbin

Some people have not got much winter this year, and some are even complaining about it.  But in Harbin, Manchuria, they've got the snow and ice they need for their annual festival.  Click on this pic to see these Chinese girls having fun, and go to the Big Picture to see lots more.

Another good idea from Japan: Yukigassen

From the Weather Network:

When Canadians think about the ultimate winter sport, games like hockey come to mind. But in Japan, some people think of an organized snowball fight.

This is not your typical backyard snowball face-off. The snowballs aren't just perfect. There are 540 of them. They were made in a machine and are each 6.5 to 7 cm large.

It's part of a game called Yukigassen, which is Japanese for “snow battle.” The first tournament in North America was held in Saskatoon on Friday and Saturday.

Ready for battle

How is it played? Two teams of seven players compete. Each team has a flag, and half of the snowballs, to be used over three periods. There are two ways to win. Either eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with snowballs and getting them “out” or capture the other team's flag.

We can have pictures of winter

It's not very wintry in Windsor, Ont., but we can have pictures of ice and cold.

Above you should see an ice scupture at the Ice Museum in Chena Hot Springs, Alaska, as featured on Jim Wright's Stonekettle Station, quite a nice blog.

And following this link you can see "hair ice" which forms on dead wood in certain conditions. I've got dead wood all over my North Bay area property, but I've never seen this.

Ships in a wintry port

From the Vesseltracker blog.

Ice and snow

The Big Picture has a winter feature including many photos of the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in Manchuria, a favorite event of mine (not that I've been there).

Image: Crabapples in Antrim, New Hampshire, December 12.