February 19, 2011

Today the temperature dropped 35 degrees relative to yesterday, to a more seasonal 20 degrees by mid-afternoon, and it's on way down to about 8 degrees overnight, a change of some 45 degrees in 24 hours.  The lake looked much different today, with a strong squall blowing through in the morning, and then gusty winds blowing the new snow all day.  Laconia airport reported winds as high as 49 mph.  This picture shows the squall just as it came from the north, from the left side of the picture.  In just a couple of minutes there was a complete white-out.  It only lasted about half an hour, and within a hour the sun was out.

I did check the ice today.  From top to bottom it looks like this:  1 inch of snow, 5 inches of white ice (frozen slush), about 8 inches of slush, and finally 11 inches of solid black ice.  A total depth of 24 inches not counting the snow on the top.