Captain Greybeard’s Novel Ideas: The Forecast Calls for Locusts and Toads: A Photospective

I was going to title this blog post something more poetic like “Summer’s Lament,” but I thought, “where’s the snark in that?” This picture was taken on September 22, the final day of summer, and the season ended as drearily as it began. The next day was the autumnal equinox, but the signs of fall were already showing. The leaves had started to lose their luster by changing their greenish hue from gold to brown, effectively lighting the wick to their final fireworks display. Don’t get me wrong. I love autumn, October being my favorite month of the year, but the feeling is always bittersweet when you know the summer has come and gone.

I’m hoping this fall will be the start of more pleasant and tolerable weather, since the previous three seasons were a parade of misery. Minnesota was lucky enough not to have suffered much from tornadoes, drought, heat waves, wild fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes like many areas of the country, New England especially; but we did have our own special dose of suffering.

The start of the year was a carryover from the frequent snow storms we had at the beginning of winter in 2010. On many occasions I would say this would be the winter that would kill me or make me stronger. There were times when I was in the middle of shoveling snow hills like the hump of Moby Dick that I was sure my heart would give out. Fortunately, our neighbor had a snow blower and a generous spirit and plowed much of our driveway and front walk. What remained was still daunting and had to be shoveled repeatedly.

Another successful shoveling job on 01-22-11

Another 8 inches on 02-21-11

Snows starting to melt 03-23-11

Fresh snow on 04-20-11

The snows eventually stopped (I’ve taken to blame the Canadians), but the weather was slow to warm. I posted earlier this year how my mood was matching the weather (cold and unpleasant). On May 2, the temperature was 36 degrees at noon. At that time, there were only a couple days over 60 degrees. At the end of May, the weather became mercurial with a mix of rain, then decent weather, and at least one instance of a tornado.

The tornado must have knocked something loose, meteorologically speaking, because the weather got really screwy with intense storms, heat and humidity. The heat index was so bad that there were times when our favorite restaurant next to Lake Calhoun, the Tin Fish, only offered cold items for fear of overwhelming the grill cooks. But first, the summer came in with a whimper.

June 21, 2011

As you can see, there are a few puddles from some rainstorms that rolled in prior to the first day of summer. This would be a recurring event through much of the summer. A few weeks later, we had a very intense thunderstorm; so intense that another lake was formed. The temperature was in the mid-90's with 70% humidity (Sunday, July 17, 2011).

McKnight Road near home

Did you know Minnesota also suffers from mudslides? They're not as a dramatic as those in California or India, but they do happen. The top layer of this guy's lawn gave up and slid into Cedar Lake Parkway.

July 26, 2011

The heat and humidity didn't have much time to dissipate before the next storm rolled in. I was at work when the last one hit. The day started bright, but in the afternoon, it was absolutely dark - winter evening dark. There were felled trees and broken branches in many areas, especially in north Minneapolis (pictures taken August 1, 2011).