A Hazy Shade Of Winter

White gray sky,  a cold wind,  brown leaves, and patches of snow. It's a  hazy shade of winter,  today. Maybe you remember this song by Simon and Garfunkel---

 

November Sky

November  sky--white-gray and winter feel, bare trees and brown leaves and cold wind.  Historically, November is the cloudiest month in Chicago.  November sky---The stormy iron-gray  sky and hurricane-force winds  that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald  in Lake Superior forty-eight years ago on November 10.

But not today--the sky today---sun and cloudless blue!  And the leaves falling in that light, and the colors on the almost-bare branches of the trees...There's a slight breeze chasing the leaves down the streets.  It's a beautiful  fall day. 

Yes, the sky really looks  more blue  in the fall. According to Accuweather, this is due to  drier air, and the angle of the sun at this time of year.  The contrast with the colored leaves is also a part of it.

This period of mild,  dry weather  after the first frost is still sometimes called Indian Summer in North America.   In European folklore, this time before winter cold really sets in has other  names--little summer, poor man's summer, grandmother summer.  You can read more  here.

It is said the veil between the worlds grows thin when the leaves start to fall, and the sky is wide open and blue. And maybe we can imagine spirits, ancestors and loved ones,  dancing with  the leaves....

Update  November 15---another beautiful blue sky day---this is the longest streak of sun and blue sky days in mid-November in 22 years! 

Halloween Snow

  

 

 

 

Apigiannagaut  is a word in the Inuktitut language for the first snow of autumn.  Here in the  Chicago area, we  got the first snow of autumn  on October 31 for Halloween. 

Yes, snow on the carpet of fallen colored leaves. Snow on the pumpkins and skeleton decorations. Snow on the bridges and grassy areas. Sometimes, it was light as the falling leaves. Sometimes it was like being in a snow-globe, snow swirling around in gusts of wind.

Snow squalls they called it. Sun then snow, then sun again. 

Sometimes, the snow looked like tiny white balls. There's a name for this, too--graupel.

According to Wikipedia----"Graupel, also called soft hail, hominy snow, or snow pellets, is precipitation that forms when supercooled water droplets in air are collected and freeze on falling snowflakes, forming 2–5 mm balls of crisp, opaque rime.  Graupel is distinct from hail and ice pellets in both formation and appearance. "

 It's not the first time we've had Halloween snow.  The last time  was in 2019, when 3.4 inches of snow fell in Chicago!  

Today, November 1, a clear blue sky, and cold. Still some snow on the leaves and the grass. Sun on melting snow and falling leaves....