The first big snowstorm of 2021

Julie waves from the back door at Birch Street HQ

The beginning of February brought heavy snow to parts of the Northeast. The storm moved up the coast on Monday, Feb. 1, and the snowfall continued throughout Groundhog Day in parts of the region.

Among places of interest to our extended family, accumulations ranged from 2-6 inches around Baltimore to about a foot and a half in the northern Catskills. (The highest accumulations reported by the National Weather Service were 35 inches in Nazareth, PA, and Mount Arlington, NJ.) Coastal areas saw far less snow, mixed with rain. 

Cathy shared these views of her suburban Philadelphia neighborhood on Monday afternoon. Accumulations of about 8 inches were reported in the area.

At Birch Street Headquarters in New Jersey, Dan measured more than 14 inches on the ground on Tuesday afternoon, with occasional snow showers continuing.

In upstate New York, Andy and Wren had about 16 inches on their porch Tuesday morning, with light snow still falling. That was on top of about 5 inches already on the ground from occasional snow in recent weeks.

Southern New Hampshire had about 10 inches as of Tuesday morning. Here, one of Christine and Jamie's cats watches the snowfall on Monday evening.

Throughout the storm, Dan and Julie's backyard birdfeeder was very active. "It must be the only restaurant open for miles around," Dan remarked. As seen above, a female Cardinal, a Chickadee and a couple of sparrows were among the visitors. Others included Dark-Eyed Juncos, House Finches, Tufted Titmouses and two varieties of woodpecker. And, in the photo below, an American Goldfinch (the official state bird of New Jersey) stopped by briefly.

Snow scenes from mid-December storm

The first significant snowstorm of the season hit the Northeastern U.S. on Dec. 16-17. Among our family members, Andy and Wren seem to have had the heaviest snowfall: About 28 inches, as measured on their deck the morning of the 17th.

While they've had snow on their northern-Catskills property before, this was the deepest since they moved in at the end of January.

Most of their chickens took one look at the piled-up snow and opted to stay in their coop. This one ventured out, hopped atop the snow and tried to plow its way into the yard before retreating.

At Birch Street headquarters in New Jersey, there was far less snow than forecast: maybe 6 inches instead of a foot-plus.

With no need to go anywhere, Dan and Julie were able to just enjoy the view. (And paid a couple of enterprising young men with shovels to clear their driveway.)

The Philadelphia area was about as far south as the snow reached.

The city received 6-7 inches in what the Philadelphia Inquirer called the region's first major winter storm in 1,000 days.

Cathy took these photos of the pretty scene as the snow fell in her suburban neighborhood.

Winter's in full force - Stay warm, everyone!

As the "polar vortex" sends temperatures plummeting, here are a couple of photos Cathy took after recent snowfalls at her home in Ohio. About six inches fell the weekend of the 12th-13th, and then another six a week later.

"I wanted to go out and take pictures, since it's pretty and sunny," Cathy wrote, "but it's also only 10 degrees out! Brrr!!! So here are a few pictures looking out from the inside."

Florida girl gets to frolic in the snow

Florida resident Courtney was visiting her mom, Nanette, on New York's Shelter Island when she got "snowed in," as the third in a late-winter series of Nor'easter storms rolled up the East Coast.

"I can't complain about getting stuck in this beautiful place," Courtney posted along with these photos.

A day or two earlier, Nanette and Courtney checked on the progress of the house Nanette is having built to be her new Shelter Island home.

Frozen scenes across the Northeast

Most of our extended family is in the deep freeze, as polar air drops deep into the U.S. At this writing, we're expecting temperatures to fall several degrees below zero early Sunday at Birch Street Headquarters in New Jersey.

The photo above was sent on New Year's Eve by Dolores and Hugh from their condo at Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland. Snow fell steadily there from Friday night until that Sunday morning, and the temperature went down to at least -2.

That was before the big East Coast snowstorm of the first week of January. The heaviest snowfall was in New England, and Christine took this photo from the window of her apartment in Norwood, Mass., the next day. At least a foot of snow fell there, but the apartment complex staff did a good job of plowing and shoveling!

   

A taste of winter: First snow of the season

The first snow of the not-quite-yet winter fell gently - and, conveniently, on a Saturday - at Birch Street Media headquarters in New Jersey. It put a pretty coating of white on the bushes and trees ... and on the big honkin' piece of construction equipment sitting across the street.

"New gas lines are being put in around the neighborhood," Dan explains. "Our street is probably next to get torn up. Yay."

Florida family members all safe after hurricane

Hurricane Irma in Florida, Sept. 10-11, 2017

We're glad to know that our family members in Florida are all safe after Hurricane Irma made its way through the state.

At one point, the storm seemed to be aiming for the southeastern part of the state, and there was concern about serious flooding in Palm Beach County where Courtney lives. Irma's western turn lessened the storm surge on the east coast when it struck the state on Sunday, although the high winds brought down trees and power lines and Courtney was without electricity as of Tuesday.

The course change sent the hurricane up Florida's west coast, and for a time it appeared Irma had her eye on Tampa Bay. That raised the concern level for Austin and his daughter, Rachel, who both live in Clearwater, between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. But the storm tracked farther inland than expected and began to weaken. "All is well," Austin messaged Monday morning as what was now a tropical storm began to move away. "No significant damage except for scattered branches on the street. Power is still on. Everyone is safe."

As Irma moved on into Georgia and Alabama, its enormous size brought tropical storm winds across South Carolina and much of North Carolina. Owen reported on Tuesday that he'd been assured by a friend "that my Charleston house is fine and did not become an aquarium." His daughter, Lizzie, currently teaches third grade in the Charleston suburbs and lives in Daniels Island, S.C., which was hit by high wind and tidal flooding on Monday. Liz had retreated to Charlotte, N.C., to wait out the storm, but was able to return Tuesday. The school system, which was closed Friday through Tuesday, resumed classes on Wednesday.

Moon catches sun, we catch glimpses

While the Northeastern U.S. was outside the path of the total eclipse of the sun that crossed America on Aug. 21, a partial eclipse was visible, and some of us were able to get a view.

Julie had obtained a pair of special viewing glasses from an astronomy-minded friend. So as she and Dan, Christine, Andy and Shannon visited Jamie and his mom and stepdad on Cape Cod, they were able to take turns viewing the celestial event.

The orange-tinted photos at the top of this post were taken by Dan by simply holding the glasses over the lens of his camera.

Meanwhile, down in Yonkers, a thin layer of clouds provided just enough filter for Brien to get these shots with his phone camera.

Did anyone else get eclipse photos? Please share them!

Spring is coming, really, right?

-- Updated 3/17 --

Somewhere under there are the crocuses that had begun to emerge from the cold ground outside Birch Street Web headquarters a few days ago. We hope to see them again soon!

About 8-9 inches of various types of frozen precipitation fell in our part of New Jersey during Tuesday's nor'easter.

Meanwhile up in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. --

"This is how my morning started, lol," Mary writes. "It is beautiful though upstate!"

And in Rochester, Rebecca reported on Tuesday afternoon that the snow was "1/2 a Murphy deep" - Murphy her dog, that is. On Wednesday morning she posted a video of Murphy playing in the snow. You can watch it here if you have a Facebook account.

Down in Yonkers, city workers were busy Wednesday clearing away the mounds of plowed-up snow from along McLean Avenue, where Brien has his apartment. "The cops are closing a block at a time and four big and two small shovels dump it into trucks," Brien reported. Why were they being so thorough? McLean is the route of the Yonkers St. Patrick's Day parade, scheduled for Saturday. "Archbishop Dolan is leading the parade this year, so Yonkers wants it to go off without a hitch!"

Also in Yonkers: Kathy sends along this picture of her home: "Cold, but pretty!"

Winter makes its presence felt early

The pine tree in the backyard of Cathy's house in Ohio makes a very wintry, even Christmas-y, scene after three inches of snow fell on Tuesday, Dec. 13.

"It snowed steadily all day," Cathy writes. "Sure makes it feel like Christmas!"

Our family members in Rochester were probably the first to see snow this season, when a storm on the weekend before Thanksgiving blew in a few inches worth of "lake effect" snow. And today saw snow and ice sweep across most of the Northeast.

Good times in the big snow

Besides the digging and shoveling, family members had some fun in the snow on Sunday after the blizzard passed. Here are some photos collected from Facebook. We'd always like to add more!

Bea and Dad. Do we dare venture outside?

Yes! And isn't this cool! Snowy Central Park.

Just chillin'

Xander and his friend relax in their fort.

Meanwhile, Brian takes care of serious business.

Now that's a snowman!