Week of January 8th 2017

The week of January 8th started with snow squalls.  It was around -10 C when I walked down the beach Sunday morning, but with the wind chill it felt much colder.  I realized for the first time I would need some more serious winter gear to stay warm.

I tried to park at my usual spot on 18th street, but enough snow had fallen that I couldn’t get into the parking lot, so I parked instead up near beach one and walked from east to west instead.  The picture below is taken from near the end of the boardwalk looking west.

You could be forgiven for thinking the photo is blurry on the right, but this is a snow squall come in from the lake.  At times visibility was very poor.  It was so cold it was hard to hold onto the camera.  Your hands freeze rapidly with the wind and spray blowing in off the lake.

Overnight the ice had extended dramatically, and was out about 200 feet (my estimate) from shore.  You can see the waves off in the distance past the ice ridge. I didn’t venture out on the ice because I wasn’t sure if it was safe.

There was no ridge from the snow plow up near beach one for some reason (they must have removed it because the banks were large elsewhere), so I had no trouble getting into the parking lot.  As you can see, there is little competition for parking spots in January.  This lot would be packed any day in the summer.

January 9th was a little warmer, but the wind was still pretty nasty.  You can see in the photo below, that just one day later the beach was being swept of snow providing a hard surface to walk on.  Pictured to the right, the ice berms are getting higher as waves continue to crash up forming more ice.

On January 10th we had more snow.  I took a different route and came across a raft lodged in the ice near beach six.  I doubt this came across the lake because it doesn’t look nearly damaged enough.

By the end of the week I realized I was probably going to keep a proper journal of some kind, so I started to carry a better camera with me to take pictures.  Most the pictures after January 10th are taken with a Sony Cybershot already sometimes I still snap pictures with my phone.

The picture below is taken on beach one looking toward the pavilion on Beach street on January 14th.  I have no idea how the large ice chunks got there.  I saw pictures on the news that Beach Drive had been underwater at one point because of high waves so I suspect this is the fallout.  Some heavy equipment must have been piling up snow and I’m guessing the waves eroded the snow banks.

By January 14th enough snow was swept off the boardwalk that you could walk on it again.  Note how the sand from the beach is mixed with snow.  This picture is taken looking from the west end of the boardwalk toward beach one.