Ice Storm Images 3

This is the last of 3 posts featuring ice storm images from last week's storm. I've already shared images from last Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. Today's photos were all taken on Saturday morning as the brilliant sunshine and warmer temperature caused the major melting to occur. Ice was literally falling out of the trees! It was gorgeous! 

These shots were all taken from inside the house. Remember to click on any photo to see larger versions.

Some of the smaller branches were already bare.

Icy trees against a blue sky! Love it!

Icy trees over the garage roof.

More icy beauty.

Having my morning coffee in the great room.

Aside from the beauty of that morning, I also wanted to share the sounds we were experiencing. I opened a window in the dining area and shot some video. It was so much louder in person, but you'll get the idea. Watch and listen for the ice falling. Click on the following link:

Ice Storm Melting

Pretty cool, huh?

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Ice Storm Images 2

As I was editing photos today, I realized that I really had too many to fit into one post, so this will be the 2nd of 3 posts featuring ice storm images from last week. The first post, Ice Storm Images 1, had photos from Wednesday and Thursday. Today's photos were all taken through the windows of our house on Friday.

It was snowing so hard about 4:00 on Friday afternoon, and I was very concerned that all the new snow on top of the ice was going to cause us to lose power again. The forecast was also calling for increased winds overnight.

Thankfully, it didn't continue to snow for very long. By 6:00 p.m., the sun was peeking in and out and the temp had climbed up to 40°.

The icy trees looked gorgeous against the backdrop of the blue sky!

The sun and 40° temp caused some of the ice to melt which took a bit of weight off the trees before the winds increased that night. 

Can you believe that ice? Remember, click on any of these photos to see them larger.

It was difficult to pull ourselves away from the windows!

The real melting began the next morning. I have those photos and a cool video to share with you in the next post.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Ice Storm Images 1

In last Wednesday's post, I mentioned that we were having a good old-fashioned ice storm. It was a doozy! (Not 1976 doozy, though!) I forgot how many times we lost power on Wednesday and Thursday, but the longest outage was the first one that lasted 8 or 9 hours on Wednesday night. Believe me, we were very thankful for the local utility crews who were working so long and hard for several days. This is how the maple tree outside the dining room window looked on Wednesday afternoon.

Here's the ice on one of our huge pine trees.

Even our exterior flood lights were coated.

This one looked like a tree of spun glass.

And I felt kind of sorry for this small pine. It was drooped over like an old man.

Most of our pines were so weighted down with ice that they resembled closed umbrellas. 

Mr. Cut Off and I did not sleep well on Wednesday night. Not only were we without power, but we kept hearing the sounds of tree limbs breaking and falling to the ground. It was pitch black - not a light in the sky. Was that huge pine near our bedroom window still going to be standing at daybreak? Thankfully, yes. It lost some limbs, but it continues to stand. How many trees would be down across our driveway? Thankfully, none. Lots of limbs, though.

Speaking of limbs. Mr. Cut Off had to clear all those from the driveway before we could go anywhere. Since Thursday was his birthday and we wanted to meet friends at our favorite restaurant to take advantage of his FREE birthday dinner, we ventured out. I was able to get some shots of our ice-covered world with more drooping trees along our route. The scenery was what I described as "hauntingly beautiful." The photos simply do not do it justice.

There were many spots where it was obvious that crews had been working to clean up fallen trees encroaching upon the roadway.

It continued to snow on top of the ice while we were in the restaurant making for a hazy trip on the way home.

These trees looked like they were bowing as we passed by. Maybe they were; I do share a birthday with Queen Elizabeth! 😉

There are 2 interesting things going on in the next photo. First, you can see ice on the antenna of the loaner vehicle we were driving. Our Traverse was in the body shop. That's a whole "nuther" story I'll save for another time. Secondly, we were meeting a utility truck. There were actually 2 utility trucks, as another one was following close behind this one. Mr. Cut Off joked that they were probably just leaving our road - that we had probably lost power again. Funny, but true! 

When we arrived home, the clock on the stove showed that power had just been restored 12 minutes earlier. It had been off again almost the entire time we were gone. Good night to go out to dinner, huh?

These last 2 shots are from the road we live on.

Can you spot the 2 fallen trees that the crews had cleared from the road in this last shot? (Hint: There's one on each side of the road.)

I'll be back tomorrow or Wednesday to share some beautiful shots taken on Friday and Saturday. Blue sky and ice melting also made for some cool video!

All is well in the Keweenaw.