Frigid Conjunction Show

The conjunction of a waning crescent moon and the -4.58 magnitude planet Venus on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 was a beautiful sight, but one could not enjoy it for long. Air temperature was -8 degrees F with -23 wind chill. Taking the above photos was particularly unpleasant as my bare fingers were rendered painfully numb within seconds of their exposure to the air. The top image was captured around 6:20 AM from Miller Road just north of Boyson Road in Hiawatha, Iowa. The middle and bottom images were photographed from Boyson Road, just west of Interstate 380 around 6:10 AM. The moon and Venus were situated around three degrees from one another in the SE predawn sky.

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Snow Holiday

President's Day was a snowy one in the Cedar Rapids/Marion Iowa area on Monday morning, February 17, 2014. Shown above are some winter scenes as the snow continued to fall. The top image was captured around 11:06 AM and shows the trunk of a large fallen oak tree forming an arch shape. Only a sliver of Dry Run Creek was visible in the bottom image as I gingerly negotiated my footsteps over the snow covered ice in the creek bed around 11:16 AM. About five inches of snow fell on this location.

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The Neverending Story

This has been the story for the winter of 2013-2014. One snowstorm with trailing cold after another. The latest edition was this winter system that dropped about 5 inches of snow in the Cedar Rapids/Marion area from Sunday night (February 16, 2014) to Monday morning (February 17). I had Monday off for President's Day so I was able to photograph the event at Boyson Park in Marion, Iowa, near the border of Cedar Rapids. At times, in order to obtain desired perspectives, I needed to wade through knee-deep snow. The top image looks south and was shot around 11:00 AM. The middle image looks west and was shot around 11:18 AM. Temperatures were around 26 degrees F. The bottom image is a radar capture of the storm system, shortly after the middle photo was taken and shows the snow beginning to taper off as it continues east.

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Winter's Long Shadows

Shadows over the snow were all extended as the sun set near the horizon around 4:07 PM, Thursday, January 23, 2014. The very chilly air was at 1 degree above zero F at this moment. This image looks southwest as seen from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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Good Sundog Days

With plenty of opportunities for sundogs because of the abnormally cold winter of 2013-2014, this parhelia presented itself Thursday morning, January 23, 2014. Ground air temperature was a frigid
-10 F degrees F and the sky crystal clear. This image, shot at 8:18 AM CST, looks southeast from Progress Drive near Martha's Way in Hiawatha, Iowa. A hoped-for repeat of the spectacle before sundown on this day did not materialize.

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Sun Haloes 'n' Sundogs

There was parhelia in a couple of forms in the icy air of Eastern Iowa on Tuesday, January 21, 2014.
The top image shows a beautiful sun halo seen from Progress Drive at Martha's Way in Hiawatha, Iowa. A frigid aircraft contrail runs through the circle. Ground air temperature at this time--11:44 AM CST--was -1 degree F. The bottom image shows a sundog in the southwest sky as seen from the entrance of Echo Hill Presbyterian Church along C Avenue near Marion, Iowa around 3:53 PM. Air temperature at this moment was 2 degrees F. Parhelia are created by sunlight refracted through a 22-degree angle by horizontally oriented hexagonal ice-crystal plates.

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Sunrise, Moonset

The sun was climbing into the sky while a waning gibbous moon was dipping. This image of the moon looks toward the west sky as seen from the parking lot at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 7:50 AM, Sunday, January 19, 2014. Sunrise, which occurred about 20 minutes earlier, is illuminating rooftops of houses in the nearby White Ivy Place neighborhood. Air temperature was 20 degrees F.

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