Dec. 8, 2019 - 22 Inches of Snow!

A week ago, there was a snowstorm in Minnesota. I know, that’s not unusual, but it hit Duluth, MN, particularly hard. They had 22 inches of heavy, wet snow. Diana and I had a previously planned trip to Duluth a day and a half after the storm ended. While 22 inches of snow is a lot to deal with, we decided that Duluth was able to handle it, so we went anyway. We were staying at the Inn on Lake Superior and were greeted by this reindeer display that still showed the effects of the storm.

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All that snow didn’t deter this local Rock Pigeon from walking around the parking lot looking for something to eat.

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I drove out along Park Point, a long, thin strip of land that separates the Duluth Harbor from Lake Superior. I wanted to see the effects of the storm. There are many very large pine trees along the road and they were beautifully coated with the wet snow that stuck to their branches.

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The driving wind during the storm plastered wet snow on each of the limbs and the trunk of this tree.

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The accumulated snow put great stress on trees with many small branches.

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This heart-breaking scene shows a whole row of trees bent to the ground with their heavy burden of snow.

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This tree actually succumbed to the wind and snow and left only a small path to drive around it.

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There were also positives from the storm, like the interesting pattern formed on this fence.

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Later that evening we spotted the lights from one of the Great Lakes freighters that was moored a short distance out in the lake. These ships enter the Duluth Harbor by passing through a narrow channel and under a lift bridge. A few days later, I read that the lift bridge was stuck in the “down” position right after the storm. It took a couple of days to remove the ice so it could be lifted again.

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