March 31, 2010 - Lion or Lamb?

March draws to a close and I'm really not sure if it would be classified as out like a lion or out like a lamb. Some folks might see -20 oC (regular temperatures for end of March) as a bit chilly and lion-like but I equally think that hovering around +1 to -5 oC with fog depositing ice intermittent with freezing rain, ice pellets and rain as not that particularly attractive weather either ...

On March 29, the temperatures started to rise but the morning was windy with ground drifting and light snow starting around lunch time. Katrina and I were out sampling frozen sediment in the bottom of some the shallow ponds around the Centre for University of Waterloo researchers. Over the course of the day about 5 cm of new snow fell.


Yesterday evening it rained a bit with heavy freezing rain falling early in the morning on Wednesday (2-4 am). This followed several short bouts of freezing rain throughout the previous day. All to say this made for fairly icy and slippery conditions on the highway with a decent layer of ice on the vehicles. The staff ride out to the Centre took about 45 minutes due to the slippery road conditions. For those of you who've been at the Centre.... you can imagine the sounds in the back lab with all of the ice falling off the tower and tower guy lines and onto the metal roof .

Here's the conditions at the back door of the lab ...



And the fog depositing ice....


So rather or not it's a lion or lamb out there is still up for grabs. Inside the Centre it's fiscal year end and we are busy counting our inventory and finishing up another record year for user days at the CNSC.