October 16th Coyotes howling at the full moon

Good morning everyone! It is a warm 47°F outside and currently dry. We had a beautiful shot at the full moon and the stars this morning during our morning walk. Thanks to the glorious light of the moon, which was bright enough to makes us feel like we had a powerful flashlight on us at all times (and even cast shadows!), it felt safe to walk around outside after what we had heard all night.

Yes, you guessed right – we heard coyotes the night before! At first, when my human woke up at 2 a.m., she thought it was us, because all she heard was whines, yips and squeals. She checked to make sure we were inside and healthy – she even poked my belly since I was dead asleep on the couch and not making a peep. Going back upstairs, she realized that it was a band of coyotes making that chorus outside the bedroom window! Winston and I couldn’t be too concerned, however, since we had more important things to do at 2 a.n. – namely, sleep.

Today at 5:45 a.m. the sky was starry and the air was so dry, we needed a humidifier at night. However, that is not going to be the case for the rest of the day, as we are expecting a massive storm, an infamous Nor’easter. This one is supposed to dump over 2 inches of rain on us today, which is an amazing feat for upstate New York. The eye of this storm is supposed to have an extremely low pressure and undergo a phenomenon that they are calling “bombogenesis”, when a low-pressure system in the mid-latitudes (us) drops 24 mb in 24 hours. Our barometer is currently reading 1008, which is already lower than 1 atm, and falling. We are excited to read it again tonight and see by how much the pressure has dropped.

This Nor’Easter is part of a weather pattern that explains why we aren’t getting snow yet on the East Coast – there is too much warmth and moisture coming up from the South still this time of year. Yet, if this pattern continues, this will translate into snow, as the temperature will drop eventually below freezing and this warmth and moisture will then become wet and heavy snow.

As we are snow-lovers, we are excited about this possibility and preparing ourselves for our favorite winter activities such as the popular sport of driving on the snow (snow tires), keeping warm during the snow (igloos for me and Winston, warm shoes for humans), having fun in the snow (coats for us, season passes for humans), and talking about the snow (snow-day attire, snow festival decorations, and snow-day plans). Here in upstate NY, we embrace hygge like it’s our job. Time to break out the fuzzy socks!

Have a great Wednesday everyone and remember that cold planet is a healthy planet. We have gone through five ice ages and survived, after all! (I’m talking about canines, that is. Not sure what you fur-less humans were up to).

Love,

Mack

October 13th Fall Records

Good morning everyone! Today we woke up to an outdoor temperature of 34°F and an indoor temperature of 68°F. We managed to maintain a very high indoor temperature because yesterday, my humans kept adding to the fire to keep it going and accidentally brought up the inside temperature to 81°F! Winston and I weren’t complaining, though – we had our faces pressed against the stone in front of the fire, pretending it was summer again.

This morning we got the same recipe that we’ve been getting the last week: chilly night temperature that gets down to dew point, fog, and daytime temperature expecting to rise to 60°F. The only notable difference will be mid-week next week when a cold front should bring colder temperatures and a bit of rain from Wednesday to Thursday, but definitely no snow yet.

This is different from last year. We checked our own records yesterday (my human had been keeping a paper record) and on October 17th of last year, 2018, it had already snowed and even left an accumulation on the morning of October 18th on our deck. However, we never got a frost that year – it went straight from raining to snowing. It was a very wet fall and the leaves weren’t as pretty as they were this year. We also barely got any apples last year.

The previous owners of the house reminded us that in 1987, they were getting 20 inches of snow on October 5th! Snow is definitely not unheard of this time of year.

This year, we’ve had a dry autumn filled with very seasonably acceptable temperatures. We’ve had three definite frosts (and a maybe baby frost) so far and our temperatures are regularly meeting dew point at night, so every time we have a dew point below zero, we get frost. The sunny warm daytime temperatures and chilly but not freezing nighttime temperatures mean that the fall foliage is popping this year. Snow is not in the forecast – yet.

This weekend we are going to be enjoying the fall weather some more and indulging in our favorite fall activities, such as chasing squirrels, running through piles of leaves, laying by the fire with our belly up, and sleeping in our humans’ laps.

Last night we got a beautiful family portrait in the mail from Canada! Can you see the likeness of our two humans and of ourselves?

Enjoy the long weekend all! And remember – winter is coming!

Love,

Mack

 

 

October 12th True Fall

Good morning everyone! We woke up to 40 degrees F today, but inside it was a toasty 70 degrees since we lit a fire in the wood stove. We took a nice walk as the sun was rising and got to play around in the leaves. By the way, it is Children’s Day in Brazil, so happy day to all those who are still children at heart!

Our morning habits have changed considerably, which is why it has been difficult for me to write in the morning! Our usual morning walk takes place at 6 a.m. In October, it is now pitch black at 6 a.m. until the time my humans leave to go to school. This poses a serious conundrum given that we like to observe nature, take pictures, and give updates before my humans get any serious work done. Without light, that becomes very difficult. We have decided to remedy this by starting to take 3 o’clock walks. We could pretty much call this column “Afternoon Walks with Mack”  from October to May since sunlight is scarce in the winter during non-working hours!

Our backyard sure is pretty in the afternoon sun. Take a look at all the gorgeous pictures we took yesterday! If you look closely you can see leaves falling like rain.

Our humans have discovered a couple beautiful anomalies to take note of, one of which is also edible. We have just found out that our large apple tree gives green apples as well as red apples! To confirm this, we ate two very tasty (and surprisingly sweet) green apples. The other anomaly is that we consistently have fresh clay dug up beside our pond. Under close inspection, this revealed to be a sort of tunnel being dug from our pond. Could this be the work of muskrats?

Another question that has come up lately is: All right, it is getting colder (the highs now are in the 50’s and 60’s) and the night temperature has been dipping into the 30’s and 40’s, but when is it going to snow?!

Our humble answer to that is that it depends on the jet stream. Right now, the jet stream has been trying to force itself South in the Midwest. That is why they are seeing snow, even very early in the season. Normally, this dip in the jet stream would meander our way since winds travel from West to East in the United States. However, there seem to be disturbances on the East Coast and to the South that are preventing a clean passage for the jet stream. The forecast doesn’t show it to be moving as quickly as normal, meaning it’s perhaps wedged between high pressure systems. That is also why the ten-day forecast right now looks very uniform, with practically the same chance of rain and the same temperature range. That doesn’t mean that we’re getting exactly the same weather the next ten days; but that the uncertainty to how this weather will play out is greater.

Unless the jet stream starts becoming more predictable, it is hard to determine when it will snow. Our bet that the first snow will happen in November, which is a bit later than last year.

For now, we are enjoying the sun!

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Love,

Mack

 

September 24th Equinox colors

Good morning everyone! After spending a gorgeous 80°F weekend marveling at the sunny weather, we are back with seasonal temperatures in the 60’s with some rain. These fall colors just keep getting more vivid – check them out!

Yes, we are surrounded by beauty. It’s a wonder we go back to sleep at all when my humans go to work.

The jet stream is meandering in a funny pattern this week, meaning we’re getting a slight dip in temperature today and then it’s encouraging more warm air coming from the South. It will take ten more days to get some chilly weather again, since that’s how far the next dip in the jet stream is. We are looking forward to it!

Enjoy those colors everyone and as of yesterday, happy Fall!

Love,

Mack

August 30th The ingredients of fall

Rise and shine everyone! We woke up to one more beautiful sun-gorged morning in our kingdom. The weather station tells us that it is 56°F today with a humidity of 89%. There isn’t much dew on the ground, though, as both Winston and I are dry even though we frolicked lots!

We saw many natural jewels today during our morning walk such as purple cattail plumes, intricate designs left by dead flowers, an array of August flowers, and our very own garden mums. Yup, you guessed it – fall is coming! The very air smells like pumpkin spice, probably from all the cars going past with their D&D coffee. Oh wait, human, did you seriously make pumpkin spice porridge?!

On top of that, we’ve been seeing birds at our empty feeder! I guess it is time to fill ‘er up with some good sunflower seed.

Lots of people have been reporting that this is the beginning of a “fake fall” and that we get a second summer pretty soon. Our family disagrees slightly. With daily temperatures now in the upper 60’s and with this dry weather, we are more leaning towards accepting that a real fall came early this year, with the possibility of sneaking in a couple weeks of Indian summer in mid/late September. This seems to be confirmed by the early release of pumpkin spice coffee. This is very good for a showy autumn display. According to US forest service, “a succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights seems to bring out the most spectacular color displays.” So if we keep up with our sunny 60°F days and nights in the 40’s, we should get some spectacular fall colors here.

Enjoy your Friday everyone!

Love,

Mack