Mt. Nusatsum

Mt. Nusatsum

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Fine Week

The week between Christmas and New's Years has been a fine week in the Bella Coola Valley.  Once the east wind died after Christmas it has been mostly just below freezing, a few centimetres of snow and a couple days of good blue sky.   All in all a good period for for family outings, cross country skiing at East Branch (not enough snow this year yet for snowmobiling) or just hiking in the valley bottom or using snow shoes up the side roads.   All good and restful for the middle of winter.  Grizzly


Thanks to my daughter for the lovely photo today.  

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Ice

 
It doesn't take too many days of cold weather for the ice to form on the slow spots on the Bella Coola River.  It's not too extensive yet, but makes fishing difficult.  Grizzly



Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas!

The east wind is subsiding and the sky turned pure blue today and the temperature is a nice -7C.  It looks likes it will be a beautiful Christmas day in the Bella Coola Valley with a bit of snow on the ground but not having to shovel much.  Mrs. Grizzly is wishing for a fresh dusting of snow on the trees, which Environment Canada suggests may happen. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy the holiday season, leave a comment and tell us how Christmas Day looks in your part of the world tomorrow.  Grizzly

Saturday, December 22, 2012

East Wind

The first serious east wind (Arctic Outflow) hit the Bella Coola Valley last night. The temperature isn't too bad, mostly in the -7 range but there have been some pretty good gusts of east wind...depending of course where you are at in the valley - less wind the further inland you go.  Cathedral Point, mid way down Burke Channel is showing the usual extreme winds with gusts of 95 km/h today and -7 or -8 temperatures, not very survivable if you are on the water.  Grizzly

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Dusting

Its been mostly a mixed week of weather, consistent with the rest of December and most of November, nothing dramatic and some nice weather thrown in.  Like today where it started out very grey and low, and even snowed a very light skiff, then within a hour it cleared right out and it was a beautiful December day with a fresh dusting of snow everywhere. Grizzly

Monday, December 17, 2012

Just the Right Amount of Snow

December has been on and off for snow in the Bella Coola Valley - we get a little, it melts in some areas, then it comes back or gets added to where it is accumulating.  So far very easy on the shoveling though and a few nice days after fresh snowfalls.  Grizzly


Palm Reading

As I was leaving my driveway in the dark this morning, I noticed some unusual tracks crossing it so I backed up to see what they were.  When I saw it was a fresh grizzly bear track it made sense of why the dog was so barky when she was outside earlier.  I captured this photo in the light of the headlights and it highlights the palm print well.  I'm no expert in reading palms, but if you could read them, I bet you the lines on this big set of tracks could tell you some scary stories!  Grizzly


Friday, December 14, 2012

A Clear Line

When you live in a narrow valley with 8000+ mountains all around, you get used to not having much warning of weather changes - at least not the visual clues of distant lines of clouds coming.  This morning after the morning fog cleared out, there was a few hours of blue sky and then before you knew it the light changed and I looked up and a front of clouds was rapidly closing in and 'putting the lid back on' the valley for another few days of forecast rain and snow. Grizzly


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

One Nice Day

It was a clear blue sky day for a change in the Bella Coola Valley - a chance to see the mountains and all the fresh snow of late.  Grizzly




Sunday, December 9, 2012

Snow Pack - Light in the East Heavy in the West

We had a few more centimetres of snow in the Bella Coola Valley last night and then some thawing and light rain, but there are a few inches or more on the ground everywhere now.


The small ski hill run by the Tweedsmuir Ski Club is lacking enough snow to ski.  The photo taken today looking down the hill shows you the fact that we only have about 60 cm of snow - not nearly enough to cover the trees - we usually have well over a metre or more by Christmas time so hopefully more comes soon.  Meanwhile to the west of us in the Clayton Falls Creek Valley, west of the townsite of Bella Coola, some snowmobilers told me there was 2.25 metres of snow already in the pass.

Our high mountains are definitely producing the rain shadow effect to the east of us this year.  Grizzly

Friday, December 7, 2012

Some Snow

I've been away a bit in the first few days of December, but we did have a few wet days and a few wet snow days in the Bella Coola Valley.   Last night and today we had a bit more snow, how much depends on the usual of where you live, with 4 or 5 cm in the mid valley and more than 10 cm in some other areas.  All in all November and early December have been kind with weather to Bella Coola.  Grizzly