Charlie Fineran’s Photo of the Week puts a real shine on the sun.

THE LOCATION, from my yard, overlooking snowy farm fields and then showcasing the sun glazed icy conditions on the Panther Valley ridge.  THE DATE, November 23, skies just clearing one day after a pretty good snow storm hit our region, some folks got a foot of snow.  HINDSIGHT & PERSPECTIVE, it is Friday morning, day after Thanksgiving,  the third coldest Thanksgiving on record for NYC by temperature & coldest Thanksgiving on record for NYC if you go by wind-chill!!

I have just checked my outside temperature at 6AM – 10 degrees!!  Mulling over the previous data, can’t help being impressed by the dates, only mid-November!!  A word is beginning to appear in my mind concerning our Photo of the Week, HARBINGER!!  According to Webster, a person or thing that comes before to announce or give an indication of what follows; herald.  I’m beginning to wonder, “Wonder what Winter will be like this 2018-2019 season??” “Is our Photo of the Week a harbinger of things to come??!!”  Last but not least, just to stir the pot, we have almost a month to go before Winter begins!!!

Making no predictions, BUT, keeping in mind this areas weather potentials.

I remember as a child, my mother and aunt talking about when they were kids, having their sleds towed by my grandfather’s Packard over the ice on Lake Mohawk – my mom would be 100.

My Grandma Fineran, raised in Jersey City, remembered people walking on the ice of the Hudson River as a child.

Did a little googling and came up with some info regarding the past Winters in this area, showing what we can and have had, that I believe you will find interesting!

https://www.6sqft.com/winters-during-19th-century-new-york-were-so-cold-the-east-river-froze-over/

The following is a part of an article about the terrible Winter of 1779-1780 which you will read about in my Flickr site.  Now to our subject title: ” THE HARD WINTER ” I am going to copy and paste some descriptions and comments about the Winter of 1779-1780. If you Google Winter of 1779 you come up with a lot of interesting articles that I think will reinforce the “Hard Winter” concept.
One particular winter proved to be brutally harsh for the soldiers fighting in the Revolutionary War – and it wasn’t the winter at Valley Forge.  Valley Forge was well known for its terrible loss of life, the deaths were cold related, but, mainly caused by poor planning and building cabins in low areas that flooded and caused disease!!

Two years later, however, it was a different story. The winter of 1779-1780, according to what records there are, was the coldest in 400 years. For the first time in recorded history, the rivers in southern Virginia froze over, as did the upper Chesapeake Bay. In January, the daily high in Philadelphia rose above freezing only once. The same month saw “one of the most tremendous snowstorms ever remembered,” according to an army surgeon at the time. Soldiers’ tents were blown away, leaving many of the men to face the elements without shirts or shoes, to say nothing of coats. For many years afterward, when people spoke of the “hard winter,” it was that winter they had in mind.

Please visit my Flickr site for photos and story about “The Hard Winter” – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157648890462624

Please visit my Flickr site depicting ice on the Hudson River from historic Fort Lee – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157696869083144

Not making any predictions!!!  JUST showing some potentials!!!

Enjoy Your Open Space, Charlie Fineran