An outsider’s view

Sunset on Lake Champlain. Photo from freedigitalphotos.net

I have lived in Vermont all my life and have been fortunate to call a small peak overlooking Lake Champlain my home. Not far from there, I have found, nestled among the brambles of the precarious shore, something I treasure very dearly: my happy place.

Ever since I was little, I would walk or bike the one mile to the shimmering shoreline of Lake Champlain. Sure, it wasn’t much of a beach. The sand was riddled with broken glass, sharp rocks, the occasional pile of bones and decomposing fish, and a beachgoer had to beware of poison ivy. With high water, it was really more of a lakeside parking spot than a beach, but to me, it was the most wonderful place I could imagine.

The perfect vantage point it provided me made this beach so special. Out across the choppy water, the sun would lazily dance toward the waves, painting the sky a vibrant yellow-orange, and eventually a shade of grapefruit red before tucking itself behind the Adirondacks.

As I watched the sun set one evening, it occurred to me that many people across the lake never get to witness this masterpiece. I pondered this awhile and came to the conclusion that I am stealing, in some way, shape, or form. It’s like an artist’s work is on display, but I am the only one to see it.

Of course, this observation never stopped me from returning to my beach and stealing glances at the western shore. Call me a thief, but I won’t hesitate to do it again. There is some satisfaction in gaining such delight from the distant mountains without being able to touch them. I only hope, as a matter of fairness to my neighbors across the lake, that the sunrise over the Green Mountains also holds the capacity to take one’s breath away.

What’s a nor’easter?

You know when one is about to hit. Grocery stores swell with shoppers stocking up on bottled water and canned goods. Municipal snowplows make preemptive sanding runs through the quiet streets. Nothing sends North Country folks into a tizzy quite like a good nor’easter. What is it that makes these unholy blizzards that blow from the wrong way so powerful?

Nor'easter image courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Nor’easters are known to bring enormous amounts of precipitation and wind gusts upwards of 50 miles per hour. In the winter, which seems to be most of the time here, all of that wind and rain translates into a lot of snow and ice. A nor’easter is basically a wet and windy storm that blows up the East Coast. Although these storms can occur anytime of year, the prime season is from September to April when frigid artic air blows southeast from the Canadian plains and meets northbound warm air on the Gulf Stream. This collision of warm and cold air masses creates a cyclonic storm off the coast that equates to the winter version of a tropical storm.

These storms occur often and usually aren’t very strong, but when they do get big, they can pack a wallop. Burlington is still digging out from the nearly 3 feet of snow it picked up in early January, but that was an isolated total. Most of the Adirondacks got only 6 inches so.

Most storms occur as the result of warm and cool air masses collide, and the more extreme the difference between temperatures of the air masses, the more powerful the storm. We just happen to live in a part of the world where extremely cold air blows down from Canada to collide with warm air moving up the East Coast.