Its coming but it will not be early this year.

This guy showed up in one of our local ponds last summer and seems to be settling in for the winter. A northern subspecies of the American Alligator? Climate change??!

First skim ice has come and gone a few times in northern Vermont.  The 10 day forecast is not looking promising for anything beyond puddles.  In the mean time there are critters to keep an eye on, videos to watch and pictures of interesting ice to take.

A six axis dendritic ice crystal about a foot in diameter. It formed in still water where ice had melted the day before. Presumably it started on a small piece of left over ice that was far enough from everything else to grow in all six A axis directions. Note: The 60 degree axis angles are distorted by the low angle the photograph was taken from. .