Skywatch Friday: Winter Weather

We now have enough snow for cross country skiing on the trails at The Moulton just a few miles north of Butte (Montana) America. Here's MollyTheDog near the old horse barn at The Moulton parking lot, with a waxing moon rising in the eastern sky:

Earlier in the week, the cold -17 deg F morning air was evident by the extreme air inversion that lay over the Butte "flats" (i.e. the town below the Butte Hill):

The cold air brought a large flock (about 200 birds!) of Cedar Waxwings to our backyard, where they cleaned off the berries from our Mountain Ash trees in just minutes:

A view of the Pintler Range (taken from the "Mt Haggin" cross country ski area) shows snow blowing off the high peaks:

We don't spend all of our time outside here in southwest Montana. At my little college, PhD candidate Stacie Barry (I guess that's Doctor Barry now!) successfully defended her doctoral thesis, "COMING TO THE SURFACE: Environment, Health, and Culture in Butte, Montana:

One evening, we attended the American Civil Liberties Union gathering at Hotel Finlen, an opulent place recently renovated as a reminder of Butte's origins as America's "Copperopolis":

Hope my Northern Hemisphere friends enjoy these short days and the upcoming lunar eclipse!