2011 Delano & Watertown MN Flooding, a new lens, and shots from the weekend

Looks like the return of arctic air is going to work to the advantage of Delano and Watertown in terms of the severity of the flooding. Despite the massive snowpack this year, the melt down was slowed to a trickle thanks the cold temps and lack of precip over the past week. Yes, there is some snow left to melt again after the last storm, but is is nothing compared to what is already in the river system here.

Om Sunday the 27th, Melinda and I took a drive through Delano down to Watertown, then back up to Delano.



Funny how the flooded river looks more like an ice covered lake. With nighttime lows getting down in the +10° to +15° range and daytime highs near +32°, it has allow the water to SLOWLY make it's way into the main flow. This is taken northwest of Delano off CR14.



Despite the worries early on this winter, this record will still stand.



After skirting the west side of Delano, we headed down to Watertown....



...and as expected, we found water!



Melinda getting back into the car on the north side of Watertown. It was COLD out!



One minor ice dam about halfway between Watertown and Delano.



We headed back north to Delano and crossed over the river on highway 12 then headed down to Bridge Avenue.



Despite the water lapping at the bottom of the bridge, they left a walkway open just in case you needed to walk over to the VFW.



Some debris they removed with the heavy equipment on the bridge.



Looking upstream.



Stay off the field...errr dike.

The following three images are 180° stitched panos.



Northwest of Delano on CR14.



South side of Delano on CR16.



North side of Delano across from the ball fields on CR17/North River Street.

Hopefully a big sloppy system doesn't show up creating a double crest this year. GFS looks like it will cooperate...for now.

The other news of the weekend is the Tokina 11-16 f2.8 showed up on Friday. I have been looking forward to trying this lens. I like the field of view but the autofocus motor is NOISY! Oh well...I can live with it as my primary uses will be shooting storms at close range and also night skies so who cares about the noise I guess.



On Friday night the dog and I walked out on the bay in front of the house and took a couple of test shots.



Green meteor? UFO? Nope. Just some funky lens flare off the house lights.

On the wildlife / waterfowl migration front, things are pretty slow.



A few mergansers and goldeneyes are just starting to show up.



Nicknamed "fish duck" for a reason.



A swan with a research collar in a flooded field near my house.



Hey...flying would be less slippery guys.



And of course the weekly deer...who are still foraging madly for food since a lot of it got covered up by snow again.







The GFS has been advertising a very strong spring storm system for next weekend. The track has been all over the place so far but it definitely bears worth keeping an eye on as it could bring both severe weather and possibly even (do I dare say it?) some SNOW on the northern side.