suns along the Mohawk

. .  view west from Schenectady’s Riverside Park overlook (17Feb22)

[The original posting, covering Feb. 17 and 18, has been augmented with photos from Feb. 19 & 20, 2022.]

Ice floes and concern over possible jamming and flooding had me outside the past three days observing (quickly) and snapping pictures in a jumble of weather conditions, including unseasonably warm air,  blustery winds, and frigid air. The artic blast slowed snow-melting before we had ice jams or flooding along the Schenectady Stockade banks of the Mohawk River.

 . . View west from near Park overlook (Feb. 18, 2022)

Here are some images from February 17 and 18, 2022, presented in a “mosaic tile” columns. Click on an image for a complete, larger version.

Overlook view north (Feb. 17)

picnic table view west

view east from west end of Park

Wash. Ave. deadend view north (Feb. 18)

west view from N. Ferry dead-end

Wash. Ave. view west (Feb. 17)

west view from Overlook

rear of 16 Wash. Ave.

rear of 1 Cucumber Alley (Feb. 18)

Amtrak train on CSX trestle (Feb 18)

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The Overlook gauge showed the river at its highest point, about four feet below flood stage, on Feb. 18 . .  

Below: Ice fisherman on the thicker ice along the north (Scotia) bank of the Mohawk River, on Febrary 17.

SATURDAY, February 19, 2022

Highs winds and low temperatures greeted anyone heading to Riverfront Park on Saturday. The image on the left shows the Mohawk as seen from the deadend of Washington Avenue at about 11:43 AM. A half hour later, just as I was thinking the Region’s forecasted snow squalls were not going to hit Schenectady, a neighbor pointed behind me toward Scotia. This is what I saw at 12:13:

That ominous sight coming from Scotia, soon brought this scene at 12: 18 and 12:20 pm:

 . .

 For a larger version of these images from Saturday Morning along the Stockade riverbank of the Mohawk River, click on them.

rear of 1 Cucumber Alley

CSX trestle – no jamming

view NW from Overlook

view west from Overlook

I was warmed at the end of a very cold photoshoot, when I discovered the Galligans (mother and son) frolicking, despite winds and snow squalls, on the ice floes that had landed on the Riverbank along Cucumber Alley and Washington Avenue.

 The weekend ended with a lovely sunset along the Mohawk, Sunday, February 20, 2022. On the right, the Isle of the Cayugas with a pink and yellow glow in the sky and River, viewed from the west end of Riverside Park. A small family of mallards (I think) were seen relaxing in the same yellow glow, at the mouth of the Binnekill Creek, as it flows into the Mohawk:

Pulling back on the view of that stretch of the Mohawk, you could also see floes and glows looking west from the end of Washington Avenue toward the Great West Gateway Bridge.

And my oft-photographed island neighbor, the Isle of the Cayugas, also looked great when seen from the Park Overlook:

It looks like the use of the Tugboat Margot as an ice breaker on the Mohawk, broke up the ice that topped the River sufficiently to prevent floes climbing the Riverbank and any flooding. Last year was the first appearance of Margot along the Mohawk. She can seen in this photo from the Schenectady Gazette:

TUGBOAT MARGOT Follow-up (March 19, 2022): At their March 17 member meeting, the Stockade Association celebrated the people who made Margot’s tugboat ice-breaking role possible. See “Stockade Association honors ice-breaking effort” (WAMC, Lucas Willard, March 18, 2022). Along with tugboatCaptain Chris Deeley, Margot’s Engineer, a crew member, and  NYS Canal Corporation director Brian Stratton, the Association honored longtime Stockade resident and retired architect Jim Duggan, “who has long called for efforts to reduce seasonal flooding”.

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