It's painfully cold here, and likely to get colder. When we got up this morning it was 3F (-16C), and even in the middle of the day it didn't get above 17F (about -8). So I know readers in the UK think it's cold where you are, but it really isn't, not very. Of course everything is relative. I was listening to a phone-in the other day and someone called in from Antarctica. When asked what the weather was like he said cheerfully 'Well, it's summer here, so quite warm, nearly up to zero degrees [Fahrenheit]...'
Yet another winter storm is due through tonight, with a promise of 5 to 10 inches of fresh snow. Once it has settled it should be great for tracking, say, foxes. As requested in a comment a couple of days ago, I will now explain about how foxes walk in snow:
Dogs and foxes leave completely different snow tracks (I have learnt). Dogs, who know they will eventually go home to a nice warm house where they can dry off in front of a fire, plunge through snow like ploughs, covering their coats in mini snowballs. Foxes, who have to be out for as long as it takes them to find food, conserve their energy and keep their coats as dry as possible by stepping carefully into their own footprints, keeping their fur tucked in from the snow by almost crossing their legs as they walk. Thus the tracks they leave resemble a straight line of small holes in the snow. So foxes genuinely are pretty cunning, though whether one would ever really be appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University is open to question (adds the Man).
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