It is looking like an early spring this year, and you need no more evidence than these photos, taken on March 15th, 2015, in south central North Dakota.
March 15th is the earliest in the season Terry and I have ever gone out on an official shoot. Previously, the third week of April was the soonest we had ventured out.
This spring weather reminds me of the warm winter followed by the drought and heat of 2011. Let’s hope that’s not what we’re in for again this year.
The weather was so nice, we kept finding excuses to stop the car and shoot scenery stuff.
This was by far the most unexpected thing we saw all day, though. It was 75 degrees and we were in our shirtsleeves, but if you look really close, you can see a man standing on the ice in the photo above, just below the horizon on the far right. With the ice melting everywhere, he was out on the ice with a rod, fishing.
Hope you have a great spring and summer. If it turns out to be as dry as it’s looking, please practice fire safety.
Photos by Troy Larson and Terry Hinnenkamp, copyright Sonic Tremor Media LLC
Ghosts of North Dakota 
Nice work Troy! Great images. Looks like it was not a very wet winter. I was looking at the temps a few weeks back and it was -4 and -40 with a the wind chill up on the Canadian border. What a change. Looks like it’s gonna be a dry summer…
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Yeah, you guys sure know how to do it! Your visualizing and seeing such beauty in so many things is just super! I keep looking at all of your latest posts and it seems that there is just no end as to what still lies out and about that the average guy, or for that matter, the general population hasn’t seen. My mind wanders when I see a photo of an old store or house that has been vacant for so long, and wonder how many people passed through those doors at one time with not even a thought of what, someday, that very building would look like when you guys stop to take a photo of it. How many ‘crushes’ and ‘broken hearts’ were created in the halls and rooms of those long ago closed schools. How many kids grew up in that certain old house, and did that family cook all their meals on the old wood fired cooking range. How many of those old ‘hard coal heaters’ are still around, like the Art Garland brand with the ?mica? lenses, and how they managed to keep those houses out on the open prairie warm when it got down to -30 with a 30 mph wind. Oh, one can only wonder. Keep up the great work, guys. You have one awesome web site!!
Lynn Mickelson
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Great post. Me too.
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you guys do such a fantastic job! Thank you!
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Wonderful photos…what part of central North Dakota?
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Mostly rural Stutsman County on these.
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Good job!
I live in Wa State and will be coming to ND the 3rd week in April
doing a Genealogy hunt.
Hope the weather is nice!
Jim
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I was born in Bottineau and grew up in Souris. I have many fond memories of my days in North Dakota. I enjoy visiting your website from time to time. Keep up the good work.
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So different from Michigan. Endless highways all the way to the horizon. You cannot see the sky like that here unless you are standing on the shoreline of one of the Big Lakes. What a beautiful, beautiful state.
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Gorgeous photos! Love those lonely roads.
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Spring in North Dakota is always the most beautiful and most invigorating time of the year after the long and cold winter months as the air clears and the sun brings the new vegetative growth that we longed to see. Even though in Washington State now where the winters are not so severe, springtime brings on that “Life is grand” feeling every year.
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Awsome photos.
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