gravitylover

Just now, Stormlover74 said:

One thing I also noticed is usually by late October ladybugs start making their way into the house seeking warmth but I haven't seen one this year

I had one  

13 hours ago, Dakota said:

 

Remember that the Entire Universe is predicated on precision mathematics; and it is from this concept….inexplicably & inextricably linked to hyper-dimensional physics….a tetrahedron inscribed in a sphere….upon which all things stand.

 

That's why my world is so fkd up... Math and I have never played well together  

49 minutes ago, NJwx85 said:

...It's always a great feeling that first day in late March when you can open up the windows and breathe in the fresh air after being cooped up for the previous 14 weeks or so.

I love snow as much as anyone, but I have no use for cold. And the older I get, the more and more I hate the Winter. I take solace in knowing that legitimate Winter in these parts is usually no more than a 12 week affair, and hopefully this year it will be even less.

You need to get a fat bike and some good active outdoor winter clothing. There's nothing like getting out in the woods during the winter when everything is in a state of hibernation and the snow is just right. You don't even notice the cold if you're dressed right. There are some great places around the metro area for winter riding and just over the line in PA there are groomed trail networks where fat bikes are allowed and you can go for miles and miles in the quiet solitude of winter. There's no such thing as being cooped up, it's what you make of it  

1 minute ago, Dakota said:

Yes, the Yorktown Heights optometrist up on French Hill.

Elevation 666'.

What a number!

I figured you'd know Jerry. Not only is he a dedicated weather nerd that wrote the definitive book on eastern NY weather,he's also a map nut. He used to be a distributor for USGS Topo maps.

If you want an accurate measurement for Westchester look up Jerome(?) Thaler and see what he had. He is the pre-eminent weather guru for the Lower Hudson Valley.

3 hours ago, Stormlover74 said:

It's kinda crazy that was all going on and 30 to 40 miles away it had cleared out by 4:00

Yup. 30-40 miles to my SE Brian had a solid storm raging while we were bbq'ing dinner.

14 hours ago, IrishRob17 said:

It will never be below normal ever again. Never ever. 

We need a massive volcanic eruption. Hopefully not Yellowstone...

I understand that for the majority of the population reservoir levels would be important and how they define how dry it is but for many of us that live with forest as part of our daily lives it's more important that the overall moisture levels are higher than what they are now. I mentioned the other day how surprised I am at how high the reservoirs are this fall considering how little rain has fallen since the end of August but that's due to several factors. First off we had a reasonable snow year that ended late, an abundance of rain for the following 4-5 months and apparently water usage through the served areas is down over the last ten years. The land, on the other hand, is bone dry, as dry as it's been in a very long time. After how wet it had been and things rotted standing they are now just flopping over because they're brittle and can't handle a breeze, there are huge trees down everywhere and branches just falling out of the trees that aren't as healthy as they should be from last years extreme drought. The foliage is dull and falling off the trees already dry and half shriveled, creeks are barely flowing if at all, places in the woods that are almost always wet are parched and cracking and the amount of brush/forest fire fuel just waiting to burn is astounding. 

Sure we've had some very dry periods and the drought last year was more significant than this but the length of time that we've gone without even moistening the surface is scary and the forests are really showing it, in many places even more so than other dry times we've had in the last 20 years. Now hunting season has started and there are people traipsing through the woods, far off the regular trail networks, that are sometimes quite careless and it concerns me. I see more garbage in the woods this time of year than at others, I see smoldering fire pits that I never see when it's not hunting season and I see cigarette butts on the ground far into the woods where I never see them. These things are like waving a red flag to me so I'm beating the dry drum. 

On 9/30/2017 at 0:05 PM, BxEngine said:

Was awesome. Wish i came here when i was 22 lol

I first went there when I was 27  I instantly fell in love with the drive through Daquiri shops with the huge frozen Margaritas 

Did anyone notice that it snowed above about 4k from the 'Daks through the Whites this morning? 

21 hours ago, Juliancolton said:

Nah, you had negative rainfall 3 out of 4 months. Water ascended from nearby waterways into the sky. 

That's what that fog was in the mornings for a few days recently

^^ That's what I'm talking about. That map posted on the last page is wrong for most areas. There may be a few pockets that are still sort of moist but for the most part it's parched out there. FWIW NJ I had easily as much rain as you did through the end of August and more in the spring.

6 minutes ago, NJwx85 said:

No it's not a typo. Despite the dryer conditions the last month or so the grass is still a vibrant shade of green. It's probably because we were so above normal in July and August that soil moisture content remained relatively high.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Soilmst_Monitoring/US/Soilmst/Soilmst.shtml

They can calculate whatever they want. I'm telling you that it's not true. I'm out in the woods a few times a week and doing ~1k miles a week, more like 2k this week, driving around the northeast and it's dry. Some areas are still showing green but they're few and far between.

^^And that wind yesterday dried things out even more. I did a quick round trip to central VT yesterday and in many areas the trees were nearly stripped of their leaves and there were huge branches down all over the place. I also noticed that crops that hadn't been harvested went from green and tasty looking over the weekend to brown and probably only good for animal feed rather than human food. In most places the leaves haven't come down but the early color has turned brown and in general things aren't nearly as vivid as they had started out. This foliage season had such promise but as it dried out that went away  

It may look luscious but the soil moisture is way down and most plant life is actually dry to the point of being crunchy now. The forest floor has turned to hardpan over the last two weeks, in many areas the leaves are down or very thin and the undergrowth is completely down already pretty much everywhere north of 287. 

I remember it as being an overhyped dud. 

10 minutes ago, WeatherFeen2000 said:

It'll be okay buddy November is going to be wet .

One spark before then and it won't matter.

The forests have gone very dry very quickly at the worst time of year for that to happen. The leaves are coming down adding fuel to the understory and there is no lush growth left to retard a fire if one were to start and with fewer leaves left in the canopy there is more air movement which would also help to facilitate fire growth. Places that were muddy just a few weeks ago are sandy and dusty now   

7 hours ago, IrishRob17 said:

The littering of my yard in leaves has begun already, which seems a touch early for IMBY

Some trees are already at full color and many are mixed and dropping leaves, it started about two weeks ago and has been accelerating. I was up and down the Taconic twice the last two weeks and into the far western Berkshires above 1400 feet yesterday and it is definitely fall already. This is at least two weeks early south of about I90.  I will be up in central VT tomorrow and the NEK on Wednesday and I fully expect to see bare trees up there.

No way Jose  

Over 4" now and snowing harder than at any point the last few hours. 17*, no wind at all and beautiful dendrites.

2.5-3" here. Nice surprise.

Only went to -8 at my house -4 at the local high school.

So, big dump or icy, sleety glacier building episode upcoming?

8* now. Guess I shoulda put the new battery in the wifes car. Eh, it's a stick so a little roll start... She'll be fine

I don't know exactly what I got down to last night but the local high school made it to 3*. When I drove by there last night on the way home it was 10 and when I got home it was 6 so "extrapolated" I'm guessing I got to about -1

So, what's the current thinking for Wednesday? I like the map DT put up that has the lower HV in 12+