Juliancolton

One reassuring thing is that the stakes are just as high for big pharma as they are for everyone else, if not higher. If there's even a shadow of an issue with one of the vaccines, you know competitors will put it on full blast. There's no cutting corners or sweeping things under the rug when multiple players are at comparable stages in the process and desperate for any chance to get a leg up.

The temp is still dropping, nearly two hours after sunrise - down to 25F. That NW wind means business.

Snow/grauple squall whitened the ground here earlier, sufficient to count as 0.1". Actually had to scrape my windshield, annoyingly enough.

Yeah, it looked impressive on radar but thankfully the lack of instability kept the strongest winds overhead. Still managed to lose a 40+ foot white pine limb near the house, and one of my patio heaters went flying and got banged up.

The roar of the wind is almost deafening just off the deck. Could be a bit chaotic when that squall line gets here.

Cool stuff! It's interesting to see how much ground still needs to be made up to get to winter/spring levels.

Pond is overflowing again after less than an inch of rain. Water tables sure are high.

Maybe it's a sign that we're about to enter one of the famous Leonid outbursts? There are also probably some non-celestial factors contributing to high report rates. This stretch of fair weather across most of the east has allowed outdoor dining and gatherings to continue deep into the autumn, so if something happens during the increasingly dark evenings, it'll have been hard to miss. I mean, last night I was outside in shorts and a tee, starhopping around the winter constellations with a pair of binos. It was bizarre. Mid-60s under clear skies is something that simply doesn't happen in the middle of November.

There have been a lot of fireballs and bright meteors this week, definitely higher than the ambient rate it seems. I didn't catch any of the big ones from dashcam videos making the rounds, but I have seen one or two high-end meteors per evening lately, mostly from west to east. Too lazy to open up Stellarium to figure out what the radiant might be.

Goats eat everything in sight. Also kind of aggressive sometimes. The geese of the mammal world.

Shame about all the chemtrails

Hah, this is the only reason I won't be mowing from here on out even though it definitely will need it in short order. Closing in on a half mile of extension cords down already.

It's too hot.

The whole thing worked pretty counterintuitively here. Dutchess had five early voting sites and each one had a multiple-hour wait at all hours on all days. Roads shut down, illegal parking all over, the whole nine yards. Today, when you have to vote in your designated precinct, wait time is zero at all but a couple sites.

The lack of accums on paved surfaces and quick melting overall made for a nice treat. It stuck around until Saturday morning in the hills around my house, but just a bit lower in elevation, folks were out strolling and leaf-peeping again by afternoon.

The curse of early snow is real. No question in my mind.

Been pretty much constant snow and/or grauple all morning, occasionally ramping up in intensity for a few moments.

Yeah, with the frost from freezing fog, plenty of snow left in the trees imby, and honest-to-goodness bluebird skies, this was just a gorgeous winter morning. Top-5 even if you completely set aside the date.

21 here, nothing special

That was fun. Rather chilly Halloween on tap - a jacket is certainly called for on top of your togas and sexy nurse uniforms. The NAM only gets up to 43F at POU... that would be the third-coldest high for the date. Record low of 18F is not in jeopardy at the airport. Not sure what to think about radiating prospects, as the GFS and 12z NAM decoupled the favored sports quickly and efficiently, allowing for lows in the teens. HRRR and 18z NAM keep winds, and consequential temperatures, up throughout the night.

Cool shot of the snow line at the Ashokan courtesy of the DEP on facebook:

Here are some photos I took of this morning's snowfall around northern Dutchess County, from around 7:30 am to 12:30 pm. Ordinarily I would only post a couple of images, but with the excitement of the first snow and anomalous nature of the event, I had a hard time selecting. Starting my own thread to avoid clogging up the main storm thread, but feel free to share your own pictures here as well. One can see accumulations and snow growth both gradually increasing over the course of the morning. Also worth noting the not-insignificant amount of foliage left on some trees.

2011-12 and 2015-16 would each like a word with you. I had a tradition, when nobody was looking, of throwing the first snowball of the year at the dilapidated 19th-century flagpole near my driveway, from the back patio. About 75 feet. If I hit it, it was going to be a big winter. TS Isaias brought it down back in August and I didn't think much of it (one less thing to impede straight lawnmower swaths), but today, without thinking, I scooped up some snow, turned toward where it stood, and...

Flake size is way up and visibility way down with this (presumably) last band intensifying overhead. Even at just 1.6", some of my ornamental trees are sagging low.