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NNE Spring Thread


Allenson

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Just got back from spending the weekend in the Adirondacks for the Lake Placid Marathon (I only did the half... 13.1 miles is enough for my skiing legs, haha) and although the weather wasn't perfect for most things, it was perfect for running. Temps in the upper 50s to near 60F under cloudy skies and occasional filtered sunshine on Sunday morning before it started to rain around noon on Sunday. Weather-wise, I noticed that the Lake Placid area seems to be right in the middle of the Adirondacks and the mountains almost seemed to "protect" it from consistent mist and drizzle. Lake Placid sits at 1800ft+ so its up there in elevation but the surrounding terrain goes up to almost 5,000ft (and that's why that area around Saranac Lake is one of the coldest in the country at night). You have a very high "valley" elevation that radiates with the best of them... like a high plateau filled with lakes, bogs, swamps, and fields. Its no wonder that place can drop 30-40 degrees overnight on a still, clear winter night. While it makes for a cold overnight climate, the mountains always seemed to be in visible rain showers, mist, etc while there were breaks in the clouds over the Lake Placid area. That might explain why the area doesn't average as much snow as its near 2,000ft elevation would leave you to believe... but I bet it has amazing snow preservation of what falls.

seems like the hills just outside of the lake get a good amount more snow than areas to the east of the lake. This winter I was staying at a resort NW of Lake Placid with some additional elevation and the snowcover was a good deal more expansive than just a a few miles away. The snow really drops off as you head east of Whiteface toward wilmington.

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Just got back from spending the weekend in the Adirondacks for the Lake Placid Marathon (I only did the half... 13.1 miles is enough for my skiing legs, haha) and although the weather wasn't perfect for most things, it was perfect for running. Temps in the upper 50s to near 60F under cloudy skies and occasional filtered sunshine on Sunday morning before it started to rain around noon on Sunday. Weather-wise, I noticed that the Lake Placid area seems to be right in the middle of the Adirondacks and the mountains almost seemed to "protect" it from consistent mist and drizzle. Lake Placid sits at 1800ft+ so its up there in elevation but the surrounding terrain goes up to almost 5,000ft (and that's why that area around Saranac Lake is one of the coldest in the country at night). You have a very high "valley" elevation that radiates with the best of them... like a high plateau filled with lakes, bogs, swamps, and fields. Its no wonder that place can drop 30-40 degrees overnight on a still, clear winter night. While it makes for a cold overnight climate, the mountains always seemed to be in visible rain showers, mist, etc while there were breaks in the clouds over the Lake Placid area. That might explain why the area doesn't average as much snow as its near 2,000ft elevation would leave you to believe... but I bet it has amazing snow preservation of what falls.

Scott- first-that's a great 1/2 marathon isn't it? I was debating running it this year but decided against it. I'm regretting that now. PM or email me sometime...I'd love to take some runs with you in/around Mansfield when I move. I'm hoping to run the Philly half marathon in september sub 1:35 so I'm always up for a run.

Second- LP does get rain showeded by anything moving in on a west flow. The shield of high peaks to west really does suck much of the moisture out of the environment and the resulting downsloping dries the out out just enough as it drains in to the LP valley. To give you sense of just how micro cimlate-y it is...Mt. Van Ho- sits just s/w of LP about 5 miles as the crow flies and is tucked into the flanks of the high peaks. It collects in my experience something like 50% more snow than LP proper and it lasts there incredibly well. It sits about 2100 feet. If you wanna speak about radiational cooling that's the place to see it. I've seen it drop over 40 degrees in one night. Went from 20+ to -22 from 4pm to 6 am. I'd bet that regularly that little high bowl is the coldest place in the Northeast aside from MTW.

I say we explore this more next winter....I mean who is ever gonna argue against a trip to the High Peaks?

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seems like the hills just outside of the lake get a good amount more snow than areas to the east of the lake. This winter I was staying at a resort NW of Lake Placid with some additional elevation and the snowcover was a good deal more expansive than just a a few miles away. The snow really drops off as you head east of Whiteface toward wilmington.

Tremendously so. I've argued with Whiteface for a while that they need to move their snow reporting station. Anything below "midstation" there gets about 1/3 the snow of the the top half of the mountain. The ausable valley/wilmington notch is just soooo tight there that no weather gets in. UNLESS of course we're talking about a s/w flow event. Then the wx funnels up dead smack into WF and it dumps...big.

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To give you sense of just how micro cimlate-y it is...Mt. Van Ho- sits just s/w of LP about 5 miles as the crow flies and is tucked into the flanks of the high peaks. It collects in my experience something like 50% more snow than LP proper and it lasts there incredibly well. It sits about 2100 feet. If you wanna speak about radiational cooling that's the place to see it. I've seen it drop over 40 degrees in one night. Went from 20+ to -22 from 4pm to 6 am. I'd bet that regularly that little high bowl is the coldest place in the Northeast aside from MTW.

Impossible to prove but fun to propose... I'd nominate some of the higher little valleys in NW Maine, some of which lie 500'+ higher than Big Black River where the state record was set 2 yr ago. (And none of which have observations.) When these high bowls (Maine or elsewhere in the N-Northeast) are at their coldest, they're likely to be colder than MWN due to the radiational cooling creating an inversion. The Rockpile often has its coldest readings while CAA is still roaring in on NW gales.

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Impossible to prove but fun to propose... I'd nominate some of the higher little valleys in NW Maine, some of which lie 500'+ higher than Big Black River where the state record was set 2 yr ago. (And none of which have observations.) When these high bowls (Maine or elsewhere in the N-Northeast) are at their coldest, they're likely to be colder than MWN due to the radiational cooling creating an inversion. The Rockpile often has its coldest readings while CAA is still roaring in on NW gales.

I'm sure maine has a few places that are in the competition. Once you get the maritime influence out of the equation I'm sure it can bottom out up there something fierce. I mean perhaps we all need to invest in a few solar powered wx stations and sneak 'em in.

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I'm sure maine has a few places that are in the competition. Once you get the maritime influence out of the equation I'm sure it can bottom out up there something fierce. I mean perhaps we all need to invest in a few solar powered wx stations and sneak 'em in.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

And speaking of maritime influence, I'm more than wearied of this gray 50s wx.

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Oh yay another cold miserable day! :arrowhead:

I had a job offer to manage a small hotel in Key West last fall. If I wasn't tied down here with the family business, I'm 95% sure I'd be renting a U-Haul. They've actually been having a rather cool spring... haven't hit 90 once yet. Water temp a few days ago was only 81, unheard of for this time of year.

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To give you sense of just how micro cimlate-y it is...Mt. Van Ho- sits just s/w of LP about 5 miles as the crow flies and is tucked into the flanks of the high peaks. It collects in my experience something like 50% more snow than LP proper and it lasts there incredibly well. It sits about 2100 feet. If you wanna speak about radiational cooling that's the place to see it. I've seen it drop over 40 degrees in one night. Went from 20+ to -22 from 4pm to 6 am. I'd bet that regularly that little high bowl is the coldest place in the Northeast aside from MTW.

Of course I'm a weenie so I checked out the Mt. Van HO site... I also wanted to check out the Olympic complex there but ran into the weather station. Man that just looked like a cold spot... big field in a "valley" at over 2,000ft elevation. You could just envision the sun going down behind the mountains on a clear night and the temperature plummeting in mere minutes. Awesome mico-climate spot.

And speaking of Olympics... this was my first time checking out the ski jump and let me tell you that is absolutely f'in ridiculous. We do some crazy stuff on skis on Mansfield sometimes but holy crap the ski jump is full on crazy. To stand at the top of that ramp with skis on and then straight-line down that thing without making a turn... hitting near terminal velocity at the bottom and then launching is just plain nuts.

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Some additional photos from the Lake Placid area this weekend...

Indian Pass off in the distance

IMG_6196_edited-2.jpg

Whiteface Mountain (4,876ft) in the clouds... you can see some ski trails.

IMG_6220_edited-2.jpg

Even the crappy motels have excellent views, lol.

IMG_6226_edited-1.jpg

Lastly, Cascade Pass... this is at like 2,300ft (I think) and the mountains on either side rise to near 4,000ft. This lake must freeze like 30 feet thick during the course of the winter, haha. This slot in the 'Dacks must get so cold at night and this thing must have ice on it from like late October till late April. The water felt cold enough to make you think it just thawed out yesterday.

IMG_6238_edited-2.jpg

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Lastly, Cascade Pass... this is at like 2,300ft (I think) and the mountains on either side rise to near 4,000ft. This lake must freeze like 30 feet thick during the course of the winter, haha. This slot in the 'Dacks must get so cold at night and this thing must have ice on it from like late October till late April. The water felt cold enough to make you think it just thawed out yesterday.

IMG_6238_edited-2.jpg

It actually takes a long time to freeze because in the winter the wind HOWLS through that pass and all that moving water is very slow to freeze. In fact over the last few years they have started to shut the pass down in snows with big winds. It gets downright freaky in there. I've driven it at night in a snow squall and you can't see the lake on the left. White knuckle for sure.

In august its one of the nice swims however. After a long day hiking down in/around Keene on your way back to placid, a nice dip in that water is just what the Dr. ordered for the knees and general funk.

Awesome that you found their wx station. It gets really really cold in there. The sun takes at least an hour more to get in and maybe leaves an hour early.

Coldest I ever felt personally was there. -31 F. Yea your eyes froze.

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Getting a cell here now too. It will probably only be a few hundredths, but enough to really cool it down. Already down to 66.4F from a high of 78.1F. Min this morning was 48.6F.

A bit warmer up this way today... I've got a high of 81F on my thermometer. It looks like the three ASOS stations in this area were all quite close to each other...

BTV...81F

MVL...82F

MPV...80F

It was a beautiful day at the mountain and when I left the high so far at Mountain Ops (1,550ft) was 78F...we are getting the Gondola ready for summer scenic rides that begin on Saturday and last into October. A couple days per week I'll ride the 4-wheeler several miles and up 2,000 vertical feet early in the morning to 3,700ft to open the Gondola summit station... then get to relax and enjoy the day up at the top. I can't wait to see some good severe storms roll through up there at that elevation. I thought, where's the best place to avoid the summer-time heat and enjoy the views? The answer would be near the tree-line on Mansfield.

Lets go Bruins!

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First off....way to go BRUINS!!!!! I have been a die hard Bruins fan all my life and have waited a long time to actually see the Stanley Cup in Boston!!!! My son has no idea what it was like for so many years in Boston and now he has witnessed 7 Championships in 10 years, just plain amazing!!!!!

Weatherwise...we got caught in one of those popup thunderstorms yesterday evening. My son was playing in a Championship baseball game in Norwich, VT, not sure if the gods wanted to make sure we got home in time for the Bruins or not, but the skies certainly opened it was was absolutely pouring and then hailing for awhile. They ended up postponing the game till Friday and we got home with 5 minutes to spare to the start of the game :).

It was a good reminder of getting caught outside unprepared, were it was sunny and warm one minute, to being soaked and shivering the next. Hypothermia can certainly happen anytime of the year!!!

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First off....way to go BRUINS!!!!! I have been a die hard Bruins fan all my life and have waited a long time to actually see the Stanley Cup in Boston!!!! My son has no idea what it was like for so many years in Boston and now he has witnessed 7 Championships in 10 years, just plain amazing!!!!!

Weatherwise...we got caught in one of those popup thunderstorms yesterday evening. My son was playing in a Championship baseball game in Norwich, VT, not sure if the gods wanted to make sure we got home in time for the Bruins or not, but the skies certainly opened it was was absolutely pouring and then hailing for awhile. They ended up postponing the game till Friday and we got home with 5 minutes to spare to the start of the game :).

It was a good reminder of getting caught outside unprepared, were it was sunny and warm one minute, to being soaked and shivering the next. Hypothermia can certainly happen anytime of the year!!!

Great series, great team, great night last night. Still a little groggy even now but slowly shaking it off. ;)

And yeah, those pop-ups were all over the place yesterday afternoon. I was on my motorcycle heading home from Hanover as they were drifting south right over the CT River valley. Somehow I was able to bob & weave my way through them with only some light sprinkles hitting me as I flew up RT 5 between Norwich & Thetford.

Some starting to pop-up again now. Might be a similar ride home today....

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Some very pretty radar on the cells in central Maine. One managed to skirt MBY, passing about a mile to the south while a larger but less intense one passed 4-5 miles north. (The shield still works! Unfortunately) As the stronger one continued into Rome/Belgrade, it made some 60 dbz echoes - that was at 3:25 - mostly over the same area fully defoliated by hail in August, 2007. (The '07 storm had some 70 dbz pixels.) This one might tap AUG, where I am at the moment, but I think it passes to the north.

Edit: Belgrade Village appears to have been pounded 3:30-3:40. The storm isn't all that large, but it's taken about 70 minutes to travel 15 miles.

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83/44... RH at 26%. Good red flag weather with a breeze and very low humidity. I can take hot days when the dews stay in the mid 40s, lol.

I hiked up around Mansfield's ridge and you could tell just how dry the air was because as soon as you got into the stiff wind at 4,000ft, sweat-soaked shirts dried in mere minutes up there.

Are we mixing out or is there some dry air advecting in? BTV at 1pm had a dew of 60F and as of 5pm is down to 54F. In this neck of the woods, MVL had a Td of 60F at 11am, 2pm was 50F, and 3pm was 44F. Thats a pretty significant drop off in humidity levels and its noticeable out there.

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