powderfreak Posted June 29, 2011 Share Posted June 29, 2011 Odd day today... some sunshine, a lot of clouds, and occasional showers/sprinkles. Hit a high of 74F but that was very briefly and most of the day was spent at 69-70F. Three rounds of showers by my count... we had a brief one wet the pavement around 10:30am that seemed pretty isolated to the area around Mansfield because I drove to the supermarket a couple miles away and further from the mtn and all was dry. Right now we are having our "heaviest" shower of the day (steady light to moderate rain) so we'll measure liquid today... I don't think the other showers/sprinkles were much more than a trace or maybe a couple hundreths (nothing my little rain gage would pick up). It seems to be training over the area (particularly the spine just south of here) a bit and isn't in any hurry to go anywhere. Certainly a bit heavier just to the south in Bolton/Richmond area and maybe over towards J.Spin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted June 30, 2011 Author Share Posted June 30, 2011 Cool, cloudy and a bit drizzly this morning. Man-oh-man, what an evening last we had though yesterday--beautiful clouds, beautiful colors as the sun was dipping, just lovely. I took a couple pics but haven't gone through them yet--maybe later today. What a great part of the country, I have family that lives on Whidbey Island up there in the sound. One of the few other parts of the country I could see myself living in other than New England. Cool--I'll have to look that island up on the maps. I don't know the lay of the islands too well as I've never been out there but I'll have a gander. I've only been to Washington once and we were over on the coast north of Aberdeen and up into the Olympic peninsula area--and that was only for a couple days. Most of that trip was spent in Oregon. Out of all the Pac-NW areas that I've been too, I'd have to say that the Lost Coast of Humboldt Co, CA was my favorite. Very remote, very isolated and just beautiful. It made Corinth look like suburban CT. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Coast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adk Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Whoa, I thought adk was... just across the lake in the adk. I figured the move was just a change of mountain range with a bit more powder in which to play. But Philly to VT… that is big! I'm biased of course, but I'd be very excited. Nope. Mr. Hutz finally talked me into moving. I've done all my winter weather obsessing from my philly command center. It surprises people. ADK is just where the heart is. (but not the jobs). Looks like you got another cool day with spotty showers to the North. Not bad. Stunning in Philly today. 84 with no humidity. A rarity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Had 0.75" yesterday aft, about 0.5" in TS downpour 4:30-4:45, and the rest in moderate showers thru about 6 PM. A different cell dumped similarly heavy rain as I came north of Belgrade Village, dropping visibility to 1/10 mile and driving speed to under 40. GYX posted warnings for this 2nd cell, with possible quarter-size hail. All liquid for me, both on the windshield and at the house. Currently PC and upper 60s at AUG, with flat-bottomed CU (with little vertical growth) covering about 2/3 the sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Lizard Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 I don't normally post in this thread, but I thought I'd mention the 12Z GFS shows a potential subtropical low near New England in a little over a week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 Ahhh nothing like 65F and upslope rain showers on June 30th. This is the first radar I looked at today but could tell it was upslope based on the light precipitation amounts (just enough to wet the pavement at times) and very small rain droplets...along with the precipitation pattern of being intermittent but yet occurring steadily if that makes any sense. You can tell this would be a couple inches of extremely fluffy snow in January... the steady small droplets (almost like a mist or drizzle that gets blown in the light breeze) create only trace to 0.05" of QPF that in the winter comes out to 40:1 ratio and 2" of snow. I just drove home from a friend's in Waterbury and its interesting that it really wasn't doing much on RT 100 as the radar shows, but as soon as I turned onto 108 towards Mansfield it started to rain. And of course the entire spine was behind a curtain of precipitation... the summer version of the "wall of white." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 Right now we are having our "heaviest" shower of the day (steady light to moderate rain) so we'll measure liquid today... I don't think the other showers/sprinkles were much more than a trace or maybe a couple hundreths (nothing my little rain gage would pick up). It seems to be training over the area (particularly the spine just south of here) a bit and isn't in any hurry to go anywhere. Certainly a bit heavier just to the south in Bolton/Richmond area and maybe over towards J.Spin. We wound up with 0.34” in the bucket yesterday morning, and once I looked at the distribution of rainfall on the CoCoRaHS map, it almost seemed like there was some upslope character to it with the Underhill Center 2.8 NE station topping the list like it often does. I had looked at the radar at one point and the flow did look like it was from the Northwest. This morning we had 0.05” in the gauge, and it was very similar to what you mentioned yesterday evening - there was nothing going on right in the center of Waterbury, but heading westward toward the house on Route 2, it was almost like there was a wall of rain that started in the Little River State Park/Cider House area and we were well under it at the house. It’s very cool the way the mountains do that. I’ve added in yesterday’s CoCoRaHS precipitation map and yesterday’s data table below it: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 Another day with some liquid falling from the sky... I love how BTV updated the AFD to reduce POPS for the day and then within the hour it was raining on the mountain. Some sprinkles in town but I've been up to the mountain twice today and needed the windshield wipers both times. Orographic rain showers continue in the northern Greens... very noticable in the precipitation distribution (like J.Spin noticed) on the graphical maps... Last 24 hours... 24 hours before that... Very similar to a December pattern with constant chilly NW flow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorEaster27 Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 I hope this clears out for tomorrow as the ridge builds in, looks like a great weknd for the northcountry with maybe some storms on sunday? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adk Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 PF and J-Spin. Don't worry. I'm bringing good weather with me. However I've made some arrangements and it's not getting really nice until the last weekend of july. Then it's gonna be epic every weekend till the end of the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 These wonderful mornings that turn into overcast blahfests are getting on my nerves. Currently losing 44 seconds of daylight each day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 These wonderful mornings that turn into overcast blahfests are getting on my nerves. Currently losing 44 seconds of daylight each day. Tell me about it. It puts me on full tilt to leave CON at 3pm with FEW/SCT skies and then to get home 30 mins later to BKN/OVC in the foothills. I have a daily-visiting turkey and deer in the yard right now. I want to go outside, but I'd rather not scare them off. I pretty much have the turkey tame enough to come to me when I throw it bird seed. The elephant ear has a few big leaves coming off of the stalk now. I'm not sure how far behind that is for this time of the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 I have a daily-visiting turkey and deer in the yard right now. I want to go outside, but I'd rather not scare them off. I pretty much have the turkey tame enough to come to me when I throw it bird seed. The elephant ear has a few big leaves coming off of the stalk now. I'm not sure how far behind that is for this time of the year. Turkeys are cool. I tend to vigorously hate deer though. The damage they can do in a single morning makes my head spin. Sounds like both our elephant ears are way behind. I started mine in April and they're maybe half the size of last year at this time, which was about eye-level. They'll pick up the pace when the nights stay consistently above 58-60... the next week should really get things going. My tropical garden is coming along nicely. Had a two minute sprinkle with nice rainbow earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 Turkeys are cool. I tend to vigorously hate deer though. The damage they can do in a single morning makes my head spin. Sounds like both our elephant ears are way behind. I started mine in April and they're maybe half the size of last year at this time, which was about eye-level. They'll pick up the pace when the nights stay consistently above 58-60... the next week should really get things going. My tropical garden is coming along nicely. Had a two minute sprinkle with nice rainbow earlier. No sprinkles here on the rain sensor, but I did have a solar max of 1452 w/m^2 today. When the sun peaked through those BKN TCu's we got some strong diffuse radiation with the direct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 Flying home tomorrow after a week in the tropical SE. I talked to my wife an hour ago and told her it was still 94F, she said it was still 64F in VT. I am looking forward to cooler, more sensible weather. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 PF and J-Spin. Don't worry. I'm bringing good weather with me. However I've made some arrangements and it's not getting really nice until the last weekend of july. Then it's gonna be epic every weekend till the end of the year. Very cool adk, I like epic (especially when it comes to snow, but other innocuous weather is nice too). And as far as I’m concerned, receiving the extra off-season precipitation in the upslope region is a small price to pay for the boatload of additional snowfall that we get; it’s also just a quick drive to the Champlain Valley if one needs drier weather for biking, swimming, etc. This is our fifth summer in this location, and one thing I’ve noticed by this point is that we don’t seem to have to worry about conditions getting too dry; even when I’ve heard other people in the forum talking about dry conditions in Southern New England, or even Northern New England. The biggest challenges I’ve faced in terms of the lawn here have been finding those small windows of drier weather in which I can mow, and trying to keep moss from outcompeting the grass. On a precipitation note, the June data are complete, so we’re halfway through the calendar year. For this location (Waterbury 3.0 NW) we’re at 35.7” of liquid through June 30th. BTV and MPV have received 27.92” and 28.93” respectively, and they’re actually running somewhat closer to us compared to the 2010 calendar year. Technically we’re on pace for over 70” of precipitation, although I don’t think it likely that this pace can be sustained. If this pace was sustained, it could make for quite a November and December (and even October for the mountains) in terms of snowfall, as long as storms weren’t cutting to the west. It’s actually been a couple of seasons since we had a decent November in terms of valley snowfall, so it would be nice to get back to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 For this location (Waterbury 3.0 NW) we’re at 35.7” of liquid through June 30th. BTV and MPV have received 27.92” and 28.93” respectively, and they’re actually running somewhat closer to us compared to the 2010 calendar year. This to me is the standout piece of data that shows the effects of having mountains *nearby* that are in a favorable orientation for orographic precipitation. Your location is NOT a high elevation location (495 feet asl) yet you probably destroy most other locations in New England at the same elevation. I've always said you're probably the snowiest location that is 500ft or lower in New England. And that location where the Winooski Valley cuts through the Spine out-snows/precipitates many areas that are significantly higher in elevation (but are removed from the spine influence). MPV at over 1,100ft in elevation does average more precipitation than BTV at only 330ft in the CPV... but directly between both of those sites it is considerably wetter. This is no secret and I'm sure people get tired of the upslope talk, but this will always amaze me just how much of an influence these mountains have on our weather. They aren't even *that* big... relatively speaking with the Cascades and Coastal Ranges out west where upslope precipitation is such a big deal. We are talking small topographic blips in the grand scheme of things but it appears that a few thousand feet of terrain is enough to wring a lot of moisture out of the sky. This climo map shows J.Spin's data perfectly, lol... smack between numbers 5 and 6. It also shows the gradient that I always see here on the Mountain Road (RT 108)... center of Stowe village is in the yellow, I live probably on the yellow/green interface, and then 4 miles away at the base of the mountain its in the blues, with summit ridge in the purples. Quite the gradient in about a 6 mile span that goes from low 40s to above 68" of annual precipitation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 A "Brochure day" in progress in Stowe... 80/58 after a nice cool start at 51F this morning. Great sleeping weather at night mixed with warm days near 80F.... just perfect. Marketing team and chamber of commerce can't dream up a better 4th of July weekend. Town is absolutely packed... I bet our population just jumped a few thousand on Friday "check-in day." Only clouds that can be seen are a few puffy's over Mansfield and neighboring peaks. Find the Spine in northern VT... also what looks like a nice sea-breeze boundary in the Maine coastal plain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allenson Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 Mornin' dudes, Yeah, brochure day yesterday for sure--topped out at 77F here but it felt pretty hot in the sun. Went to bed last night with the milky way clearly visible and thought to myself, well, if it's this clear now (midnight), the showers should hold off till afternoon tomorrow (today). But, I woke up this morning to a solid cloud deck and the radar shows the first round of showers not far away already. Feels strange saying it, but we could use a nice slug of rain. Despite all the cloudy and gloomy weather we've had, we really haven't had a whole hell of a lot of rain. FInnished out June at 4.23", which is probably right on target for around here but overall, it seems a little on the dry side--streams are low, garden could use a nice drink, even some burned out lawns on the hot spots. I've had several people who know I'm into weather and do the coop thing, ask me if we've been setting rainfall records here and I say 'no, not even close'. I think they were catching the headlines out of Burlington where they did have a record wet spring season, but again, over here, not so much. Preception is a funny thing--they see the clouds, the fog, the gloom and the spotty showers and think that it's been a very wet period but really, when tallied all up, we're right on, or slightly behind schedule. Supposed to see an outdoor concert tonight--we'll see about that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klw Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 I woke up at 4:14 this morning to what was quite possibly the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard. I thought I was going to have to go around the house closing the windows but the rain never came and there was no more thunder. It was quite bizarre. This morning we had a light shower around 8:30 however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adk Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 This to me is the standout piece of data that shows the effects of having mountains *nearby* that are in a favorable orientation for orographic precipitation. Your location is NOT a high elevation location (495 feet asl) yet you probably destroy most other locations in New England at the same elevation. I've always said you're probably the snowiest location that is 500ft or lower in New England. And that location where the Winooski Valley cuts through the Spine out-snows/precipitates many areas that are significantly higher in elevation (but are removed from the spine influence). I've noticed this. Our friend has often asked about this. I've chalked it up to confluence. You know you funnel air into other air and a tight space, some of it is going to be forced to rise and with moist airm and cold temps the LCL is like .2 feet above the groud - any rising is going to get some flakes flying. MPV at over 1,100ft in elevation does average more precipitation than BTV at only 330ft in the CPV... but directly between both of those sites it is considerably wetter. This is no secret and I'm sure people get tired of the upslope talk, but this will always amaze me just how much of an influence these mountains have on our weather. They aren't even *that* big... relatively speaking with the Cascades and Coastal Ranges out west where upslope precipitation is such a big deal. We are talking small topographic blips in the grand scheme of things but it appears that a few thousand feet of terrain is enough to wring a lot of moisture out of the sky. I know upslope is a "big deal" out west but I'd say its a bigger deal with regards to snow added over synoptic snowfall in VT (and ADK/NH to a lesser extent). In reality it's gonna snow A TON out west without the influences of orographic lifting. The mountains are high, thus cold, and there is lots of liquid. That equals snow. Maybe upslope adds 25% to the total? In VT I'd say the Mansfield Upslope effect adds at least 50% to the total? On days when NO synoptic snow would fall, Mansfield and the spine are getting 6 inches of powder. Is it winter yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderwx Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Don't know the reason or measure the effects, but these Mt's certainly have their own weather. From last weekend, L to R: tillotson peak, haystack, hazen's notch, and sugarloaf, they are a great weather fence, for all seasons. Closer look at Haystack and the clouds "on the fence" Same deal up here Allenson - .25 for the week, but never a dry morning, perfect misting machine, its the gloom that gets people's feathers ruffled Happy 4th everyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 I for one am happy for a little gloom. After a week in GA and FL with unrelenting heat, I am glad to be back in cool NNE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxeyeNH Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Was hoping for a few real nice downpours to keep the lawns and everything real green but just a few showers throughout the day bringing less than 1/10th of qpf. Don't like the feel of my 67F dp! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Quick moving shower (1/10th of an inch or less) this morning and then mostly cloudy skies with a few brief breaks of sun. High of 79F but its humid out there with a dew point of 68F. BTV has a Td of 70F right now. The heat is all just to the WNW of New England... Massena, NY on the Canadian border topped out at 89F today with a heat index in the low 90s and from the look of this temperature map, it looks like it was a hot one in the Montreal area. They've seen several hot days I've noticed lately when pretty much all of New England is only in the 70s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Quick moving shower (1/10th of an inch or less) this morning and then mostly cloudy skies with a few brief breaks of sun. High of 79F but its humid out there with a dew point of 68F. BTV has a Td of 70F right now. The heat is all just to the WNW of New England... Massena, NY on the Canadian border topped out at 89F today with a heat index in the low 90s and from the look of this temperature map, it looks like it was a hot one in the Montreal area. They've seen several hot days I've noticed lately when pretty much all of New England is only in the 70s. That is freaky looking... loving this summer down here. Ever see the movie "Frozen"... 'tis quite funny - wolves in NH!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 Looks like .04" will be the total for today. I thought we were set to get quite a bit more looking at radar this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Don't know the reason or measure the effects, but these Mt's certainly have their own weather. From last weekend, L to R: tillotson peak, haystack, hazen's notch, and sugarloaf, they are a great weather fence, for all seasons. Sweet pics, dude... I love that when the clouds "drape" themselves across the ridges. Happy 4th, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I love how here in the mountain valley we are 60/60 (still very humid and foggy) this morning while BTV area in the Champlain Valley is waking up to 69/67. I definitely do NOT miss those 70F humid nights in Burlington when sleep did not come easy. Not much change in temperature with elevation this morning... my thermometer in town is 60F and summit is 59F. Looking at the mesomap, we seem to be a little cool spot here between the Worcester Range and the Spine of the Greens... this is a very warm map for 7:30am. Happy 4th everyone... off to the top of the mountain for the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoastalWx Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Congrats NH and ME on the box. Should be some good cells I would think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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