NNE Winter 2013-14 Part I

[J.Spin]

Event totals: 0.8” Snow/1.53” L.E.

 

I was surprised that we had power this morning when I went outside and saw that there was such a solid glaze on all surfaces.  I’m glad we had that sleet last night instead of just freezing rain, as I’m sure it helped to reduce the thickness of the ice.  We also had some very tiny snowflakes in there as well; they were interesting in that they were very ethereal and sparkled in a unique way.  In terms of vegetation this morning, some weaker branches in the yard had come down, but it was obvious that the spruces and firs were able to handle the ice better than the pines.  Seeing the situation, I decided to give the heat in the house a bump up just in case we were to lose power.  The sleet I found on the snowboard naturally had some freezing rain integrated into it, but I was able to core 0.5” of the sleet and get 0.34” worth of liquid out of it.  Once I melted down the contents of the rain gauge, I found that it had caught another 0.83” of liquid since I’d emptied it at 7:00 P.M. last night.  I went around the yard and did a quick survey of the ice accumulations, which generally revealed radii of 0.2” to 0.4” on the top sides of branches, but little if anything underneath.

 

Details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations:

 

New Snow (Sleet): 0.5 inches

New Liquid: 0.34 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 1.5

Snow Density: 68.0% H2O

Temperature: 30.6 F

Sky: Light Rain

Snow at the stake: 6.0 inches

 

Around 7:30 A.M., my wife was getting up and I expressed my concern about the power… then within moments the house went dark.  I immediately called it in to Green Mountain Power, not knowing how back-logged they were.  A bit before 9:00 A.M., a power truck came up the road, so I took that as a good sign that they weren’t totally overwhelmed with the volume of power outages.  I also saw trucks at a couple of other times.  While the power was down I had some time to go out and see if it was a local power issue on our road, so I got some pictures of the ice, and also checked out the Winooski, which was running vigorously and carrying lots of ice.  I’ve added a few images from this morning below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tracked the outdoor and indoor temperatures every hour this morning to see if there was a chance for the ice to melt and when we’d need to think about dealing with the heat.  At one point in the mid morning the dripping of the gutters picked up and I thought we might be getting close to breaking the freezing mark, but the temperature was really just up and down into the afternoon.  Here are the temperatures observed:

 

8:00 A.M.:  30.6 F

9:00 A.M.:  30.7 F

10:00 A.M.:  31.3 F

11:00 A.M.:  31.3 F

12:00 P.M.:  30.6 F

1:00 P.M.:  29.7 F

2:00 P.M.:  31.3 F

3:00 P.M.:  33.1 F

 

Power came back on here at ~1:30 P.M. although the line workers are still working hard – four big trucks and a Green Mountain Power pick up truck just went up to the end of our road.  As you can see from the log, finally, as of 3:00 P.M. we’ve started to tick above freezing and it looks like there’s some melting taking place out there.

 

 

[wxjim207]

0.1" of Ice here in Brunswick so far today. Ice Storm Warning fails to verify and I must admit I was wrong. 

[eyewall]

Here are some pics I took in Williston

 

 

 

[Hitman]

Up to 50f here. Tropical

[MainePhotog]

0.16" ice accretion. I call this a win as I still have power. This will make the snowpack bullet proof and assure a white Christmas.

25.3°F.

[N. OF PIKE]

31f glaze on everything , Bartlett. Noticed better icing up the road in Glen and Jackson.

[PWMan]

Very light glaze here. Nothing to write home about.

[powderfreak]

Best I could do is 0.33" (1/3rd inch) of radial ice...

 

My stratus rain gauge collected a whopping 1.84" of rain since Thursday night... that seems high but MVL I think is around 1.5" so maybe its right.  Its a lot of precip either way.

 

[Lava Rock]

PNC forecast calling for rain and temps in the upper 30's tomorrow. is this right, as I thought we were supposed to clear out.

[eyewall]

Here is one more:

 

[mreaves]

Been hovering between 31° and 32° here since 8pm last night.  No ice accretion whatsoever that I can detect, however.  Looks like the ice accumulations/sleet made it as far east as Stowe/Waterbury but couldn't push the few extra miles east to my location.  Some snow loss but pack still soundly intact. 

 

No ice (or sleet), enough rain to completely clear the driveway and snowpack still solid...win/win/win...and

Same with temps over here in Barre Town.  We had some light glazing on the trees, though nothing like the pictures posted by JSpin and PF.  Hoping we don't have a last minute warm surge that wipes out the remaining snow.  I have had bad dreams about overnight snow wipeouts before, at least once in summer.  I know,

[eyewall]

What is wrong with this picture?

 

 

[CardinalWinds]

Same with temps over here in Barre Town.  We had some light glazing on the trees, though nothing like the pictures posted by JSpin and PF.  Hoping we don't have a last minute warm surge that wipes out the remaining snow.  I have had bad dreams about overnight snow wipeouts before, at least once in summer.  I know,

 

Upon closer inspection I found a very light coating of ice on the mailbox which crackled when I opened it and a few slick parts on the metal front door handle and the nearby flood light covering.  Not enough to even measure, though. Nothing on the trees, driveway or roads as I mentioned.

 

Yes, I see that warm slug of 60+ air lurking not too far to the south.  Bennington and Brattleboro are both near 60 and western Mass. well into the 60's.  Let's keep that where it is, please.

[CardinalWinds]

What is wrong with this picture?

 

Aside from the blood splatter my attention is drawn to that 53° report

[J.Spin]

Event totals: 0.8” Snow/1.60” L.E.

 

I’m catching up on my observations now since the power was out and I couldn’t easily melt down the accumulation in the rain gauge, but there was another 0.07” in there as of 2:00 P.M. to bring the total liquid for this event to 1.60”.  I walked out on the front porch and it was a downpour out there… except that it wasn’t raining.  We’re only about a degree above freezing, but the water has just been pouring down off of all the surfaces out there.  Hopefully this means that we won’t be losing any more limbs from trees.

 

The boys and I went out and took care of cleanup for the past hour – all white pine issues here.  We lost the top section from of one of our white pines that is about ten years old – actually one that has lost it before.  This tree puts out so many top branches that it can never seem to support them.  I can’t blame that section for breaking off though – it probably weighs a couple of pounds normally, but it must have been close to 20 pounds with the ice covering ever needle of every branch that was on there.  The other detritus was a couple of long branches from one of our mature white pines.  I initially asked the boys to just drag them off to the brush pile, but there was no way they were doing that.  They turned out to be 20-25 feet long and 6 to 8 inches in diameter.  I had to cut them into several sections to clear them out.  Limbs always seem to look so much smaller from a distance.  Anyway, Mother Nature has been doing her pruning.

 

It will be interesting to see how much liquid is in the snowpack after this event – it contained 1.36” before this system, but I have no idea how much of the precipitation is sitting in the crust on top, has soaked into the snow, or has percolated through.  I’m thinking of coring the snowpack when I make my morning observations tomorrow.

 

Details from the 2:00 P.M. Waterbury observations:

 

New Liquid: 0.07 inches

Temperature: 31.3 F

Sky: Cloudy

Snow at the stake: 6.0 inches

[powderfreak]

Here is one more:

 

 

Nice!

[powderfreak]

Aside from the blood splatter my attention is drawn to that 53° report

 

That's the Spruce Peak 1,800ft station near the base of the ski resort... it is up to 57F now!  When I left at 2:30pm, it was 32F.  Looks like the inversion broke and its now fully mixing down with 45F at the summit, full mixing would give another 10-12F from that level (normal lapse rate of 5.5F/1000ft)...which leads to 57F.

 

This has to be one of the coolest meteorological thing I've seen in a while, even though its melting the snow (we didn't lose much snow to be honest, and now its all glazed over it shouldn't melt as fast). 

 

The meteorology is so awesome...So the summit started getting huge wind gusts around 1-2pm (went from gusts to 20mph to gusting to 60mph very fast) as the inversion broke at the summit.  The temperature went from 33F to 45F very quickly.

 

Then around 2:30pm, the inversion was moving down the mountain and finally broke at that Spruce Peak station.  Look at the increase in wind (from dead calm and cool, to windy and warm) and the temperature rise.

 

[Hitman]

That's the Spruce Peak 1,800ft station near the base of the ski resort... it is up to 57F now!  When I left at 2:30pm, it was 32F.  Looks like the inversion broke and its now fully mixing down with 45F at the summit, full mixing would give another 10-12F from that level (normal lapse rate of 5.5F/1000ft)...which leads to 57F.

 

This has to be one of the coolest meteorological thing I've seen in a while, even though its melting the snow (we didn't lose much snow to be honest, and now its all glazed over it shouldn't melt as fast). 

 

The meteorology is so awesome...So the summit started getting huge wind gusts around 1-2pm (went from gusts to 20mph to gusting to 60mph very fast) as the inversion broke at the summit.  The temperature went from 33F to 45F very quickly.

 

Then around 2:30pm, the inversion was moving down the mountain and finally broke at that Spruce Peak station.  Look at the increase in wind (from dead calm and cool, to windy and warm) and the temperature rise.

 

Stowe_base.jpg

I went into the pub at the base of Lincoln peak at 1:15 and it was 32f. Left at 3 and the car therm said 55. Hope it doesn't stay this warm for long.

[eyewall]

Ok I did measure many times in Williston and I am confident my 0.5" accrual number is correct. We have a mix of light freezing rain and snizzle like flurries now.

[eyewall]

That's the Spruce Peak 1,800ft station near the base of the ski resort... it is up to 57F now!  When I left at 2:30pm, it was 32F.  Looks like the inversion broke and its now fully mixing down with 45F at the summit, full mixing would give another 10-12F from that level (normal lapse rate of 5.5F/1000ft)...which leads to 57F.

 

This has to be one of the coolest meteorological thing I've seen in a while, even though its melting the snow (we didn't lose much snow to be honest, and now its all glazed over it shouldn't melt as fast). 

 

The meteorology is so awesome...So the summit started getting huge wind gusts around 1-2pm (went from gusts to 20mph to gusting to 60mph very fast) as the inversion broke at the summit.  The temperature went from 33F to 45F very quickly.

 

Then around 2:30pm, the inversion was moving down the mountain and finally broke at that Spruce Peak station.  Look at the increase in wind (from dead calm and cool, to windy and warm) and the temperature rise.

 

Stowe_base.jpg

 

I have never seen a scenario as bizarre as this one.

[powderfreak]

I have never seen a scenario as bizarre as this one.

 

Yeah this has been fascinating to have watched unfold the past couple days.  It may not be the epic snowstorm we all want, but as far as interesting weather goes, this system is up there on the list for this area.  The flow aloft has been strong WSW to SW, like most southwest flow events we get, but instead of it mixing and just warming up like it usually happens in the large valleys (with the interior hills holding the cold best), this system had a set-up allowing for cold air to be continuously refreshed at the surface.  And it was an incredibly thin airmass for most of the time.  There was a point this morning where the inversion level lifted to summit level for a while (but I saw no ice on the trees above 2,500ft even though the temp hovered at 30-32 this morning)... but icing increased quickly below that level.  It was exactly like a reverse snow line, which is so odd.  It would be awesome to see a computer simulation of this event's 32> degree air superimposed on a 3-D toporgraphic map.  Probably would be incredibly fluid, like waves filled up the valleys and reaching the mountain tops, then sinking back down...and it did it a couple of times over the past 54 hours.

[eyewall]

Yeah this has been fascinating to have watched unfold the past couple days.  It may not be the epic snowstorm we all want, but as far as interesting weather goes, this system is up there on the list.

 

It is, and I think even if the upper 30's materialize here tomorrow a good portion of the snow/ice will survive to Christmas. I am actually enjoying the rarity and strangeness of it.

[eyewall]

A shot from this evening.

[mreaves]

We've popped up to 38.5F. Is the onslaught about to begin? Hope not but I will be peeking out the curtains when I get up hoping I sti see whit on the front lawn.

[N. OF PIKE]

Btv wrf argues for a potentially dangerous icing event for interior maine away from coast tommorrow 5am to 11am. Like north of KLEW to especially Waterville to Bangor looks like close to .75 QPF just takin a quick look at qpf and time. But temps hold in 25-29 range there. I . not sure who is furthest ne in Maine.

If CAD holds on longer more areas could be involved and vice versa.

But i havent seen this batch talk'd about. Prob will be tad too mild for most of our nh/ sw maine posters, but then again im not so sure. Solid shield suppose to move in 4-5am.

[borderwx]

what a friggin mess, this is about as exciting as seeing a moose on the road, I can do without this, pissing again but it has bumped to 32F and nothing seems to be freezing at least for the time being. A couple from today, finally got power back 30 min ago, thanks boys, good work.

 

 

 

 

[MainePhotog]

Crickets in here since last evening. Hoping this doesn't mean a lot of NNE folks lost power.

 

24.8°F

[Lava Rock]

I'll be glad to see the sun out tomorrow, but it would be equally as nice to see some snow on the horizon.

[eyewall]

Power still on here. Whatever is there after today will be around for a little while.

[ApacheTrout]

back to Vermont after a weekend in the Syracuse area.  Returned to find 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice coating everything.  Power on, but must have lost it at some point over the weekend.

 

Interesting temperature profile yesterday in Manlius, NY and surrounding environs.  38F at 8 am, then it soared to 62F by 11 am.  We departed at 1:30, and within 15 minutes of driving east (and down several hundred feet in elevation), the temp had dropped to 42F and stayed that way until somewhere near Herkimer and St. Johnsville, NY, where the temp slowly fell to 34F as we headed further east.  West of St. Johnsville, the snowpack was obliterated.  East of St. Johnsville, the snowpack remained and increased in coverage/depth (visible from the car) until we reached Amsterdam, where the snow coverage was uniform.  When we reached Queensbury, NY, the temp fell to 31F, and the ice on the trees & shrubs became visible.  When we arrived home in Orwell, the driveway was fully ice over, and the poor dog had trouble simply walking on the snow.

 

The landscape is beautiful right now, with ice-covered branches bent to the ground.  Our backyard pond didn't take the hit I feared, and should be skateable after the next batch of cold arrives tonight.