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Spring and Summer thread for the Mountains


Met1985

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Gotcha. Thought I should ask the locals on here since I got my family coming over first week of October. I'm hoping it'll be peak color at least for 5,000+ feet at that time so I can take them to Craggy Gardens and/or Graveyard Fields early one morning to beat the crowd. With the cold streak in July/August, I was hoping peak color would go down to about 4,000+ feet (although it might be way too early at that elevation).

 

Current NC fall foliage forecast for 2014: http://www.romanticasheville.com/fall.htm

 

 

This is climo...

 

SradWcA.jpg

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Took the family hiking at Mt. Jefferson State Park in Ashe County, North Carolina, today.  They've got a pretty sophisticated weather data collecting system up there.  I'll attach a few pics of what it looks like there.  The elevation is 4683 feet at the summit.  The rain gauge looks similar to some pics that Mike has posted of the setup on his mountaintop.  It has those thin metal rods that stick up all around the perimeter of the bucket.

 

post-4420-0-04054400-1409625988_thumb.jp

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Took the family hiking at Mt. Jefferson State Park in Ashe County, North Carolina, today.  They've got a pretty sophisticated weather data collecting system up there.  I'll attach a few pics of what it looks like there.  The elevation is 4683 feet at the summit.  The rain gauge looks similar to some pics that Mike has posted of the setup on his mountaintop.  It has those thin metal rods that stick up all around the perimeter of the bucket.

 

attachicon.gifIMG_8464.JPG

 

Nice! Those thin metal rods on the rain gauge are to keep birds off it.

 

Unfortunately, all those sophisticated weather gadgets on my mountain are being removed next month! Ugh!  Some of it is being moved to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State for a new weather research weather project there.  Not sure what/if any further research will be done on my mountain but we shall see.

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Current NC fall foliage forecast for 2014: http://www.romanticasheville.com/fall.htm

 

 

This is climo...

 

SradWcA.jpg

 

If last year is any judge, the Graveyard fields area is definitely the place to go for early leaf watching. (Higher elevation locations than that location simply don't have enough deciduous trees to provide much color.) The new parking lots fills up quick and you will get a ticket if you park on the shoulder. They only alternative is to park at next overlook and walk down. 

 

If someone wants to do a leaf watching in mid to late September, best bet is to travel to Tucker County, WV.

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If last year is any judge, the Graveyard fields area is definitely the place to go for early leaf watching. (Higher elevation locations than that location simply don't have enough deciduous trees to provide much color.) The new parking lots fills up quick and you will get a ticket if you park on the shoulder. They only alternative is to park at next overlook and walk down. 

 

If someone wants to do a leaf watching in mid to late September, best bet is to travel to Tucker County, WV.

 

I'm among the lucky ones that went to Graveyard Fields during peak color and it was gorgeous :) I took this on October 12th using my iPhone4 camera:

 

A7bLkDV.jpg

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We had two doses of storms yesterday in my backyard.  That was some pretty heavy rain!  Looks like we are in for another round or two of T-storms again this afternoon probably popping around 3-4pm.  Nice picture's Blue & Calc!  Someone reported tornado damage to wlos from the downburst that hit Woodfin Monday lol.  Had a little scud on it and maybe even a small funnel that occluded after a few seconds.  Here's the best shot I got of the microburst.  nothing to great.

 

20h7zep.jpg

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Nice! Those thin metal rods on the rain gauge are to keep birds off it.

 

Thanks for the explanation, Mike.  Makes sense.

 

We had two doses of storms yesterday in my backyard.  That was some pretty heavy rain!  Looks like we are in for another round or two of T-storms again this afternoon probably popping around 3-4pm.  Nice picture's Blue & Calc!  Someone reported tornado damage to wlos from the downburst that hit Woodfin Monday lol.  Had a little scud on it and maybe even a small funnel that occluded after a few seconds.  Here's the best shot I got of the microburst.  nothing to great.

 

Thanks, Hvward.  Nothing too fancy with my camera setup:  just a Canon Powershot.  But, I enjoy pointing and clicking.  Maybe someday I can justify the expense of a digital SLR to my wife.  ;)

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Took the family hiking at Mt. Jefferson State Park in Ashe County, North Carolina, today.  They've got a pretty sophisticated weather data collecting system up there.  I'll attach a few pics of what it looks like there.  The elevation is 4683 feet at the summit.  The rain gauge looks similar to some pics that Mike has posted of the setup on his mountaintop.  It has those thin metal rods that stick up all around the perimeter of the bucket.

 

attachicon.gifIMG_8464.JPG

 

Thanks for posting this.

 

The live weather readings from these instruments are located here:

 

https://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/cronos/?station=JEFF&temporal=H

 

The data is logged every minute and accessed via minute from the hourly tab.

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We had two doses of storms yesterday in my backyard.  That was some pretty heavy rain!  Looks like we are in for another round or two of T-storms again this afternoon probably popping around 3-4pm.  Nice picture's Blue & Calc!  Someone reported tornado damage to wlos from the downburst that hit Woodfin Monday lol.  Had a little scud on it and maybe even a small funnel that occluded after a few seconds.  Here's the best shot I got of the microburst.  nothing to great.

 

 

 

Thanks! 

 

We took a beating twice yesterday on UNCA campus, especially the one that hit about 10 pm last night. It poured yet again tonight, but I'm not complaining because I actually want weather to cool off some. Sky this evening was gorgeous with flash of orange and I really regret not bringing my good camera with me tonight to Memorial Stadium. 

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Not to look to far ahead but it looks as if we could see a very strong cold front coming in fro the middle part of the country east. This could shack up the whole pattern and give us a much need refreshing breath of air. There could even be snow for the Northern plains and maybe the higher elevations in New England. Anyway the pattern looks to take a big change in the next week and a half.

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Great pics Hvward! Man I wish I could get some pics like that but I do not have the camera for it right know.

 

 

I got mine last year on black Friday.  It was around $350 dollars but I bet this year they will have a DSLR camera and a lens kit somewhere for $300.  The best part is that you can sell your camera or lens in a few years and get 60%-70% of what you paid for them new if you have taken care of them.  You don't need anything fancy as far as camera just a DSLR that you can change the lens on.  Improving the image quality is mainly on the type of lens you have not so much the camera specs per say.  You are going to need something good to take pictures of Max Patch for us all the time in the future!

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ABTech parking lot lol.  Who would of thunk?

 

Meanwhile, I was in downtown earlier today when I decided to look for a good spot for sunset picture so I went up Beaucatcher Mtn via and found this spot. I didn't bring my good camera, but what matters is this is a really cool spot:

 

4ijQPmG.png

 

Sadly, I'm still struggling to find a decent spot to take downtown shot. I've tried Town Mtn Road and Beaucatcher Mtn with not much luck. I thought Beaucatcher Overlook Park was a good spot of downtown shot, but I was not able to find an opening in trees toward downtown like I did for this shot.

 

EDIT: Didn't expect this iPhone picture to come out this blurry, but I guess that's what you get for stretching the picture to fit computer.

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I got mine last year on black Friday.  It was around $350 dollars but I bet this year they will have a DSLR camera and a lens kit somewhere for $300.  The best part is that you can sell your camera or lens in a few years and get 60%-70% of what you paid for them new if you have taken care of them.  You don't need anything fancy as far as camera just a DSLR that you can change the lens on.  Improving the image quality is mainly on the type of lens you have not so much the camera specs per say.  You are going to need something good to take pictures of Max Patch for us all the time in the future!

Thanks for the info man! Wow what a little pattern we had going on this evening. I worked in Canton this evening and did not see a drop of rainfall. I got home and everything is soaked. My wife told me it rained hard from 4 till 8 this evening. We picked quite a bit of rainfall.

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Nice Blue! I won't give away all my spots but I will give you a hint on where you could set up at unca for a downtown shot. If you go up towards The north part of campus and up the hill you can take Lookout rd. or walk but where it intersects with Nut Hill Rd. You can get an awesome view of all of downtown. Should be able to get a sunrise shot there if you time it right.

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Nice Blue! I won't give away all my spots but I will give you a hint on where you could set up at unca for a downtown shot. If you go up towards The north part of campus and up the hill you can take Lookout rd. or walk but where it intersects with Nut Hill Rd. You can get an awesome view of all of downtown. Should be able to get a sunrise shot there if you time it right.

 

Hey, I can respect that. And yeah, I've gone up trails to top of this little mountain campus is on to take shots. I also love that little parking space with view of Pisgah Ridge.

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It won't be long until Mike starts dropping in with reports of snowfall in Michigan!  Then we know we are getting close.

 

We are getting close! :) There is a slight chance that the highest elevations near Herman in the Western U.P. could see some mixed snow Thursday night as cold wind rushes over Lake Superior creating lake effect. Elevations there rise to about 1300 feet above the level of the lake which might be just enough to get a mix per GFS sounding.  More interesting, Wednesday there will be a 65 knot low level jet over lower Michigan which might mix to the ground if any instability develops Wed afternoon causing a large scale damaging wind event; this after 2000 power lines were knocked down last week from storms.

 

This strong baroclinic storm will signal that Fall has indeed arrived in the Eastern U.S.

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This is why I would love to live in NW Montana because they are under a Winter weather advisory for anywhere from 1-7 inches.

 

Wow, already? 

 

Hopefully I can go visit Montana one day. Wyoming was the most beautiful state I've ever been to and I want more adventures in Rockies :)

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