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Spring and Summer thread for the Mountains


Met1985

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That's pretty cool. I think the best chance for the rain will be overnight tonight and clear up tomorrow through the day.

 

Agree. The radar doesn't look good for the game since it's starting at 7 pm, but maybe they'll try to get to halfway? We'll see :)

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I fear we are not done with the freeze/frost danger yet here in the mountains. Both the NAO and AO are going to go negative in the next week. This would  force a trough in the East and funnel in colder air for us. We could  b  looking at.  Very damaging frost as late as the first of May if things play out just right.

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Dewpoints outside feel nice but are going to limit any real thunderstorm development today.  It looks like we could get some nice showers today with a few boomers but nothing too severe.  The lack of humidity this year before storms is interesting to me.  It looks like we get back down into the 30's tonight like Met has been talking about for a few days, awesome weather!

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Wow not sure if the Euro is going to be right but it has been showing a very large expanse of cold air coming down towards the end of the month and the first of May also with the NAO going very negative which is like the first time in about 7 months. This could be very devastating to crops around the country if this was to verify. Still have a lot of time to iron things out.

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Wow not sure if the Euro is going to be right but it has been showing a very large expanse of cold air coming down towards the end of the month and the first of May also with the NAO going very negative which is like the first time in about 7 months. This could be very devastating to crops around the country if this was to verify. Still have a lot of time to iron things out.

 

Uggh, I hope this does not verify but it seems these cold shots have verified this year; let's hope the sun and May destroy the Euro this time.

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Wow not sure if the Euro is going to be right but it has been showing a very large expanse of cold air coming down towards the end of the month and the first of May also with the NAO going very negative which is like the first time in about 7 months. This could be very devastating to crops around the country if this was to verify. Still have a lot of time to iron things out.

 

Ya Euro even showing snow showers for the high mountains to begin May.  October isn't to far off lol, it might not be much of a summer warm weather wise above 4000 or so feet.

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Ya Euro even showing snow showers for the high mountains to begin May.  October isn't to far off lol, it might not be much of a summer warm weather wise above 4000 or so feet.

Lol Ya noticed that to. The GFS is coming around to th  EURO but not as cold but just looks like a very raw cool pattern taking shape.

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The plus for the mountains is that we don't have to deal with "burning" heat :) I'll be looking forward to escaping the heat in August when I get back to Asheville.

 

I am not a fan of winter lasting well into spring like this spring and last year; however, March typically is very much a winter month in the mountains.  Then the pay off is not having the brutal piedmont heat in the summers and it actually cooling off at night.

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My neighbor was planting flowers yesterday and I've told him in the past the rule of thumb in the mtns. is Mother's Day weekend for planting is what I've always heard.  I told him I'm reading about a cold shot of air May 2nd and 3rd, next weekend.  He only looks at the 10 day forecast and I told him you can't go by that.  Those are mostly the averages that the NWS is using that far out.  I guess he'll learn one way or the other.  In years past he has had to cover them with old sheets.  Go figure he's from Penn. and always tries to rush spring here in the WNC Mtns.  :whistle:

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I am not a fan of winter lasting well into spring like this spring and last year; however, March typically is very much a winter month in the mountains.  Then the pay off is not having the brutal piedmont heat in the summers and it actually cooling off at night.

 

It's pretty much like that for everybody except below Atlanta-Birmingham-Jackson-Dallas. Still crazy it was chilly way into mid-April though :) I know I'll be wishing for cooler weather by the time it's July in Central NC, though  :lol:

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NASA's IPHEX program is finally started to commence in Western NC.

 

NASA's very fancy NPOL mobile S-band dual-polarization radar has been turned on. It is located near Rutherfordton, NC. (See map.  My Mt. Lyn Lowry location is depicted on the map for reference.)  More interesting to those in the mtns will be when this radar is turned on near Canton: http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/tools/radar/mobile/

 

Live radar data from the NPOL is now available here: 

 

http://wallops-prf.gsfc.nasa.gov/Field_Campaigns/IPHEx/Radar/NPOL/index.html

 

Current local sounding data from balloon launches is available here:

 

http://www.atms.unca.edu/iphex/rt_iphex_2014.html

 

Current disdrometer data available here: (APU-04 is my location-it is currently broken-should be fixed later today.)

 

http://wallops-prf.gsfc.nasa.gov/Field_Campaigns/IPHEx/Disdrometer/index.html

 

More data will be coming online shortly although a fair amount of it will password protected.

 

Stay tuned for more updates...(For instance-NASA has been very busy at my location-new pic of setup coming shortly.)  All in all very exciting for local weather geeks! There will likely never be so much local weather data available as will occur during this field campaign.

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Important Links (In particular note the images link for the NOAA radar data portal)

 

IPHEx Participants:

 

 Local sites:

  • Weather stations in the area provided by Davis WeatherLink, for more stations in addition to the ones below clic the link provided.
- Mount Pisgah (P17) weather station
- Mount Mitchell (P11) nearby weather station
- AB Tech (P8, APU06) nearby weather station
- Hayes Cove Road (between P19 and Asheville), weather station
- Weather stations close to P21 and Purcharse Knob: Johnathan CreekCreekStonethe Thundering Herd
- Waynesville (close to P15, APU08) weather station
Weather station close to P20
Weather station close to P14-SCC, Lake Fontana
Weather station close to P13-PARI.
Weather station close to P12-The Wilds

 

 Dr. Ana P. Barros Research Group Website

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NASA Press Release:

 

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-begins-field-campaign-to-measure-rain-in-southern-appalachians/#.U2IgR4FdWxr

 

NASA Begins Field Campaign to Measure Rain in Southern Appalachians
 
April 30, 2014
 

 

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Five new NASA Earth science missions are launching in 2014 to expand our understanding of Earth’s changing climate and environment.
 
Rain, ice, hail, severe winds, thunderstorms, and heavy fog – the Appalachian Mountains in the southeast United States have it all. On May 1, NASA begins a campaign in western North Carolina to better understand the difficult-to-predict weather patterns of mountain regions. The field campaign serves as ground truth for measurements made by the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission's Core Observatory.

 

GPM is an international satellite mission to observe rain and snow around the world. The advanced instruments on the GPM Core Observatory satellite, launched Feb. 27, provide the next generation of precipitation measurements, including the new capability to detect snow and light rain.

"What we're trying to do is study and learn about the precipitation from the summit to sea, how it evolves as it moves from the mountains to the plains," said Walt Petersen of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, who is leading the field campaign. "Then we use that information to improve satellite observations of precipitation and how those observations can best be used in applications like hydrologic models."

Hydrologic models are used by water managers to predict where rainwater goes after it hits the ground – underground and into streams and rivers where it supplies freshwater to the region, or becomes a natural hazard. Evaluating and improving these models is an important part of the field campaign.

 

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Rain gauges and other rain monitoring equipment are set up throughout the Smoky Mountains (part of the Appalachians) to capture rainfall for the GPM ground validation taking place in North Carolina May 1 to June 15, 2014.
Image Credit: 
Duke University
 

 

"This is a region that is always under some sort of threat," said precipitation scientist Ana Barros of Duke University in Durham, N.C., who is hosting the field campaign. She's been working with local authorities in the Upper Tennessee, Catawba-Santee, Yadkin-Pee Dee and Savannah River basins, who are very interested in the outcome, to set up the rain-monitoring network for the campaign. "They have landslides, they have flash floods, they have very severe windstorms, they have lots of hail storms in the summer time, they also get hurricanes and tropical storms. So they really value and appreciate the data because they feel they can make good use of it."

Mountain precipitation is difficult to measure, even from satellites. The shape of the rugged slopes interacts with and produces a wide variety of rainfall, through poorly understood processes specific to mountains, said Barros. On the ground, rain gauges have to be set up and maintained in remote areas only accessible by foot or on horseback, and ridges block weather radars from seeing very far into the mountains.

Nevertheless, the Integrated Precipitation and Hydrology Experiment field campaign, running from May 1 to June 15, 2014, combines intense ground coverage with airborne sensors flying through and above rain clouds. When a storm moves in, they’ll snap pictures of precipitation from the top of the clouds to the bottom of valleys.

 

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During the field campaign NASA's high-altitude ER-2 aircraft carries three radars and a radiometer to measure rainfall from 65,000 feet.
Image Credit: 
NASA/Tony Landis
 

 

Satellite overpasses from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and the GPM Core Observatory provide the view from space. In case satellites aren't overhead during a storm, NASA's ER-2 high altitude research plane flying at 65,000 feet and managed by the agency's Armstrong Flight Research Canter in Edwards, Calif., carries several sensors including two that simulate measurements made by the GPM Core Observatory. At 10,000 to 25,000 feet, the University of North Dakota's Citation aircraft flies through clouds to measure raindrops and ice particles where they form.

Multiple weather radars – including the NASA's transportable Polarimetric Radar and Dual-Frequency, Dual-Polarimetric Doppler Radar, as well as a NOAA polarimetric radar – measure rain as it forms in clouds and falls to the ground. Then, researchers from Duke University, NOAA's Hydrometeorological Test Bed, NASA, and others have set up a dense network of rain gauges and other equipment to measure fallen precipitation at ground level. Additional sensors to detect soil moisture underground and stream height then follow the water as it flows downstream from the mountaints to the plains.

"That's our dream scenario," Petersen said. "We'll learn something more about how and where rain water is actually made in the clouds, how much of it falls out of the cloud to the ground, and then what happens to the rainfall when it gets into our hydrologic network."

 

d3r_iphex_0.jpeg?itok=DJvDdDkK
Set up on a ranch in Rutherford County, N.C., NASA's Dual-frequency, Dual-polarization, Doppler Radar (D3R) is one of several ground radars measuring rain as it falls from clouds. It has the same two frequencies as are on the GPM Core Observatory Satellite.
Image Credit: 
NASA/David Wolff
 

 

If the weather cooperates, the science team expects to end the six-week campaign with detailed and scientifically robust data to improve their understanding of both the fundamental science of mountain rainfall and how to best estimate rainfall using satellite observations over these remote and rugged regions.

"In a way remote sensing is the only hope to observe the hydrologic cycle over mountains," said Barros. "The potential to do this from space is great and resolves a great problem because we can look at the larger area without having to deal with these obstacles."

For more information, visit:

http://pmm.nasa.gov/iphex

and

http://iphex.pratt.duke.edu

 

Ellen Gray
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
[email protected]

301-286-1950

Keith Koehler
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va.
[email protected]
757-824-1579

 

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Here is part of the new setup on the mtn top..includes a Pluvio style rain gauge with a fancy double wind shield to improve rain catch efficiency during high wind events.  It is rated at 80% catch when wind speeds are 20 mph at the height of rain gauge.  

 

Looks like the electric fence to keep out the bears isn't currently operational. Hope they don't like chewing on metal! :)

 

 

 

 

 

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