adk Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 PF- Just incredible damage. Wow. I thought the damage I saw in Red Rocks Park from the storms July 8th was something. Wasn't nothing compared to that microburst damage. Was there any earth movement or was it just straight line winds? What I saw in Red Rocks was about 15 trees snapped and felled on S/E winds. I could hear them snapping actually from about 1/8th of a mile away. NWS has a great write-up on that event: http://www.weather.gov/media/btv/events/2014-07-08/Damaging_Wind.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 J.Spin, the State Forester has surveyed the damage and at this point the resort only has the legal ability to clear the existing trails. That includes Midway, middle Goat, and Lower Goat which sustained the most significant damage. Lower Goat to me is essentially gone as there's no wood-line on either side of where the trail used to be. The clear cut blow-down goes right through it, so the boundaries of the old trail are hard to see in the vicinity of the Midway intersection. The Mountain Ops trail crew has been busting ssa and is doing what they can in that area. The State Forester has given directive to stay away from cutting anything outside of pre-existing trails for fear of massive erosion. In a lot of spots the root systems of multiple trees have been pealed right off the bedrock and the concern is removing all of that will be setting up that area for a large mudslide or something (its still quite steep in a few aspects in there). We'll see what happens but its going to change the whole character of the skiing in that area. I think over-time locals and the mountain will find a way to take care of it...the mountain may reach out for permits to do something in there in the future. But the timber is so big and extensive that you'd almost need logging equipment to really clean it up, and that's going to be almost impossible to get into that area. If you are curious, I'd suggest a hike in that area...if you go up Hazelton to Cliff Trail, then cut over to Nosedive and head up 100 more yards to where Midway starts, then from there just hike down Midway to get the best view of the damage. You'll see some scattered damage in the Hazelton area, but the most eye opening stuff is off Midway. Just be aware it can be a little muddy in spots on Midway depending on when it last rained. Nasty business for whomever would have to do it, but I'd think that cutting the windthrown trees from the tip-ups would allow many of those rootwads to fall back into place, which would limit erosion potential somewhat. Your pics suggest some of this has already been done. Leaving all that woody material in place will look mega-messy, but that too will reduce erosion potential, compared to having it removed. Fortunately, fire risk should be low, at least for human-caused, though the fuel load is monstrous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Does the ski resort not own the land? I had no idea a state forester had that kind of authority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Does the ski resort not own the land? I had no idea a state forester had that kind of authority. Most ski resorts in VT are on land leased from the state. Its a fairly lucrative piece of business for the state...leasing the land to private recreation companies. Most of these deals were struck way back in the like 30s, 40s, and 1950s. Its hard to find a ski area that is solely on privately owned land...usually its a combination of private and state land. Like Stowe owns property at Spruce Peak, and leases the Mansfield side (which is why the base area development is at Spruce Peak, because its on private land). A lot of times the ski resorts will purchase any nearby land, and then use that as a bargaining chip with the state for the higher elevation land. Out west, a lot of ski areas are on Federal land and then you have to deal with the Bureau of Land Management and those agencies. Like Hitman said, when a similar but smaller scale windstorm happened at Sugarbush years back they also had to leave the trees as they lay except where it impacted pre-existing trails. You really can't cut a tree without getting approval, as they consider it destroying state property. That's why locals who go cut their own glade trails often go to great lengths to remain anonymous as you can be charged by state law enforcement of destroying property. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 PF- Just incredible damage. Wow. I thought the damage I saw in Red Rocks Park from the storms July 8th was something. Wasn't nothing compared to that microburst damage. Was there any earth movement or was it just straight line winds? What I saw in Red Rocks was about 15 trees snapped and felled on S/E winds. I could hear them snapping actually from about 1/8th of a mile away. NWS has a great write-up on that event: http://www.weather.gov/media/btv/events/2014-07-08/Damaging_Wind.pdf Yeah I read that write-up...BTV is really good about getting those storm summary and case studies reports out quickly after an event happens. I really like how that velocity data shows the localized winds near Red Rocks...I saw some pics of yours on Twitter I think, looked pretty impressive right there. There was no earth movement except for large clumps of the forest that were uprooted. Its actually pretty interesting to really look into because the trees are fairly strong in that area...in a lot of spots the trees were able to survive the high winds, except that like living-room size patches of earth just peeled off the bedrock. In a lot of spots it was the root system that failed. This photo shows it but its more impressive in person to sort of visualize it from all angles. This is a patch of earth that had like 15 trees on it, and was literally peeled off the bedrock. Standing under it, it was like a curling wave in the ocean about to crash...the back of this chunk of earth is like 10 feet off the ground. I've never seen anything like that before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted July 15, 2014 Author Share Posted July 15, 2014 Made a trip down into SNE to pick my mom up at Logan. Was going to hang out and do some touristy things in Boston before heading back north but I forgot how nasty a city can be when it's hot and humid. After about an hour of walking around Quincy Market and Fanueil Hall, we decided to head back north, taking the long way, up 93 and through Lost River to 302 home. The car thermometer read 88-90 all the way from BOS to CON. Between CON and Canterbury, we hit a couple of downpours and the temps dropped to 73. It was still very muggy but much more bearable by the time we got to Lincoln. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 72.5/72.5 and rising. Had 0.15" of rain earlier. The next 12+ hrs look a little wet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 71/66...sticky. Great summer sunsets the past two night's though. Here's tonight's... And this was yesterday evening... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Failing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 2.04" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxeyeNH Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 1.10" much better than I feared but would have taken eek's 2" plus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 1.63" here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 End looks to be here, Will check the gauge when i get home Edit: 1.52" here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 2.04"Is that a 2 day total? WU has you had 1.60" going back to yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Is that a 2 day total? WU has you had 1.60" going back to yesterday. I have 1.75" storm total on the console, but that's missing the rain from around 1:30- 9am on the 15th because the battery died overnight. The 2.04" was from the manual gauge. Given the >4"/hr rain rates, the tipping bucket was no doubt underreporting at times too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dendrite Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I have 1.75" storm total on the console, but that's missing the rain from around 1:30- 9am on the 15th because the battery died overnight. The 2.04" was from the manual gauge. Given the >4"/hr rain rates, the tipping bucket was no doubt underreporting at times too. Ahh. Gotchya. I wish I had put my manual one out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxeyeNH Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Anyone noticing the smoke at high levels in the atmosphere? Canada seems loaded with smoke looking at the vis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nittany88 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Anyone noticing the smoke at high levels in the atmosphere? Canada seems loaded with smoke looking at the vis. Yeah posted about it this morning in the other thread but that since got buried haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 75/53 for the late afternoon obs on July 20th...I'll take it. Been a decent summer so far. It doesn't rain every single day like it did last year, and we've had some bouts of humidity mixed with nice dry air masses too. A lot of sunshine too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 75/53 for the late afternoon obs on July 20th...I'll take it. Been a decent summer so far. It doesn't rain every single day like it did last year, and we've had some bouts of humidity mixed with nice dry air masses too. A lot of sunshine too. Today was definitely a gem, and per the 2011 thread from snowman, we’ve recently sailed past the climatological peaks in VT. So in terms of avoiding excessive heat, it was a good time to be on the cooler side of things vs. well above average: --- HIGHEST --- ID ST NAME ELEV PEAK MEAN MAX MIN --- -- ------------------------------- ---- ------ ---- --- --- 1V4 VT SAINT JOHNSBURY 700 JUL 16 70.3 82 59 VSF VT SPRINGFIELD HARTNESS AP 578 JUL 16 69.3 81 57 MPV VT MONTPELIER AP 1126 JUL 17 67.4 79 56 BTV VT BURLINGTON WSO AP 330 JUL 18 70.9 81 61 MVL VT MORRISVILLE STOWE STATE AP 732 JUL 18 68.1 80 56 DDH VT BENNINGTON MORSE ST AP 826 JUL 19 68.5 80 57 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Figured everyone would want to see a picture of my anemometers siting. Enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#NoPoles Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Eek, that's awesome! How's you get permission? Are you sure some yahoo won't mess with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eekuasepinniW Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Eek, that's awesome! How's you get permission? Are you sure some yahoo won't mess with it? It's been there since 2006 and nobody has touched it. Nobody wants to walk on that roof, it's rotted and wobbly and terrifying. I asked the old lady across the street (friends with my dad) if I could leave it there for the winter in exchange for keeping an eye on her house while she's in FL. I then totally and completely have avoided her ever since so she has no chance to ask me to remove it. I really thought the deal would end this year, because the megapines dropped limbs on her roof that caused a leak I didn't catch. Various contractors and drywall guys were there for nearly the entire month of May. So now I avoid her even harder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 It's been there since 2006 and nobody has touched it. Nobody wants to walk on that roof, it's rotted and wobbly and terrifying. I asked the old lady across the street (friends with my dad) if I could leave it there for the winter in exchange for keeping an eye on her house while she's in FL. I then totally and completely have avoided her ever since so she has no chance to ask me to remove it. I really thought the deal would end this year, because the megapines dropped limbs on her roof that caused a leak I didn't catch. Various contractors and drywall guys were there for nearly the entire month of May. So now I avoid her even harder. Whats her name? I want to call her and ask if i can buy that anemometer on her roof, Never mind, I know where that is i will go see her instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Cloudy afternoon with showers (all of 0.04") yesterday with high of 67. However, I had no outside work/play scheduled so just enjoyed the non-heat. However, that little bit of moisture led to very dense fog this morning. Maybe some heat/noise Wed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Cloudy afternoon with showers (all of 0.04") yesterday with high of 67. However, I had no outside work/play scheduled so just enjoyed the non-heat. However, that little bit of moisture led to very dense fog this morning. Maybe some heat/noise Wed? Ditto here, Had some brief showers in the am yesterday just enough to scuttle my mowing efforts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Another awesome day in NNE... this has been quite a nice month. Overall pretty normal temperatures (+1F at MVL), I think near normal precipitation, maybe a touch below...but there has been a lot of just nice, warm days that aren't excessively hot/humid, with good nights for sleeping. Today was yet another brochure day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 I’ve completed the publishing of our November 2013 winter storm reports, so they’re now available for online viewing through the links below. This past November didn’t quite catch up to the snowfall of November 2007 or November 2008 at our location, but it was certainly a decent November with 17.7” of snow here in the valley, and about 45” up in the higher elevations based on Powderfreak’s data from Stowe. The most notable event in terms of accumulations was the 11/26-11/28 storm with a total of 8.2” Snow/1.62” L.E.: 1. (0.3”) 11/8/2013 2. (1.7”) 11/9/2013-11/11/2013 3. (1.7”) 11/11/2013-11/13/2013 4. (0.7”) 11/17/2013-11/19/2013 5. (1.0”) 11/22/2013-11/23/2013 6. (4.1”) 11/23/2013-11/24/2013 7. (8.2”) 11/26/2013-11/28/2013 One claim to fame that this past November currently holds is the greatest number of storms. There were seven accumulating snowstorms, which was enough to surpass both November 2007 and November 2008: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 Oh boy...a bunch of good summer reading material is about to become available as J.Spin finishes his winter summaries, haha. I reference that stuff all the time when trying to find information on any given mountain or Spine snow event...I mean with J.Spin's site, you can track down just about any little event that possibly dropped flakes in this area. Thanks J. Regarding November snowfall...by far the largest event for the mountain was 11/9 - 11/11 with two feet of snowfall. That was a very moist upslope event where the mountain valleys were just a couple degrees too warm. That would've been a nice little dump in the mountain valleys had it been a touch colder (as most spots only saw 0.5" to 2" below 1,500ft)...seeing as Jeffersonville came in with 0.81", Stowe Village with 0.64", and Waterbury with 0.5" of liquid equiv in that 24 hour period. Pretty classic Spine and East Slope precipitation event...probably a Froude # in that 1.0-1.25 range. J.Spin with the usual observations seen with upslope precipitation events: "By this morning, 1.1” of snow had fallen, and there is an extremely sharp cutoff with respect to visible accumulations; just a mile or so west of our house in the Bolton Flats area, there’s no snow visible, and I didn’t see anything in the low elevations all the way through to Burlington. It’s actually bone dry here in town at UVM, and you’d never even know that anything even went down last night." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpetrics Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 hate to say it, but IMO that 11/9-11/11 system was the storm of the season. absolutely buried mansfield head to toe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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