NNE Summer Thread

[eyewall]

It was a beautiful day to get a view of Mt. Abraham in Vermont:

[Lava Rock]

I thought this summer was wetter than last year until I looked at my records. May was very wet this year with 5.1", but June and July were 2.37" and 2.26" respectively. June and July 2016 were a bit wetter with 2.62" and 2.30" which was surprising to me as I thought last summer was much drier. Oh well, explains why the lawn looks so bad.

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[eyewall]

A few more from this amazing day:

 

[ApacheTrout]

10 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

I thought this summer was wetter than last year until I looked at my records. May was very wet this year with 5.1", but June and July were 2.37" and 2.26" respectively. June and July 2016 were a bit wetter with 2.62" and 2.30" which was surprising to me as I thought last summer was much drier. Oh well, explains why the lawn looks so bad.

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I didn't realize that your part of Maine has been missing out on the wet pattern.  Are the storms dissipating before they reach you?  Or just bypassing you to the north or south?

[ApacheTrout]

April 1 through July 29 for the last 7 years here:

2011: 20.70
2012: 13.80
2013: 20.05
2014: 12.78
2015: 16.13
2016: 9.52
2017: 21.22

It's been wet here.  Mushrooming has been fantastic.  My corn and cucumbers, not so hot.  The corn is yellow and short.  The cucs have beautiful vines, but the fruits are all pale yellow, a sign of too much water.

That 2016 total really stands out for lack of rain.

[tunafish]

 

1 hour ago, ApacheTrout said:

I didn't realize that your part of Maine has been missing out on the wet pattern.  Are the storms dissipating before they reach you?  Or just bypassing you to the north or south?

 

They've been dissipating for the most part. Just over an inch here at PWM for July.  If you look at he drought monitor maps you can see how the coast and all of downeast is shaded for being abnormally dry.

[Lava Rock]

Makes me wish we didn't put in our lawn project

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[tamarack]

21 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

I thought this summer was wetter than last year until I looked at my records. May was very wet this year with 5.1", but June and July were 2.37" and 2.26" respectively. June and July 2016 were a bit wetter with 2.62" and 2.30" which was surprising to me as I thought last summer was much drier. Oh well, explains why the lawn looks so bad.

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The difference is that March-May were also dry last year.  The top layers of the garden are pretty dry at present but the well is in much better shape than a year ago.  And last year it continued to get even drier, until a late October downpour (3"+) began a wetter period that lasted thru this May.

[wxeyeNH]

6 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

Makes me wish we didn't put in our lawn project

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Mother Nature giveth and taketh away.  You guys in Maine got the blizzards this winter while we missed for the most part.  Now that pesky marine air has killed the convection that wants to come in from the west.  

All of us share in a dry week now.  At least I lucked out with lots of rain up until   now.  Not a plant expert but I would think most of the trees/shrubs etc. have done the vast majority of their growing by August 1.  Now we turn to the tropics to see if we can get anything going so the dry conditions in Maine do not spread and worsen.  I have not looked at the drought monitor in a long while.  Just did.  US looks like its doing really well as a hole other than Montana.  Perhaps a real good bummer crop this year??

[eyewall]

All of the rain was worth it for this kind of evening! I am just going to leave this here:

[alex]

On the temps front, 39 for a low this morning. Not bad for end of July. 

[eyewall]

11 hours ago, alex said:

On the temps front, 39 for a low this morning. Not bad for end of July. 

Nice! What a day out there. A few more from last night:

[eyewall]

It was an amazing Sunday on Mt. Mansfield:

[wxeyeNH]

2 minutes ago, eyewall said:

It was an amazing Sunday on Mt. Mansfield:

Love this picture.  One of the best!  I took the drone up today. Great visibility today.    Could see some of the mountains in West Maine down to Manadnock in S NH to Killington in VT and of course all the Whites. 

[eyewall]

Thank you and it is among my all time favs. I couldn't resist with so little in the way of haze as you stated! 

 

[wxeyeNH]

Hey guys.   Do any of you know Matt Noyes a Met on New England Cable News?  I don't watch NECN much but he seems like a good Met.  I just found out some crazy news today.  He is my neighbor!  I never knew this.  I guess 2 year years ago he and his wife who is also a Met bought a second home right next to my property.  I have never bumped into him in all this time.  The dead end road that his house is on is about  750  feet below me so he would turn off just before my house hence I have never seen him drive by.  The southern end of my property ends at his.  Actually  on (the endless photos that I post from my webcam)  his house would be just behind the trees on the far side of my pond.  So the webcam view is right over his house.  He might be interested to know that.   Would be nice to know a Met.  neighbor.  If any of you know him personally and how I could get in touch private message me. I just don't want to go knocking on his door.   Small world!

[mreaves]

39 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said:

Hey guys.   Do any of you know Matt Noyes a Met on New England Cable News?  I don't watch NECN much but he seems like a good Met.  I just found out some crazy news today.  He is my neighbor!  I never knew this.  I guess 2 year years ago he and his wife who is also a Met bought a second home right next to my property.  I have never bumped into him in all this time.  The dead end road that his house is on is about  750  feet below me so he would turn off just before my house hence I have never seen him drive by.  The southern end of my property ends at his.  Actually  on (the endless photos that I post from my webcam)  his house would be just behind the trees on the far side of my pond.  So the webcam view is right over his house.  He might be interested to know that.   Would be nice to know a Met.  neighbor.  If any of you know him personally and how I could get in touch private message me. I just don't want to go knocking on his door.   Small world!

Haha. You must not read DIT much. Noyes is one of his go to tweeters in the winter. 

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, eyewall said:

It was an amazing Sunday on Mt. Mansfield:

Wow.  This is nuts.  I've never seen that angle before.  What a print that would be.  Shows the sharp geography of the area around Mansfield, both up and down the Spine.

[eyewall]

9 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Wow.  This is nuts.  I've never seen that angle before.  What a print that would be.  Shows the sharp geography of the area around Mansfield, both up and down the Spine.

It is an angle I wanted for some time and finally got the weather to do it. After my flight last year I realized why didn't I fly past the chin lol.

[eyewall]

Here are a few more:

[tamarack]

On ‎7‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 6:33 PM, wxeyeNH said:

Mother Nature giveth and taketh away.  You guys in Maine got the blizzards this winter while we missed for the most part.  Now that pesky marine air has killed the convection that wants to come in from the west.  

All of us share in a dry week now.  At least I lucked out with lots of rain up until   now.  Not a plant expert but I would think most of the trees/shrubs etc. have done the vast majority of their growing by August 1.  Now we turn to the tropics to see if we can get anything going so the dry conditions in Maine do not spread and worsen.  I have not looked at the drought monitor in a long while.  Just did.  US looks like its doing really well as a hole other than Montana.  Perhaps a real good bummer crop this year??

For the past few years I've been measuring diameter growth on ten trees (eight different species) on an approximately 2-week remeasure schedule frm May 1 thru late Sept.  Fastest growth is generally about June 15-July 15, but some of the hardwoods add a fair bit of diameter into Sept.  The fir and white pine, the only conifers in the mix, start and finish earlier than the broadleaf species.  That's how an August application of herbicide can take out hardwoods without damaging softwoods, though pine remains vulnerable a bit later than spruce and fir.  Height growth is about done for them all by now, with the conifers setting buds for next year.

3rd straight morning in the 40s, and 29th-30th (42,43) were my coldest mornings of the month.  July will finish about 1.2F BN here.

[ApacheTrout]

23 hours ago, tamarack said:

For the past few years I've been measuring diameter growth on ten trees (eight different species) on an approximately 2-week remeasure schedule frm May 1 thru late Sept.  Fastest growth is generally about June 15-July 15, but some of the hardwoods add a fair bit of diameter into Sept.  The fir and white pine, the only conifers in the mix, start and finish earlier than the broadleaf species.  That's how an August application of herbicide can take out hardwoods without damaging softwoods, though pine remains vulnerable a bit later than spruce and fir.  Height growth is about done for them all by now, with the conifers setting buds for next year.

3rd straight morning in the 40s, and 29th-30th (42,43) were my coldest mornings of the month.  July will finish about 1.2F BN here.

That's a pretty cool study, tamarack.  Are you doing this for your own curiosity?  Or as part of a research study?  And can you share any of the data?

I have a large woodland and the growth over the last decade is noticeable.   Walking the woods is one my delights, and trees that I once pushed aside as saplings are now sturdy 4-6" diameter trees.  Another thing I learned is that downed trees (tipped over at the root mass) are more likely caused by heavy rain instead of wind.

[OceanStWx]

On 7/30/2017 at 8:48 PM, eyewall said:

It was an amazing Sunday on Mt. Mansfield:

The depth on this (and your other photos) is incredible. You really get a sense of the scale of things.

[OceanStWx]

On 7/30/2017 at 9:12 PM, wxeyeNH said:

Hey guys.   Do any of you know Matt Noyes a Met on New England Cable News?  I don't watch NECN much but he seems like a good Met.  I just found out some crazy news today.  He is my neighbor!  I never knew this.  I guess 2 year years ago he and his wife who is also a Met bought a second home right next to my property.  I have never bumped into him in all this time.  The dead end road that his house is on is about  750  feet below me so he would turn off just before my house hence I have never seen him drive by.  The southern end of my property ends at his.  Actually  on (the endless photos that I post from my webcam)  his house would be just behind the trees on the far side of my pond.  So the webcam view is right over his house.  He might be interested to know that.   Would be nice to know a Met.  neighbor.  If any of you know him personally and how I could get in touch private message me. I just don't want to go knocking on his door.   Small world!

I've met him once before (Cornell alum but didn't overlap years) and he's a nice guy. Will would know him better since I think they overlapped a year or two. 

[OceanStWx]

Here are my lamer attemps sans drone.

I hiked Tumbledown last Friday (prepping for Katahdin later this month) and it was a picture perfect day. Winds 20-30 mph at the summit level, temps upper 50s.

Also what a winter weenie spot Tumbledown Pond must be. 

Sits at around 2,700 feet elevation. If it had a little more terrain on the south side it would probably support some extreme radational cooling.

[eyewall]

6 hours ago, OceanStWx said:

The depth on this (and your other photos) is incredible. You really get a sense of the scale of things.

Thank you and yes I am a big fan of getting depth of field

[tamarack]

On ‎8‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 10:10 AM, ApacheTrout said:

That's a pretty cool study, tamarack.  Are you doing this for your own curiosity?  Or as part of a research study?  And can you share any of the data?

I have a large woodland and the growth over the last decade is noticeable.   Walking the woods is one my delights, and trees that I once pushed aside as saplings are now sturdy 4-6" diameter trees.  Another thing I learned is that downed trees (tipped over at the root mass) are more likely caused by heavy rain instead of wind.

It's mainly curiosity.  I do some work-related measurements on an annual basis, though not to produce peer-reviewed results - more of "hip-pocket" kind of research.  I tracked a half dozen white pines for about ten years in our Gardiner dooryard before moving to my current home.  Oddest year there was 1995, when very dry conditions stopped growth completely for most of July and August, then some late August-early Sept rains allowed some modest growth.

Have to comment that I've never seen trees uprooted by heavy rain only, unless there was mass movement of soil.  That said, waterlogged soil enables such damage from relatively light wind.

 

Also what a winter weenie spot Tumbledown Pond must be. 

Had my annual physical this morning (all is well) and the exam rook had a painting of that exact scene.  That work was done well, but this pic outshines it by far.  And next time, bring a fish pole.  Along with some other naturally fishless tarns, this pond gets stocked with brookies - here by air, while I think Speck Pond (Old Speck) has trout packed in, and I know that's the case at Horns Pond (Bigelow.) 

[J.Spin]

We’re into August, so the July and year-to-date numbers for liquid are below:

 

July liquid:  5.40”

2017 liquid:  37.69”

 

Compared to June, July certainly slowed down on the rainfall, and was it was pretty close to average.  Overall though, we’re still running a bit ahead of the game, and continuing with the current pace would put the full 2017 total around 63 inches of liquid.

[OceanStWx]

So CAR had a couple tornadoes Saturday night (1047 and 1130 PM). The first of the two (near MLT) produced a decent TDS. Up to the 0.9 degree scan (~5000 feet), which makes sense considering it took down thousands of trees.

[J.Spin]

Well, along with these gorgeous days of comfortable temperatures and low humidity that we’ve had as of late, I’ve seen a couple of early signs marking the approach of fall.  Right on track last week as August hit, we had the usual first yellow leaves start falling from one of our old butternut trees.  And yesterday was the first day that I suddenly noticed the sun angle had a bit of a lower, early-autumn look when I was in my office around midday.  That, and the fact that dusk and the first hints of dew were on me much more quickly than I would have liked when mowing the lawn yesterday evening had me curious about the changes in our length of day and sun angle, so I headed to the navy data site:

 

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/index.php

 

I found that since midsummer, we’ve lost about an hour and quarter of daylight and 8 degrees off the midday sun angle up here in NVT.  Apparently that sun angle change had finally been enough to catch my attention.

 

Coincidentally, tomorrow (August 10^th) is the traditional cutoff day where pool use really dropped off around here as noted by the owner of the club where my wife used to lifeguard.  We’re well away from the start of school, so I’m sure there’s something about this part of August with respect to a combination of day length, sun angle, temperatures, humidity, or whatever, that hits a threshold up at this latitude.  I didn’t really pay too much attention to dates as a kid during the summer, but we spent a lot of our days at the neighborhood pool, and there was definitely that point when you knew prime pool time was done.  You sort of had to force it a bit after that, and you quickly realized that there were better things to do.  I’m sure sometimes it was as quick as a day that a front came through and the air dried out, but I also distinctly remember hitting that point where you would try to lie out in the sun after swimming, and at its angle it just couldn’t warm you enough for the combination of humidity and air/water temperatures that were available.  Thinking back, it was very likely right around this time of year when that change happened, because there was always that period between when you stopped wanting to hit the pool every day and school began.

 

In any event, even if swimming is winding down around here, we’re into one of the best three-month periods of the year for potential “Chamber of Commerce weather”, as PF would say.

 

The graphic below is for The Greater Springfield (IL) Chamber of Commerce, but personally I think it’s got cool potential as a generic icon to use for the concept: