2018/19 Winter Banter and General Discussion - We winter of YORE

[OceanStWx]

15 minutes ago, tamarack said:

That's why I set my "benchmarks" late in the game, almost always <12 hours before 1st flakes, sometimes as they're beginning to float down.  This year, when 90%+ of the storms have had major p-type issues for the entire CWA south of the mountains, must be a nightmare for nailing snow amounts.  Monday's event was a fine example, even up here.  Our forecast was for essentially all snow, and with 0.8" qpf, warning criteria seemed a given.  We did have almost all snow, less than 0.1" LE in IP and a bit of ZR in our 3.9" total depth, but between riming and crummy dendrite growth even the all-snow portion had a 5:1 ratio, something more common to 32° mush.

Snowfall forecasting is difficult, especially when you are trying to nail the difference between 4 inches and 6 inches. 

I would not mind a push back towards the days of yore when WFOs held warnings off until 12-24 hours before an event. Watches? Whatever, I'm fine going long lead on those. But we are not good enough to nail warnings down to the county level beyond 24 hours yet. Certainly not when closed lows are passing to your NW.

[backedgeapproaching]

1 hour ago, OceanStWx said:

Hmm, is @Damage In Tolland going to pick me up some Very Green at Tree House today? 

Was in ORH this past weekend and I had to make my first trip over there to see what all the fuss is about. Line was about 10-15 minutes, so not bad from hearing what it can be. Haven't popped open a Very Green yet--only Julius and Haze. So many IPA/DIPA options, haven't felt the need for Tree House trip until I was in the area,  but they were pretty tasty.

[OceanStWx]

Just now, backedgeapproaching said:

Was in ORH this past weekend and I had to make my first trip over there to see what all the fuss is about. Line was about 10-15 minutes, so not bad from hearing what it can be. Haven't popped open a Very Green yet--only Julius and Haze. So many IPA/DIPA options, haven't felt the need for Tree House trip until I was in the area,  but they were pretty tasty.

I definitely haven't had a bad one yet. And some very good ones for sure. Julius and Doubleganger are top notch. 

[SJonesWX]

2 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

You know what, that’s what I’m thinking of. My folks have that at the lake and it gets nuts without ripping it out. 

knotweed is the devil's spawn. it is very dificult to dig up and get all the roots. if you don't get all the roots, it will come right back. i haven't had to deal with it, but have heard that you chop the stalk down to 6-12", pour straight undiluted round-up into the hollow core. i guess it works pretty well

[dendrite]

I need someone up here to try Kettlehead for me. I don’t really drink anymore. Maybe Chris can try it when he drops me off an AWPAG. 

[OceanStWx]

4 minutes ago, dendrite said:

I need someone up here to try Kettlehead for me. I don’t really drink anymore. Maybe Chris can try it when he drops me off an AWPAG. 

My wife is always looking for new HR clients. Maybe we need to take a road trip.

The ratings look pretty decent.

Man I wish we had some AWPAGs laying around, but they keep all that stuff locked up in KC. 

[wx2fish]

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

I need someone up here to try Kettlehead for me. I don’t really drink anymore. Maybe Chris can try it when he drops me off an AWPAG. 

I've been there a couple times while passing through. Beers and food are both pretty good

[dryslot]

Just talked with one of my customers up in limestone today as she is looking for her delivery and she told me all the roads were closed yesterday and some are still closed today up there do to all the blowing and drifting of snow from the last storm on Monday, It has to be extremely bad for the PD to close them down, Wow

[dendrite]

11 minutes ago, wx2fish said:

I've been there a couple times while passing through. Beers and food are both pretty good

They always seem packed when they're open and I drive by. You were like 2 minutes away from me.

[OceanStWx]

7 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Just talked with one of my customers up in limestone today as she is looking for her delivery and she told me all the roads were closed yesterday and some are still closed today up there do to all the blowing and drifting of snow from the last storm on Monday, It has to be extremely bad for the PD to close them down, Wow

The drifts at CAR are the stuff of @Ginx snewx's dreams. 

[dryslot]

Just now, OceanStWx said:

The drifts at CAR are the stuff of @Ginx snewx's dreams. 

[dryslot]

Another

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, dryslot said:

Just talked with one of my customers up in limestone today as she is looking for her delivery and she told me all the roads were closed yesterday and some are still closed today up there do to all the blowing and drifting of snow from the last storm on Monday, It has to be extremely bad for the PD to close them down, Wow

That closedown happened several times when I lived in Aroostook.  One of the worst was 2 late Feb days in 1982 - winds even stronger than the past 2 days and my high temps were 1 and zero.  Our office was a 10x56 trailer a few dozen yards from the St. John, and it was rocking back and forth in good shape.  At one point a gust caught a riverside drift and hurled pieplate-size chunks thru the air.  State police announced that all roads north of HUL were closed - not quite accurate but a sensible thing to say, given the conditions.  Then came the April blizzard and we did it all over again.

[dryslot]

Just now, tamarack said:

That closedown happened several times when I lived in Aroostook.  One of the worst was 2 late Feb days in 1982 - winds even stronger than the past 2 days and my high temps were 1 and zero.  Our office was a 10x56 trailer a few dozen yards from the St. John, and it was rocking back and forth in good shape.  At one point a gust caught a riverside drift and hurled pieplate-size chunks thru the air.  State police announced that all roads north of HUL were closed - not quite accurate but a sensible thing to say, given the conditions.  Then came the April blizzard and we did it all over again.

The east side of the county is quite flat and would resemble some places in the mid west so winds over that snow would yield some huge drifts, I know a lot of the fields when i was riding up there had them and the groomers had to break thru them in places.

[wxeyeNH]

Congrats N Maine.  My sister and Mom live in Bend Oregon.  They don't usually get much snow but got blasted yesterday and last night.  Here are 2 pics my Mom sent of her deck.  First one is yesterday PM and one in the evening.  No wind so this is all accum.  Looks like 2 feetish...

[dryslot]

36 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said:

Congrats N Maine.  My sister and Mom live in Bend Oregon.  They don't usually get much snow but got blasted yesterday and last night.  Here are 2 pics my Mom sent of her deck.  First one is yesterday PM and one in the evening.  No wind so this is all accum.  Looks like 2 feetish...

Wow, That's awesome Gene, Congrats to them.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Wow at those pics.  To think it is only a few hours drive away.

[Hazey]

When towns in the Northwest that never get much of a winter, get dumped on, that tells you all you need to know about the crappy situation the Northeast is in. They snow, we don't.

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, dryslot said:

The east side of the county is quite flat and would resemble some places in the mid west so winds over that snow would yield some huge drifts, I know a lot of the fields when i was riding up there had them and the groomers had to break thru them in places.

First couple of winters we lived up there, we noted the installation of the typical wood and wire snow fences along Rt 1 between CAR and PQI.  After that, the road crews waited for the first foot or so, then used it to build a literal snow fence, one that doesn't need to be disassembled in the spring.    They're still doing it that way.

In March of 1980, toward the end of our worst winter of 1979-80 (Its 80" looks good for points south but it was over 4 feet below our average), the season's biggest snowfall (10") in mid month was followed by very strong winds, enough to close the Ft. Kent ski area - not a lift hold issue (the area had only a rope tow then) but because a skier got blown off the intermediate trail and into the woods.  He hailed me as I was sliding past, I told ski patrol and went back up.  Got maybe 100' down the hill and a gust stopped me in my tracks, and by the time I'd reached the bottom, the tow was shut down.  That was Saturday; Monday evening we headed to PQI for a forestry meeting.  Winds had quit during Sunday, but had piled up such deep and solid drifts on about a half mile of the highway than traffic was detoured a few dozen yards into the blown bare potato field east of the pavement (also east of the drifts.)

[dryslot]

13 minutes ago, tamarack said:

First couple of winters we lived up there, we noted the installation of the typical wood and wire snow fences along Rt 1 between CAR and PQI.  After that, the road crews waited for the first foot or so, then used it to build a literal snow fence, one that doesn't need to be disassembled in the spring.    They're still doing it that way.

In March of 1980, toward the end of our worst winter of 1979-80 (Its 80" looks good for points south but it was over 4 feet below our average), the season's biggest snowfall (10") in mid month was followed by very strong winds, enough to close the Ft. Kent ski area - not a lift hold issue (the area had only a rope tow then) but because a skier got blown off the intermediate trail and into the woods.  He hailed me as I was sliding past, I told ski patrol and went back up.  Got maybe 100' down the hill and a gust stopped me in my tracks, and by the time I'd reached the bottom, the tow was shut down.  That was Saturday; Monday evening we headed to PQI for a forestry meeting.  Winds had quit during Sunday, but had piled up such deep and solid drifts on about a half mile of the highway than traffic was detoured a few dozen yards into the blown bare potato field east of the pavement (also east of the drifts.)

Quite a different world up there, I like visiting but don't think i could live there.

[tamarack]

2 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Quite a different world up there, I like visiting but don't think i could live there.

I was fine for the most part, kind of living a forester's dream, also a hunter's as we had all year to watch the deer activities and dumb partridge to plink for the pot.  Hard on my wife, though, as her work experience was in retail sales and in the Valley one needed (may still need) to be reasonably fluent in French to stick in that occupation.  That was part of the rationale for moving south.

[dryslot]

1 minute ago, tamarack said:

I was fine for the most part, kind of living a forester's dream, also a hunter's as we had all year to watch the deer activities and dumb partridge to plink for the pot.  Hard on my wife, though, as her work experience was in retail sales and in the Valley one needed (may still need) to be reasonably fluent in French to stick in that occupation.  That was part of the rationale for moving south.

The hunting part would have been fine,  And riding in the winter, I'm sure i would have fished the summers away, But in between seasons would have been tough......lol, The social life not so much or places to go, Predominantly the language up there is french as most folks were from Canada or the Maritimes provinces.

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, dryslot said:

The hunting part would have been fine,  And riding in the winter, I'm sure i would have fished the summers away, But in between seasons would have been tough......lol, The social life not so much or places to go, Predominantly the language up there is french as most folks were from Canada or the Maritimes provinces.

Pretty accurate.  New Brunswick is the most bilingual province of a bilingual country.  Quebec is French and nearly all the rest English.  (Exception is Nunivik.)  The Francophones are either Acadians from the Maritimes, or Quebecois.  When we were there, the border crossing was mainly a wave and proceed - probably different now, though even then my SIL - Hawaiian of typically mixed ancestry, mostly Filipina - garnered some queries.  We'd not infrequently have dinner at the Maple Leaf, right across from Canadian customs in Clair, NB.  Odd combo of themes there - very Canadian name, Viking décor (which interested my wife's Norwegian-born grandparents) but serving the Valley's version of Chinese.  (Colorful due to food coloring, and very sweet.)

[weatherwiz]

The PAC NW had to be the hardest region in the country to forecast for (including N CA, ID, WY, UT). 

[HoarfrostHubb]

I didn’t realize until I read an email from Blue Hill Observatory that this week is the 50th Anniversary of the Feb 1969 Hundred Hour storm

I old

[Lava Rock]

Can I just say the flu sucks

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[tamarack]

30 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

I didn’t realize until I read an email from Blue Hill Observatory that this week is the 50th Anniversary of the Feb 1969 Hundred Hour storm

I old

43" in Farmington, pack up to 84".  Pinkham Notch nearly doubled both, with 77" new and 164" depth.  
(Only a pasty 4" in NNJ - we had our fun that month on the 9-10 dump.)

[dryslot]

CAR still digging out

[DomNH]

What my 20s taught me is that weekend snow absolutely blows. Nothing like being cooped up in the house on a Saturday. I’m pissed at the last 2 hours of model runs. 

[512high]

49 minutes ago, DomNH said:

What my 20s taught me is that weekend snow absolutely blows. Nothing like being cooped up in the house on a Saturday. I’m pissed at the last 2 hours of model runs. 

Dom, I thought that was mostly south of ASH? Maybe a repeat of today for us on Saturday? (or more?)