NNE Warm Season Thread 2020

[wxeyeNH]

Berlin NH   95F  2pm  Wed 5/27.   Quickly looked and couldn't find a higher temp in the US

[borderwx]

92F at 2 here, felt like an oven, thankful there won’t be another 3-4 months of that feeling. 
 

on the positive, super beautiful sunrise run with the dog in our woods today

[powderfreak]

Time to Shut 'Em Down.  That's going to do it for the continuous snowpack season at the fabled Mansfield stake.

I went up with the dog to get today's reading and called it 3" though it becomes very tough this time of year.  Yesterday's record heat just absolutely eviscerated the remaining snow and the snowpack is now fractured with bare spots. 

It's really 0-24" up there but the official ruling is to go to a "Trace" once the snow no longer creates a full circle around the stake tree.  Today was certainly the last day for that as the little 1-2" bridge in front of the stake won't make it through tonight and certainly not through tomorrow.  So tomorrow will go down as a Trace.

One helluva impressive snowpack drop the past two weeks, but that's what 9 days averaging +14.1F will do.  Yesterday was a whopping +26.5 in the means.  Hard to pull daily means greater than +25 in the warm season.

[borderwx]

Great day in the back woods...

 

 

 

[mreaves]

My son and I did about 5 miles on the Cross Vermont Trail in Groton tonight. It’s an old rail bed in that section so not really a hike per say but it was a beautiful night for a walk. The bugs were horrendous though. As you swung your arms, it felt like you were cutting through swaths of black flies, no seeums and mosquitos.  We had 100% deet insect repellent on and it was still bad. 

[powderfreak]

Pretty good snow shower for the mountains ripped through Mansfield and is now hitting Bolton.

Can see the phase change in the visibility up high.

 

And legit snowing pretty good on the Bolton Valley Vista Peak cam:

 

[mreaves]

48F on the car thermo on the way home from golf around 3:00. Golf not a lot of fun with the cold and the wind. 

[J.Spin]

May Totals

Accumulating Storms:  3

Snowfall:  5.7”

Liquid Equivalent: 3.90”

 

Total liquid for the month was more than an inch below average, but it was certainly an interesting May for winter weather.  Some notable aspects in the data set thus far were:

·         First May with three accumulating snowstorms

·         Highest May snowfall total

·         First May with more snowfall that the preceding April

 

That should be just about it for the active snow season, so I’ll start putting together some of those data now that we’re getting into the warm season.

Despite the May liquid being a bit low, calendar year liquid through May was at 19.66”, which is pretty close to the mean value I have of 19.93” for this site.

[tamarack]

May here was 0.7F BN, with the max =0.3 and min -1.7.  Highest was 88 on 5/27 but the warmest mean/min was 5/29 with 84/66.  Coolest was 23 on 5/13.

Only 2.45" precip, 60% of average, and only 0.04" in the 2nd half of the month.

The 3.2" snowfall on 5/9 increased my 22-year May total by a full order of magnitude, from 0.3" to 3.5".  First snow season anywhere, including Fort Kent, that had 7 months with at least 3" snow.   This in a season with BN total snowfall and barely 80% of average SDDs.

[J.Spin]

On 6/1/2020 at 10:46 AM, tamarack said:

Only 2.45" precip, 60% of average, and only 0.04" in the 2nd half of the month.

Indeed, things weren’t quite as dry over here (the 3.90” of liquid equivalent equated to 78% of average), and we had 1.44” in the second half of the month.

What we did have was an impressively dry period from the 17^th through the 29^th, with only two traces of liquid in a 13-day stretch.  I’m sure there have been similar stretches around here at points in the past, but it’s definitely uncommon for us to go that long without more than a trace.  I’m usually struggling to find a dry 24 to 48-hour window to put down lawn treatments, and I put some down at the beginning of that dry “window” this year to find that I was really at the other end of the extreme.  Ironically, we had to start looking for rains so the treatment could soak in and I could get in that first mowing.

PF can probably speak to his experience, but from what I’ve seen, it’s probably July and August (potentially extending into September sometimes depending on when a more autumnal pattern shows itself) that represent the nadir period in our liquid boost from the moist northwest flow.  Obviously it depends on the year, but I typically find that the upslope flow can carry into June, then by July we seem to move into a more convective type of “summery” precipitation pattern.  There can certainly still be a moisture boost during that midsummer period around here when a storm hits the mountains and drops extra liquid, but it’s not as consistently obvious as it is when we’re getting the northwest flow.

Things have definitely switched up in the past week though, as today will be the 6^th day in a row with measurable precipitation here, and we’re closing in on an inch of liquid in total.  I hadn’t noticed any issues with the lawn during the dry spell, but with this liquid soaking in the fertilizer, it’s definitely exploding with growth now.

There’s certainly that northwest flow “feel” on the radar with respect to the rain we’re currently getting:

[J.Spin]

56 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

This little critter came out of no where.  Brief torrential rain on the mountain.  That hill can always figure out a way to get the vegetation watered or whitened up there.

Ha, that’s certainly related to what I wrote yesterday.

I also fixed up your text a bit to make it a little more of a Mansfield/Northern Greens fit.

[powderfreak]

3 hours ago, J.Spin said:

Ha, that’s certainly related to what I wrote yesterday.

I also fixed up your text a bit to make it a little more of a Mansfield/Northern Greens fit.

Yeah, it always cracks me up.  Finishing up a hike it just started to absolutely pour as I got to the car, but I'm thinking, "I just looked at the radar like 20 minutes ago and there was literally nothing on it...how is it pouring now?"  Ha.  The Spine fires them up out of no where.

[J.Spin]

On 6/4/2020 at 2:41 PM, powderfreak said:

This little critter came out of no where.  Brief torrential rain on the mountain.  That hill can always figure out a way to get the vegetation watered up there.

Did you see the one on radar that was sitting over the spine around Sugarbush/Buels Gore/MRG today?  It really looked like another one of those terrain-influenced events because it just hung there and kept rebuilding and rebuilding over the spine for a couple of hours in the same spot.  In the radar grab below I’ve only got its remnants as it finally pulled east, but we’ve got one building over out part or the spine now:

[powderfreak]

27 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

Did you see the one on radar that was sitting over the spine around Sugarbush/Buels Gore/MRG today?  It really looked like another one of those terrain-influenced events because it just hung there and kept rebuilding and rebuilding over the spine for a couple of hours in the same spot.  In the radar grab below I’ve only got its remnants as it finally pulled east, but we’ve got one building over out part or the spine now:

 

Be curious how much rain you get.  You are training pretty good now too.

Been seeing constant lightning and rumbles of thunder now for a bit out the south facing sliders.

[J.Spin]

23 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Be curious how much rain you get.  You are training pretty good now too.

Been seeing constant lightning and rumbles of thunder now for a bit out the south facing sliders.

I suspect we’ll have over an inch of liquid – it was around 0.85” when I was out checking for any washouts around 9:00 P.M. The radar suggests we’re just about done with it now, so I’ll get a total in a little bit:

[powderfreak]

That's a crazy hit.  That Winooski River Valley seems to lead to localized convergence at times.  It is just rotting over you, ha!

Precip totals seem like the moisture split the gaps in a way.

[J.Spin]

Just now, powderfreak said:

That's a crazy hit.  That Winooski River Valley seems to lead to localized convergence at times.  It is just rotting over you, ha!

Precip totals seem like the moisture split the gaps in a way.

Yeah, we definitely seem to get convergence at times with the lift all around and the moisture funneling through the gap.  I’m sure it’s a factor in what gives us both the relatively large seasonal snowfall and total liquid numbers around here at fairly modest elevations.

Rain in the gauge was from this event was 1.70” when I checked a little while ago, with a few sprinkles still continuing.  It actually came at a reasonable pace of probably a bit more than an inch an hour, so it didn’t cause any notable drainage issues in my survey of the property.

We actually had a brief shower last night – it wasn’t enough to hit 0.01”, but it does make this the 8^th day in a row with at least trace of liquid, and 2.62” of liquid during the stretch.

June rainfall is off to a decent start now with this event, and June is actually the wettest month here according to my data, averaging over 7 inches of liquid.  I think the month is relatively wet here because we have multiple routes to getting the moisture – we can still have residual fall/winter/spring-style upslope precipitation, but we also get some of these early summery pop up systems.  Whatever the case, something conspires to give June an average of 2 inches more liquid than either May or July here.  I’m not sure if that will ultimately average out lower with a longer data set, but with a decade of rainfall data, year upon year upon year, June towers over May and July.  Thus far, I’ve only had two instances of May or July having more liquid than the corresponding June – a couple of times May had more, but that’s it so far.

[powderfreak]

4 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

Yeah, we definitely seem to get convergence at times with the lift all around and the moisture funneling through the gap.  I’m sure it’s a factor in what gives us both the relatively large seasonal snowfall and total liquid numbers around here at fairly modest elevations.

Rain in the gauge was from this event was 1.70” when I checked a little while ago, with a few sprinkles still continuing.  It actually came at a reasonable pace of probably a bit more than an inch an hour, so it didn’t cause any notable drainage issues in my survey of the property.

We actually had a brief shower last night – it wasn’t enough to hit 0.01”, but it does make this the 8^th day in a row with at least trace of liquid, and 2.62” of liquid during the stretch.

June rainfall is off to a decent start now with this event, and June is actually the wettest month here according to my data, averaging over 7 inches of liquid.  I think the month is relatively wet here because we have multiple routes to getting the moisture – we can still have residual fall/winter/spring-style upslope precipitation, but we also get some of these early summery pop up systems.  Whatever the case, something conspires to give June an average of 2 inches more liquid than either May or July here.  I’m not sure if that will ultimately average out lower with a longer data set, but with a decade of rainfall data, year upon year upon year, June towers over May and July.  Thus far, I’ve only had two instances of May or July having more liquid than the corresponding June – a couple of times May had more, but that’s it so far.

What a quick dump of liquid on an otherwise warm and clear evening everywhere else.  I also bet those storms continued into the NEK in narrow bands, but radar had strongest over your area.  CoCoRAHS should tell the story in the morning with precip amounts.

[mreaves]

Wow, nothing really reached us. I could count the raindrops on the deck. It was enough for my son to stop mowing the lawn because he felt rain drops.   I heard a few rumble of thunder but that’s about it. 

[J.Spin]

9 hours ago, J.Spin said:

Rain in the gauge was from this event was 1.70” when I checked a little while ago, with a few sprinkles still continuing. 

 

9 hours ago, powderfreak said:

What a quick dump of liquid on an otherwise warm and clear evening everywhere else.  I also bet those storms continued into the NEK in narrow bands, but radar had strongest over your area.  CoCoRAHS should tell the story in the morning with precip amounts.

We had a second thunderstorm overnight that dropped some additional liquid.  My wife and I woke up briefly from some thunder, but I went right back to sleep and didn’t look at the radar to get a sense for the localization of that storm.  Looking back at some radar, it seems as though that storm was around 4:00 A.M. as part of a more typical line of storms.  I could see on the radar last night that there was a bunch of additional storms off to our northwest, probably out ahead of that cold front that’s moving into the area.

We picked up an additional 0.41” of rain from that later system, so the total picked up by our gauge was 2.11” this morning.

Only some of the CoCoRaHS numbers are in thus far, but it’s certainly going to show quite a patchwork of different totals around here.

[powderfreak]

What a localized water dump, J.  That's pretty awesome.

[J.Spin]

11 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Gonna be a locally wet June for J.Spin.  Gets the snow and gets the QPF.

That was some crazy training of storms... over 2" of water, he'll be the green backyard while everyone else dries out.

I can see there are some 0.4” to 0.6” readings southward along the western slopes and spine a bit south of here, but I guess there weren’t any other CoCoRaHS sites quite in the hotspots of those storms.

Most of the time it doesn’t seem like the mountain valleys around here have to worry too much about really drying out and browning up the grass, since there’s typically extra moisture, more clouds, or cooler temperatures vs, the broad valleys.  But there are still soil differences and water retention issues for certain yards, so it can happen.

[Angus]

Today felt like labor day weekend with temps and winds but I did manage to swam across the lake yesterday several weeks earlier than I've ever done before.

 

[J.Spin]

3 hours ago, dryslot said:

64/44°F, What a beauty today is with low dews and mostly sunny skies.

Isn’t this literally the day the big hot period starts?  Then on Friday everyone is supposed to bump that discussion in the June thread for further review?  This must be the NNE version of hot because it really doesn’t seem too bad.  I think most of us would be fine with more of this sort of stuff this summer.

[dryslot]

32 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

Isn’t this literally the day the big hot period starts?  Then on Friday everyone is supposed to bump that discussion in the June thread for further review?  This must be the NNE version of hot because it really doesn’t seem too bad.  I think most of us would be fine with more of this sort of stuff this summer.

Generally, Yes, But i would welcome it all summer up here warm temps and low dews.

[HIPPYVALLEY]

I of course put this in the SNE thread but please feel free to respond or better yet message me. I am trying to keep him fully updated to any whether he should be aware of.

”OK group weather mind, I have a very dear friend, solo paddling the Connecticut River from end to end and he will be coming through Northern New England this week.  I would greatly appreciate any local weather updates as far as storms go.  Post here or by all means message me.
Thanks!”

[wxeyeNH]

Saturday June 13th 3pm   56.4F and Partly Sunny.  Impressive cold day with so much sun and a week away from Solstice 

[mreaves]

Just now, wxeyeNH said:

Saturday June 13th 3pm   56.4F and Partly Sunny.  Impressive cold day with so much sun and a week away from Solstice 

52 here. Might have been a mistake wearing shorts to play golf this morning. 

[powderfreak]

Got a good view today directly across from the pocket of rocks that ripped out in that slide a couple weeks ago in Smugglers Notch. 

Crazy to think how big the boulders were and home much damage they did to the forest below, but also how small it is in the grand scheme of things.

[J.Spin]

12 hours ago, powderfreak said:

There was a very brief rain shaft coming out of this one over Waterbury... but otherwise just a lot of tall skinny development.

We had a few sprinkles yesterday afternoon, so perhaps it was in association with that cell.  That was the first trace of precipitation in six days, although it does look like chances continue to increase over the next several.