September 2020 Discussion

[tamarack]

95-96 and 06-07 are the most schizo winters of my experience, and they did it different ways.  06-07 was a simple split - thru Jan 13 it was heading for record ratter status, then became one of the better 2nd halves.  1st-2nd snowfall was 11" vs 84".

95-96 did it month by month, Dec thru April (totally cherrypicked dates):
                      Temp+/-    Precip   Snow
Dec 1-21:            -9.0       3.33"      34.0"
Dec 22-31:         +6.1       0.52"        6.0"
Jan 1-17:            -9.8       1.52"       20.0"
Jan 18-31:         +6.4       4.45"        7.0"
Feb 1-20:            -8.4        1.15"      15.0"      
Feb 21-29:       +12.5       2.40"        2.0"      
Mar 1-12:         -10.5        1.25"      15.0"  
Mar 13-27:         +4.0      0.94"         2.0"
Mar 28-Apr 15:  -3.4       2.25"       20.0"
Apr 16-30:          +1.0      3.73"           0"

[HIPPYVALLEY]

24 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

We no furnace. 

Yup, tuffen up butter cups! 

[weathafella]

15 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Yup, tuffen up butter cups! 

We like comfort.  Never understood the need to prove you’re ok being miserable...

[moneypitmike]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah, I mean look at these dews right now.  This is a legit dry and cold air mass.

Anyone who can stay relatively calm tonight is going to get quite cold.  Maple Hollow should do well, ha.

 

Outside of qpf issues, I usually remain pretty calm.

[ORH_wxman]

37 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

My favorite winter ensued...

-although I was not a big fan of the thaw from Hades that late January early ('96) ...  holy hell was that savage pack annihilation.   I went from 35" in the level to essentially bear ground with ice puddle patches by the time the cold set back in early February...  I think the rest of the way we managed to stack up 18" a couple of times but settled those pack depths down ...  We kept getting snows late adding to the seasonal till too - couple 6"-10" blue deals in April.

Anyway, I remember October of 1995 differently then a torch the first 3 weeks tho ( by the way, the first 3-"4" weeks of October is just the whole month - lol ...) Anyway, I remember it as just the first 10-15 days being mild up at UML in the Merrimack Valley...so it may be gradation/latitude thing. I do remember it being latitude dependent when the first snow and sleety system came through around the 9th of Novie... That was the last time we saw bear ground until said thaw. But NYC was in the 60s when we were flipping between snow and sleet up there at school on the first system. Then HFD was snow and sleet on the next one, and we were all snow. It was like winter itself was backing down the coast like a BD... heh

It was like where ever you were, once the snow line got to you ... you didn't go back, 'spreading south and southwest' like glacier tendency in the air.

I remember around the 20th of October we started getting heavier frost mornings ... Yellow maple leaves were being cold pinched in calm dead fall morning cold around campus ... And the shade side of the Pawtucket water conduit, 50 feet high granite blocks that water trickles through due to hydrologic pressure ... the rivulets were freezing during those last 10 days of the month, and I remember seeing the ice still there in the shade 4pm just before sunset ...and commenting to self that it was interesting that ice was not melting ... It was steps in a process of never looking back.

Yeah...November was mid winter from the Lowell to Acton arc of Middlesex, period.  And December? Holy shit that was the coldest Dec I recall - I remember around the 10th of the month, a buddy and I were clamoring over snow piles negotiating sidewalks outside of pubs around downtown Boston, and a bank sign blinked 10 F ...  The snow was squealing under foot falls and we were like Jesus, get us the f out of this cold!   I remember thinking around Dec 21 how we'd already had a winter's worth of winter and autumn just ended.  

I've never seen a autumn relay into winter like that since... 2008 ... maybe close, with that 40" Dec but Novie was mild - I think... 

Yeah as great as that winter was, I’m always left with the “what could have been” feeling....

There’s some alternate universe where we avoid the epic cutters post-January 15th and instead maybe get a couple of “front enders” that CAD into 31F ZR over the interior and 35F along the coast and then we FROPA into a net gain of pack each cycle. That’s the winter where we finally achieve 50-60” pack on the level....of course, there’s always something to “ruin” it whether it is “too cold” like Feb 2015 with higher ratio powder that settles too quickly or the hellacious cutters of 1996 that beat down a 40-45” pack that was primed to crack 50” as it already had pretty high water content going back through those layers of storms from late November, December, and early January. Or 2011 where the music stopped after the February 1-2 storm...then we had a tepid thaw that settled most people back into the 18-20” range and that was all she wrote when the rest of the winter was nickle and dime and Ptype transition events. 

 

I did measure over 50” in a few spots in March 2001 but I never thought it was a true 50” pack because I also had spots in the low 40s. It averages out to around 46 but I even re-litigate that because there was such an obscene mess cleaning that snow up that I am never confident it was non-contaminated even 20-30 feet from walks/roads. 

[Damage In Tolland]

1 hour ago, weathafella said:

This will likely be the earliest I’ve had to turn on the furnace in a very long time.  Only to turn it off a few days later...

I’d be shocked if we see a snowy winter. Tread lightly on mets here calling for that 

[CoastalWx]

[codfishsnowman]

Today's wx  rocks!!

[Lava Rock]

Crazy low dp, 27.9.

[dendrite]

[dendrite]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

The breezes basically never stop here overnight so I have resigned myself to always being 5-10 degrees warmer than the rad pits on these clear cold nights. -10F versus -20F will have to do. LOL

I have a feeling I will compete on windchill honors, however.

Yeah that’s not a bad thing. Let the valleys keep that -30° garbage. That’ll keep you safe from any possible summer frosts as well. Alex is always at risk at his location.

[CoastalWx]

8 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Yeah that’s not a bad thing. Let the valleys keep that -30° garbage. That’ll keep you safe from any possible summer frosts as well. Alex is always at risk at his location.

Besides that’s fake cold anyways.

[dendrite]

Just now, CoastalWx said:

Besides that’s fake cold anyways.

Yeah. He’ll be crying for his mama when he’s “only” -15° with 35mph winds.

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

The breezes basically never stop here overnight so I have resigned myself to always being 5-10 degrees warmer than the rad pits on these clear cold nights. -10F versus -20F will have to do. LOL

I have a feeling I will compete on windchill honors, however.

No need to pay for the extra heat.  The only thing it does is make it less likely my car starts in the morning when it’s -27F instead of -17F.  Just enjoy the snow.  Same at the base of the ski area... the flowers here in the base area at 1500ft actually still look pretty good.  Our garden in town is just straight smoked and falling over.

 

[powderfreak]

14 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Besides that’s fake cold anyways.

Ha tell that to the garden.

My climate is all a mirage, fake cold, fake snow .

[wxeyeNH]

15 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Yeah that’s not a bad thing. Let the valleys keep that -30° garbage. That’ll keep you safe from any possible summer frosts as well. Alex is always at risk at his location.

We will see what happens tonight on my hill.  The surrounding areas have to go into the 20's for me to get a frost.  Picked lots of Concord Grapes today.  Keeps the house smelling great.

GFS has basically no more precipitation for the rest of the month.  Euro does the same but has a system coming in around Sept 29th.  If that can be delayed wonder if some stations in New England might record their driest month ever?

[Damage In Tolland]

Today great example of shorts and a light long sleeve . 

[Damage In Tolland]

Stein tells Will that long term serious droughts in New England do happen 

 

[powderfreak]

7 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Today great example of shorts and a light long sleeve . 

I’ll actually agree.  I hiked with shorts but had under armor base layer and a few other layers I can drop on way up and put back on up top.

Wish I had some gloves though, I could see my breath and the dogs breath up there in the shadows above 3kft this afternoon.

[Damage In Tolland]

3 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

I’ll actually agree.  I hiked with shorts but had under armor base layer and a few other layers I can drop on way up and put back on up top.

Wish I had some gloves though, I could see my breath and the dogs breath up there in the shadows above 3kft this afternoon.

I ran a fiver at 4:45 this morning with shorts and a light dri fit florescent long sleeve at 39-42 And it was windy .. based on elevation and was still sweaty . I could have used a pair of gloves, but out of principle , I said to myself it’s still summer and I will not ever wear gloves . Sitting in the sun at Alvarium brewery today and was tanning .  Jeans not ever needed until Nov

[Typhoon Tip]

2 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah as great as that winter was, I’m always left with the “what could have been” feeling....

There’s some alternate universe where we avoid the epic cutters post-January 15th and instead maybe get a couple of “front enders” that CAD into 31F ZR over the interior and 35F along the coast and then we FROPA into a net gain of pack each cycle. That’s the winter where we finally achieve 50-60” pack on the level....of course, there’s always something to “ruin” it whether it is “too cold” like Feb 2015 with higher ratio powder that settles too quickly or the hellacious cutters of 1996 that beat down a 40-45” pack that was primed to crack 50” as it already had pretty high water content going back through those layers of storms from late November, December, and early January. Or 2011 where the music stopped after the February 1-2 storm...then we had a tepid thaw that settled most people back into the 18-20” range and that was all she wrote when the rest of the winter was nickle and dime and Ptype transition events. 

 

I did measure over 50” in a few spots in March 2001 but I never thought it was a true 50” pack because I also had spots in the low 40s. It averages out to around 46 but I even re-litigate that because there was such an obscene mess cleaning that snow up that I am never confident it was non-contaminated even 20-30 feet from walks/roads. 

That's such a good way to put that, bold.   

You know, another Met friend ..completely unaffiliated from this site, he and I have commiserated how we both formulated that exact same impression - and it started that season, too.  Funny.  Like, it's universal impression. I almost venture that as astounding as any interval has been since?  nothing had that ..Oooh so close but no cigar coveted immovable 50" er miss vibe about it.

There seems to be almost like a 36" @ < 500' elevation, and 45" less that 1200' elevation hard stop where come hell or high water, we either warmth or rain to beat it down ...or even cobwebs that can't stack - 2015 frustrates me and don't get me started on that seasons systemic lies. Lol.  Anyway, yeah the pack seems to hit at that ceiling then something always gets thrown at it.

Always something to f-it up ... Whenever we static the 32" ... I go into yellow alert mode and start combing teleconnectors for paranoid 'okay how's this gonna f-up this time'

"Of all the saddest words ever said of tongue or pen, there are none sadder than these, what might have been"

[CoastalWx]

56 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Ha tell that to the garden.

My climate is all a mirage, fake cold, fake snow .

LOL. Nothing real. All fake.

[PhineasC]

2 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

Besides that’s fake cold anyways.

Can't radiate when it's snowing.

 

[CoastalWx]

2 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Can't radiate when it's snowing.

 

Ha, nope.

[ORH_wxman]

Just now, PhineasC said:

Can't radiate when it's snowing.

 

Yeah when the temps matter the most, you’d rather trade radiating ability for elevation. I couldn’t radiate worth a damn on winter hill in ORH but it was always one of the single best spots in town for snow. 

 

[powderfreak]

9 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Can't radiate when it's snowing.

Can’t have it all.  You did great picking your spot, I feel like you’re worried there might have been something just a little more perfect if you could add obscene clear night cold, lol.

 

[ORH_wxman]

Just now, powderfreak said:

Can’t have it all.  You did great picking your spot, I feel like you’re worried there might have been something just a little more perfect, lol. 

Find a little elevated hollow on the edge of the ice gulch forest near him at 2k feet that probably radiates to -40 every winter. LOL. 

[PhineasC]

2 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Can’t have it all.  You did great picking your spot, I feel like you’re worried there might have been something just a little more perfect if you could add obscene clear night cold, lol.

I can always go lay in the roadway at the bottom of my property. The cold air is sinking right past my house headed down there. LOL

[powderfreak]

Just now, PhineasC said:

I can always go lay in the roadway at the bottom of my property. The cold air is sinking right past my house headed down there. LOL

Just put a station down on RT 2 there.  I bet that down at the bottom of your hill is 5-7F colder, ha.  

[powderfreak]

2 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Find a little elevated hollow on the edge of the ice gulch forest near him at 2k feet that probably radiates to -40 every winter. LOL. 

Yeah like a mini-SLK in there.  Just an elevated hole in the ground, ha.