NNE Warm Season Thread 2021

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, Froude said:

Very cool. Looks straight out of Downeast Maine. Lake temp is 56, I was in town last night and you can definitely feel the change in the air by the waterfront.

Yeah I saw it hit a high of 66F water temp before the lake turned over.  66F in May is bath water for that lake, but back into the 40s/50s it went.  Cool stuff.

[MarkO]

Would rather be up north, unfortunately I got to be in Lowell for my kids last week of school.

[powderfreak]

38 minutes ago, tombo82685 said:

Hey, I have a question. I have a potential job offering in Montpelier area. How is that area for snowfall?  I saw they avg near 100”, but I know they are a bit lower in elevation so not sure where that value is taken from. Any info would be great. 

Montpelier itself is like 600-700ft elevation I think but MPV airport is over 1,100ft.  That’s a good solid snowfall area.  Plenty of winter but your mileage will vary depending on elevation.  If you live at 650ft on the Winooski River or up at 1300ft outside Montpelier will have a decent impact on snowfall.

Vermont snowfall seems highly nuanced on the whole so it’s hard to say.  Live up near Cabot and commute to Montpelier, those Cabot stations get very healthy snowfall on Cocorahs.

[tombo82685]

4 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Montpelier itself is like 600-700ft elevation I think but MPV airport is over 1,100ft.  That’s a good solid snowfall area.  Plenty of winter but your mileage will vary depending on elevation.  If you live at 650ft on the Winooski River or up at 1300ft outside Montpelier will have a decent impact on snowfall.

Thanks for the reply. Kind of what I figured, elev dependent. Is that area decent for upslope or do you have to be further west out towards Waterbury or even a tad further west? 

[mreaves]

39 minutes ago, tombo82685 said:

Hey, I have a question. I have a potential job offering in Montpelier area. How is that area for snowfall?  I saw they avg near 100”, but I know they are a bit lower in elevation so not sure where that value is taken from. Any info would be great. 

PF did a good job explaining some of the nuances. My office is downtown, next to the State House and I drive in from Barre Town, 15-20 minutes away. My commute takes me from 1250’ at my house, down into the valley floor at 750’-800’ and then up to exit 6 on 89 before getting off in Montpelier at exit 8. So I travel through some pretty variable weather on my way to work. At my house, my best guess for an average snowfall is around 100”.  Downtown Montpelier is less but there is some CAD that helps with retention, especially in the narrower parts of the valley closer to the interstate. If you live in the area, it’s not hard to gain a little elevation rather quickly unless you want to live right downtown. 

[mreaves]

8 minutes ago, tombo82685 said:

Thanks for the reply. Kind of what I figured, elev dependent. Is that area decent for upslope or do you have to be further west out towards Waterbury or even a tad further west? 

There is a definite gradient from west to east. Waterbury might have light snow, while Montpelier has flurries and I have blue skies at my house.  A lot depends wind direction and other factors. Occasionally, a lake effect streamer will get through the Winooski River gap, following the interstate and it will be snowing at the exit but by the time you get to downtown, it has been reduced to flurries. 

[PhineasC]

Heat starting to come in now. Up to 78. 

[powderfreak]

16 minutes ago, tombo82685 said:

Thanks for the reply. Kind of what I figured, elev dependent. Is that area decent for upslope or do you have to be further west out towards Waterbury or even a tad further west? 

Further west.  JSpin on the Waterbury/Bolton line is probably the max point of upslope where all events (blocked and unblocked flow) sort of overlap.  Like mreaves said, you can get streamers to squeeze down the Winooski River gap (climo favored streamer area I think due to the gap in the Spine) and follow the interstate... but upslope will have a gradient in there for sure.  RT 100 is a good barometer for upslope reach.

But on the flip side Mreaves and that area does CAD a bit better in mix events and stays frozen longer... and gets hit harder in coastal storms that have liked to stay SE in many recent winters.  It’s a healthy winter climate.

[powderfreak]

3 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Heat starting to come in now. Up to 78. 

Yeah it feels hot.  All local stations under 1200ft here are 79-83F (MVL 82), and 1200-1700ft is 77-79F.

I’ve got a few things to take care of at the ski area and got same 78F at 1500ft.  Town is going to bake today... and next 3 days though.

[tombo82685]

30 minutes ago, mreaves said:

PF did a good job explaining some of the nuances. My office is downtown, next to the State House and I drive in from Barre Town, 15-20 minutes away. My commute takes me from 1250’ at my house, down into the valley floor at 750’-800’ and then up to exit 6 on 89 before getting off in Montpelier at exit 8. So I travel through some pretty variable weather on my way to work. At my house, my best guess for an average snowfall is around 100”.  Downtown Montpelier is less but there is some CAD that helps with retention, especially in the narrower parts of the valley closer to the interstate. If you live in the area, it’s not hard to gain a little elevation rather quickly unless you want to live right downtown. 

 

25 minutes ago, mreaves said:

There is a definite gradient from west to east. Waterbury might have light snow, while Montpelier has flurries and I have blue skies at my house.  A lot depends wind direction and other factors. Occasionally, a lake effect streamer will get through the Winooski River gap, following the interstate and it will be snowing at the exit but by the time you get to downtown, it has been reduced to flurries. 

 

20 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Further west.  JSpin on the Waterbury/Bolton line is probably the max point of upslope where all events (blocked and unblocked flow) sort of overlap.  Like mreaves said, you can get streamers to squeeze down the Winooski River gap (climo favored streamer area I think due to the gap in the Spine) and follow the interstate... but upslope will have a gradient in there for sure.  RT 100 is a good barometer for upslope reach.

But on the flip side Mreaves and that area does CAD a bit better in mix events and stays frozen longer... and gets hit harder in coastal storms that have liked to stay SE in many recent winters.  It’s a healthy winter climate.

Thank you for the responses, gives me a better idea of where to go if I get the job. As I figured elev is key, just a beautiful area up there in general. 

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, J.Spin said:

If someone’s got access to it, or knows how to generate it, I think it would be very interesting to see the New England map for snowfall deviation from average for the ’20-‘21 season.  It seems that off to the east of here was affected the most, with NH affected somewhat, and then ME affected to an even greater extent?  What was it like for northern and eastern ME?

Haven't looked at eastern Maine, but CAR had 106.7", which is 95% of the 1981-2010 norms but only 89% of 1991-2020.  Fort Kent reported 108.1", one of the few winters when they show more snow than CAR, which IMO is due to measuring technique not actual snowfall.  FK co-op consistently reported less than I did in our 9 full winters there, by an average of 36" (134 vs. 98, with CAR having 118" those winters).  The gap was 24" when we lived in town at similar elevation as the co-op site and climbed to 51" when we moved about 450' higher in the Violette Settlement, a logical increase. 

Since my measurements for 13 winters in Gardiner closely tracked that co-op and 23 winters here have run about 1.5" less than the Farmington co-op, 89.0 vs. 90.5 for the same winters,  I think my measurements, while far from perfect, were more accurate than the Fort Kent co-op, a one-a-day recorder and sometimes it seemed they would merely look at the snow stake and record the difference as the previous day's snowfall.  (My total is 6" more than the New Sharon co-op 3 miles away, but he's also a one-a-day observer that misses settling and snow-then-melt events.)

[STILL N OF PIKE]

8 hours ago, tombo82685 said:

Thanks for the reply. Kind of what I figured, elev dependent. Is that area decent for upslope or do you have to be further west out towards Waterbury or even a tad further west? 

If you are renting , and a big snow weenie find a rental up Bolton access road (1850-2200’) . Probably least expensive mountain rentals And they ave around 200” at 2k.  Upslope heaven And your near civilization as opposed to Cabot which has less and is more variable (as synoptic snows make up more of their average)

within 30 mins of Montpelier 

You won’t find a higher annual snowfall unless you went to jay peak condos or had 2.5 mil for Stowe’s highest elevation condos 

[PhineasC]

9 hours ago, tombo82685 said:

 

 

Thank you for the responses, gives me a better idea of where to go if I get the job. As I figured elev is key, just a beautiful area up there in general. 

You should move to Randolph. The McDonalds down in Gorham is hiring. The Swine Dining BBQ place is also hiring a line cook. I saw the ad today. I will put in a good word with the owners for you.

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, STILL N OF PIKE said:

If you are renting , and a big snow weenie find a rental up Bolton access road (1850-2200’) . Probably least expensive mountain rentals And they ave around 200” at 2k.  Upslope heaven And your near civilization as opposed to Cabot which has less and is more variable (as synoptic snows make up more of their average)

within 30 mins of Montpelier 

You won’t find a higher annual snowfall unless you went to jay peak condos or had 2.5 mil for Stowe’s highest elevation condos 

BV really isn't that far from Montpelier in terms of overall commute times... would be the highest snow spot by far within easy driving distance.  The biggest downside would be that access road that gains 2,000 vertical feet is no joke for a vehicle over and over again, ha.

[Patriot21]

Down to 64 now, highest I saw here was around 80. Rain with thunder in the early afternoon dropped it from 78 to 68.

[powderfreak]

9 minutes ago, Patriot21 said:

Down to 64 now, highest I saw here was around 80. Rain with thunder in the early afternoon dropped it from 78 to 68.

Car said 65F driving from Topnotch Resort to home in the rain.  It's cool enough that even with high humidity, it's doable.

Rain showers around seem to be dictating temperature more than anything.

[#NoPoles]

It's firefly season!

[Patriot21]

6 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Car said 65F driving from Topnotch Resort to home in the rain.  It's cool enough that even with high humidity, it's doable.

Rain showers around seem to be dictating temperature more than anything.

I agree that rain is cooling things. I drove in the rain from Burlington all the way home to West Topsham today, must have been right in the rain cell. Temperature was bouncing between 75 and 68 the entire way, coolest in Orange on 302. The warmest I saw was at gardeners supply in burlington before the rain came through. When the rain let up here earlier the temperature went back up but the clouds hung around rest of the day which was nice.

[tamarack]

10 hours ago, #NoPoles said:

It's firefly season!

They began flashing here in late May.
Only 0.01" from the "strong to severe" storms last evening and not a flicker of lightning.  Ten miles west Temple reported 0.19" but no place in Maine got a soaker.  Measurable precip in 4 of 6 days this month, total 0.06".

[J.Spin]

On the topic of snowfall for the 2020-2021 winter season, the next look is at cumulative snowfall, giving a sense of the points in the season at our site where it was ahead of, or behind, average pace.

The first plot shows actual snowfall numbers (blue) relative to average (white), and the strong start in early November is very evident.  That positive departure was gradually lost through the relatively slow December into the middle of January period before it picked back up from mid-January through mid-March.  Then the pace of snowfall slowed down again, briefly getting behind average pace in mid-April before finally recovering at the end of the season.

The second plot simply shows the deviation from average cumulative snowfall in inches, but more easily lets one view where the seasons was ahead of, or behind, average snowfall pace.  That strong start in early November really jumps out here as well.  The more dramatic “surprise” that I think this plot shows well is that despite a season with a relatively lackluster tenor, the vast majority of the season in this immediate area was ahead of average pace on snowfall.  It’s really just that notable January dip where the pace fell of substantially, and even there it was still less than 10 inches behind average.  The fact that two big chunks of the season (November through mid-January, and mid-February through mid-April) were periods where snowfall was simply losing pace vs. average (note the negative slopes in these parts of the plot) probably played into the potentially reduced perception of the season despite still being ahead of average snowfall pace.

[#NoPoles]

This is the time of year where I'm checking the radar every hour to see if any storms popped 

[backedgeapproaching]

Warm weekend, but honestly with the breeze wasn't too bad really, winds were ripping for my daughter's lacrosse game Saturday, was around 85/65 with full sun and tolerable(I hate heat too) Kids still had to wear masks during whole game, ridiculous and I'm not an anti mask guy, but cmon.

 

[backedgeapproaching]

Down in the 50s at night too, so been ok sleeping wise.  Valley rad cooling FTW.

[Ginx snewx]

51 minutes ago, backedgeapproaching said:

Warm weekend, but honestly with the breeze wasn't too bad really, winds were ripping for my daughter's lacrosse game Saturday, was around 85/65 with full sun and tolerable(I hate heat too) Kids still had to wear masks during whole game, ridiculous and I'm not an anti mask guy, but cmon.

 

Geezuz 

[tamarack]

17 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Geezuz 

Seems like wearing a mask during heavy physical activity might be a greater health risk than transmitting COVID-19 in the open air. 

[backedgeapproaching]

11 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Seems like wearing a mask during heavy physical activity might be a greater health risk than transmitting COVID-19 in the open air. 

100 %

[STILL N OF PIKE]

BTV, LEB both 90 at noon

IZG 91

Berlin up to 88

 

[PhineasC]

83 in Randolph right now.

90 here in MD.

[alex]

86/59 here but it’s pretty heavenly with the breeze 

[powderfreak]

Yeah looks like the stations in town are running 86-88F with 85F up at the base of the ski area for the 1500ft level.

I had to work this weekend so took today off, hiked with the dog this morning.  The breeze felt good but when the wind would pause you could certainly feel the weight of the heat.  The difference in "real feel" between breeze and no breeze was stark.