October 2022 OBS/DISC

[ineedsnow]

its been pouring on and off all morning.. nice band now if only it was winter

[ORH_wxman]

8 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Absolute poke your eyes out, mind-numbingly boring. 

Rubberband, baby.....

 

 

[CoastalWx]

6 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Rubberband, baby.....

 

 

We pray.

[CoastalWx]

Good to have GYX radar off.  

[forkyfork]

40 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Absolute poke your eyes out, mind-numbingly boring. 

have you considered a hobby

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

I wonder how Killington snowmaking is going?

6 years ago today up here.

Deep winter. Top to bottom snowmaking, solid natural snow cover.

Today it’s more humid than the whole month of June was.

 

[HIPPYVALLEY]

Those showers keep refiring over Fitchburg area. Should be some decent rain totals there.

I drove through and it was pouring but bright 10 miles on either side of it. Let’s see what it’s doing on my trip back through in a half hour.

[Lava Rock]

3 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

6 years ago today up here.

Deep winter. Top to bottom snowmaking, solid natural snow cover.

Today it’s more humid than the whole month of June was.

 

don't they usually open one trail by Halloween?

[dryslot]

39 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Good to have GYX radar off.  

I noted that a few days back, 2 weeks of being in a hole here between 4 other sites.

[CoastalWx]

1 minute ago, dryslot said:

I noted that a few days back, 2 weeks of being in a hole here between 4 other sites.

I thought they were just offline a couple of weeks back? What's going on now?

[dryslot]

1 minute ago, CoastalWx said:

I thought they were just offline a couple of weeks back? What's going on now?

Major upgrade, Offline from 10/24-11/7.

Beginning October 24th, the 2022 WSR-88D operated by NOAA’s National Weather Service in Gray, ME will be down for approximately two weeks for an important upgrade. Technicians will refurbish and replace the pedestal, one of the most critical components of the radar, which is necessary for antenna rotation and positioning to capture data in all directions. The components are extremely heavy and will require the radome to be removed by crane and replaced when the work is completed.

The radar and pedestal were designed to last 25 years, and this radar has exceeded its life-span. This activity is necessary to keep the radar functioning for another 20 years or more

[tamarack]

Today's low is milder than the average low in late July, at summer's peak.

[HIPPYVALLEY]

Stopped in Gardner to get gas and it is just rivers of water flowing down the streets.  
I bet they’ve picked up 2 inches today.

[WinterWolf]

2 hours ago, tamarack said:

 

That’s Very interesting.  The mill in Madawaska and Edmunston wasn’t there back then? 

The spruce-fir pulpwood specs at the (then) Fraser mills were essentially the same as for sawlogs at St.-Pamphile, and the stumpage for logs was about twice that for pulp.  Also, except for T16R6 ("Eagle Lake"), the land managed by Seven Islands in its St. John River District was far closer to St.-P.

Ya, that northern crown of Maine up there can do cold like few other places in the lower 48 that’s for sure.  Can be BRUTAL.  

Coldest morning of our 10 winters in Fort Kent was -47 on Jan. 17, 1979; the max that day was -8. 
(Trivia note:  On Jan. 17-18, 1979, PWM had 27.1" SN, topped only by the 31.9" in Feb 2013.  We had 1/2" on the 18th.) 
At our camp on the American side of the frontier across from St. P, it was "only" -40 that morning.  We'd planned to split 4 ways to explore various forests south of the camp, but safety mandated 2 pairs. 
(2nd trivia note:  Jan 1979 was as weird a month as I can remember.  It featured 3 of the 5 coldest mornings of our time in Fort Kent, -39, -42 and -47.  It also included 5 days in which the lows were 33° to 35°, the only >32 minima in our 10 Januarys there.  PWM had 62.4" that month, their greatest month on record.  We had 26.2", 1.7" below average.  The 5.51" total precip was nearly twice the 2.79" average.)

Been up to Escort Station a few times, another remote frigid place in winter.  How bout the airfield on the way to escort…that’s a neat runway out there in the middle of nowhere/massive forest wilderness.  Drops off like a cliff at the end of it about 100ft…sledders got killed there a few years ago drag racing, and didn’t know it was a cliff at the end.  

J.D. Iving built that AP circa 1981, at the height of the spruce budworm outbreak, so they could run their own spray program.  That area where Dead Brook meets the St. Francis River is probably the biggest gravel deposit within the US share of the St. John watershed.  Originally, they merely scraped off the vegetation and organic layer and did the little bit of needed leveling, and applied something to keep the dust down.  The "cliff" was actually the very steep embankment cut by Dead Brook.  I'd not heard about the sledder tragedy before now.
 

Me and a couple of buddies just rented a cabin in the Cross lake/Sinclair region for the winter for sledding.  We love it up there. Great people.  

Enjoy!  Best snomo trails and maintenance in the Northeast, IMO - maybe even for a wider area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for the very interesting info Tamarack. You are treasure trove of info for sure, I do appreciate it.
 

Yes I agree…for sledding you can’t beat N. Maine, they take their snowmobiling and their trails very seriously….best trails east of the Mississippi for sure…and some of the  best anywhere for that matter.  Looking forward to a good season we hope. 
 

Thsnks again. 

[Damage In Tolland]

Another HHH day with dews and breaks of sun. We wipe 

[ineedsnow]

17 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Stopped in Gardner to get gas and it is just rivers of water flowing down the streets.  
I bet they’ve picked up 2 inches today.

Ya radar underestimating for sure here

[HIPPYVALLEY]

23 minutes ago, ineedsnow said:

Ya radar underestimating for sure here

I’m five minutes down the road in Templeton and the sun is out!

[HIPPYVALLEY]

30 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Another HHH day with dews and breaks of sun. We wipe 

Hand wrapped up in toilet paper like a catchers mitt?

[CoastalWx]

31 minutes ago, WinterWolf said:

Thank you so much for the very interesting info Tamarack. You are treasure trove of info for sure, I do appreciate it.
 

Yes I agree…for sledding you can’t beat N. Maine, they take their snowmobiling and their trails very seriously….best trails east of the Mississippi for sure…and some of the  best anywhere for that matter.  Looking forward to a good season we hope. 
 

Thsnks again. 

He always has some interesting tidbits of info. I enjoy reading them. 

[HoarfrostHubb]

1 hour ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Those showers keep refiring over Fitchburg area. Should be some decent rain totals there.

I drove through and it was pouring but bright 10 miles on either side of it. Let’s see what it’s doing on my trip back through in a half hour.

0.77" at KFIT for the last 3 hour total

[dryslot]

Must be raining i can hear it pounding on the AC, I would check the radar but.............

[HoarfrostHubb]

46 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Stopped in Gardner to get gas and it is just rivers of water flowing down the streets.  
I bet they’ve picked up 2 inches today.

One of the Gardner, MA sites has 2.16" event total so far (KMAGARDN15)

[HoarfrostHubb]

1 minute ago, dryslot said:

Must be raining i can hear it pounding on the AC, I would check the radar but.............

You reinstalled?

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, Lava Rock said:

don't they usually open one trail by Halloween?

Killington often gets a 300 vertical stripe of white.  Stowe (in that picture) never opens until the weekend prior to Thanksgiving at the earliest, even if there was 6 feet on the ground.

[dryslot]

3 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

You reinstalled?

I'm in a old mill complex, At work, Its in a brick wall, It stays installed.

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

40 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Another HHH day with dews and breaks of sun. We wipe 

Should have re-installed as you wiped from the yanks embarrassment.  

[dendrite]

4 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Should have re-installed as you wiped from the yanks embarrassment.  

Just wipe with this

[powderfreak]

MSS in N.NY broke their record high prior to noon today with 75F (old record 74F in 2012.  POR to 1948).

BTV has broken their record high with 76F (old record 75 in 1963.  POR to 1884).

 

[powderfreak]

Kind of amazing to think what full sun regionwide might have given us in this air mass.

The fact that it is 68F and raining (5 mile visibility) in Montpelier/MPV is absolutely wild.

Normal high of 52F and a rain-cooled airmass is yielding 68F right now with dews approaching mid-60s... that's impressive.

[tamarack]

53 minutes ago, WinterWolf said:

Thank you so much for the very interesting info Tamarack. You are treasure trove of info for sure, I do appreciate it.
 

Yes I agree…for sledding you can’t beat N. Maine, they take their snowmobiling and their trails very seriously….best trails east of the Mississippi for sure…and some of the  best anywhere for that matter.  Looking forward to a good season we hope. 
 

Thsnks again. 

And sometimes the farther north, the better.  Best example was 2005-06 when Aroostook got a 25-35" dump on Dec 25-27 and very little after that.  In mid-February a fellow from Corpus Christi called the manager of Aroostook State Park (west from PQI) about sledding.  The manager said it was terrible there but okay in the St. John Valley.  Hard to imagine telling someone from south Texas that central Aroostook in February didn't have good snow. 
A month later was my one and only long day on a sled, and only experience with a 4-cycle - smoothest throttle and response of any (of the few) sleds I've driven.  Temp was 30-32 the day after a significant rain; most trails had recent grooming, so they were smooth but soft.  We started from the Northern Door in Fort Kent and rode trails to Eagle Lake, then went off the groomed trails with some water-on-ice crossings, gassed up in town and rode to Deboullie, the last part off the groomer trails again.  Riding across Deboullie Pond on 1" new above slush was an adventure; I was fortunate to not be one of the sleds that paunched into the slop.  By the time I got back to the motel I'd had more than enough - only 120 miles or so, but I had lots of extra exercise trying to keep up with people who knew how to ride.