Albedoman

45 minutes ago, rcostell said:

Good morning.  You can call me Bob.  I'm happy you apologized to Mr. Gorse for your remarks. Well deserved.  That was the point of my comment that the mulch fire was not "major"- and especially that exaggeration of a fire caused by spontaneous combustion shouldn't be linked to NWS being negligent. Those were my only points. I see nowhere where I wrote those other things you linked me to.            

(As far as your attempts at "face- saving", above-  everyone on this board knows we have a rainfall deficit, its been windy, and its fire season.  I mentioned none of that- so don't imply I did.    The fire near Jim Thorpe was preexisting my comments- and the Ocean County fire is "major", although contained.   I grew up in the Pine Barrens- there are fires most years, especially during spring before leaf-out..its a neccessary part of the ecology here.  Your proclivity towards exaggeration and blaming folks for non-existent issues is noted.   Maybe stop trying to bite my ankles when you are already on the canvas. Its a bad look.)   

Your italicized comments were not necessary- only to add insult to your previous remarks. I am sorry feel this way. You seem to have a pattern of doing this on other forums too. Anyway you stated the NJ fire was contained in NJ- you could not be more wrong see link below this morning.  As far as as fires in the NJ pine barrens as a necessary part of ecology- the Pine Barrens does NOT have the same climate regime as S California. I lived in S. California for ten years and personally dealt with my own brush wildfires. If it they did have the same yearly climatology, S NJ EMS would be better prepared for such a major fire as the one today. Most likely this fire was caused by some knucklehead burning winter debris and not by natural causes like lightning. The Pine Barrens also do not have  highly flammable chaparral  type vegetation with 18 in of rain per year, just dense evergreen trees and typical underbrush found in our area with 40 in of rain a year. Large wild fires are not normal. 

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/jones-wildfire-ocean-county-new-jersey-ocean-township-lacey-township-barnegat-township/4166736/

After being criticized by an individual for not  taking a chill pill and  for saying the mulch fire was major fire and that I was blowing the fire possibilities  out of proportion with the current drought in the last few days, two  so called non-major wildfires are still going crazy. Jim Thorpe area   over 500 acres and now another non major fire in southern NJ. All I hear now is crickets at my house.

Also Mike Gorse, I must apologize to you and your staff as  I did not mean any disrespect toward you or your staff at MT Holly. I am really frustrated with this crappy weather pattern we are stuck in  for the past 9 months and did not mean to take it out toward MT Holly staff.  Many of the old weather hobbyists  have to be as frustrated as I am too as these daily 20-30 mph Santa Ana type winds with extreme diurnal temp ranges and no Gulf of America moisture source for storm convection  which has basically has been gone for nearly a year now.  I am also hoping  a special weather statement will be issued that considers the under-stories in the woods and nearby brushy fields are extremely dry right now regardless of any rain we received two weeks ago. The dry warm winds are sure not helping as evident by these fires. Thanks 

https://www.foxweather.com/extreme-weather/jones-road-wildfire-new-jersey-shore-smoke-evacuations

https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/jim-thorpe-pennsylvania-wildfire-20250422.html

46 minutes ago, rcostell said:

A smoking mulch bed is a "major fire"?  Really?  

 

 

When the mulch  pile serves 35000+ residents and takes out a fire company for a few days, yes it is a mafor fire issue for a volunteer fire company and the municipality

1 hour ago, LVLion77 said:

There’s a large brushfire up in Carbon County around Jim Thorpe, last reported at 260 acres that is reportedly going to take at least a couple days to get under control. The southeastern part of the state got much needed rain, but it never materialized north of the cities in the Lehigh Valley.

C'mon MT Holly wake up. Here is another major fire this morning in Lower Macungie. Township mulch pile on fire. 

what BS is this?  I am wide awake because it so warm with the windows wide open. At 4:00 am it is 70+ degrees outside here in Macungie.   55 degree low  doubt we ever  reach it..

However at Towanda  PA, it is sitting at 46 degrees.  Cold front?, why yes.  Precip with this cold front - usually a squall line of heavy showers in late April by a cold front with a 24 degree difference in less than 125 miles- not a drop of rain to be found. Winds- of course  20+ mph.   

Mt. Holly, be prepared for real nice fire condition's on Sunday for our area.  This is definitely not April weather- more like late October weather.

Swing and a miss strike 3.  Renegade cell heading fo md. The drought lives on as the blue mtn winds kick up again tomorrow. 

Big brush fire  near jim thorpe this afternoon because of the dry understory. We really need more rain..... dry winds today were ideal for fires. All rain north of scranton this evening. Not looking good for the week too. Back into dry weather again. 

we need some decent rain today, otherwise it looks pretty sparse the next week or so. The 70-80 degree temps with these blistering santa ana type chinook winds have dried out the soils pretty damn well the last few days. To add injury to insult, the leafing out of trees now is sucking the living crap out of available  soil moisture again, thus the local stream base flows are way below normal for this time of the year in the LV.

please god no more winds. we have had our share the past 6 months. So many limbs  in the yard the last few days. Wind chills today were also brutal for April.

3 hours ago, RedSky said:

Familiar with the Macungie mountain I bet Albedo is real close

 

 The south mountairange and bear creek ski resort elevation makes a huge difference in these type of events, Alburtis zip is closest  to the elevation of Bear Creek -- 1500 ft +  I a escaped with 1.5 in  up on the ridges  2+ is easily attainable at nearly 1500 ft.

for those who have not seen snow south of the LV the last 45 days- here is what it looks like. LOL This was after 8 AM and everything was starting to melt after being covered except the streets

less than .5 of snow. Flakes this morning were like pancakes. Received needed rain however 1.10 in. Going into the next week with much needed moisture for tree leaf out.  Feel good that the drought is going bye bye if this keeps up by the end of the month. Just bring on the 70's now. Want to turn off the heater. Cloudy 40-50  degree days  raise the utility bills for sure.

The precip was really  beneficial to the Little Lehigh Creek watershed. I just received my first USGS gauge flood alert on the Little Lehigh at RT 100 this year.  My personal alerts are calibrated to when the stream jumps out of it banks, which visibly it has. Once it gets to around 4.5 ft, Spring Creek Rd is completely underwater. The USGS staff from state college  and myself have successfully calibrated this new telemetry digital gauge over the last 2-3 years for issuance of flash/flood warnings in our area. Thats why I am called the drought guy.   LOL

29 minutes ago, LVLion77 said:

I ended up with 1.71” last night in the heavy showers and t-storm band but the ABE airport only had 0.18”. That was a sharp cut off! The northern Lehigh Valley certainly has gotten screwed over the last couple weeks, but I feel fortunate to get in the action last night. Only 45F this morning with some drizzle.


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1.35 here in LMT. First time since New Years day  that I have seen the Little Lehigh at bank-full and running muddy this morning. Not a good day to trout fish for sure. The headwaters of the Little Lehigh finally received some decent precip.  Put a real nice dent in the drought conditions for the entire watershed. Waiting for the snow and graupel  for tomorrow. 

24 minutes ago, LVblizzard said:

0z HRRR gets frozen precip down to the Lehigh Valley tomorrow night…

dusting of snow with graupel a good bet as cold air advection works in. Best chance of frozen precip since Feb LMAO

39 minutes ago, RedSky said:

Ron Swanson my hero

Oh look here comes a red blob on radar 

the thundershower I hoped for.  maybe more later

32 minutes ago, RedSky said:

Or stronger vodka cause what I'm drinking ain't helping for shit

  Lagavulin. Neat. Clear alcohols are for rich women on diets.” The story goes that when coming up with characters for his hit sitcom 'Parks and Recreation', creator Michael Schur snuck in one autobiographical detail into the grouchy but loveable protagonist, Ron Swanson – his love of Lagavulin whisky.

10 minutes ago, RedSky said:

3" for the week and a wet day tomorrow I wish it would stop raining

click bait. 

I am hoping for a t- shower later tonight. Radar  down sw near MD looks promising right now but the stable air will most likely kill any good chance of instability

well, I am clearly disappointed that we missed out on all the significant rain again this morning. The fronts hanging up over the mid south  and to the NW of our area just will not allow any GOA moisture to get up here. Light rain showers are not going to cut it for ending this drought.  Sundays t-storms rains chances with heavy rain are dying as I write.  The dry cold winds also return with a vengeance.  We are screwed from Monday on with Tuesday feeling like winter and the heater on full blast. Would not be surprised to see flurries/graupel in the LV.  I am tired of being teased.  Incredible how the Memphis TN area nearly gets a foot of rain and we cannot even squeeze out a popcorn fart of decent precip.

9 hours ago, Birds~69 said:

Have you ever given a lecture concerning droughts?

not yet. Most of my seminars/lectures that I have given in the past 20+ years deals with stormwater planning , local flooding issues, sinkholes in Karst topography, zoning and municipal planning and naturalization of best management stormwater practices with the EPA, PADEP, USGS and county planning commissions. My drought experience comes from living in S Calfornia /brush fires/mudslides for 10-15 years

Judging science fair right now. Ai enso modeling in my section along with using drones as a weather ballon for getting profies with sensors

14 hours ago, LVLion77 said:

It’s amazing how the lawns greened up and the trees budded overnight.


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Yep, that is what i said would happen  before it rained

most  areas around me have received above 1.25+ in of needed rainfall. The areas in Northern LV received less than a half an inch. The jackpot area was basically south of I-78 

2 hours ago, RedSky said:

Something that didn't fall apart on approach for the first time in i don't know when

I agree.  The stratiform moderate rain falling right now with embedded thunder is the first true dent in our persistent drought since last summer.  The ground is taking every bit of it for once as the the soils were not frozen.  3-5 more events like this in the next 30 days will end the drought conditions. The base flows will come in the creeks in the morning.