Stormfly

I'll take Hazel redux for $1000, Alex.

Mud season in full swing here.  Just a shower and puddles everywhere.

SE Winds gusting to 25mph and low 40s.  Quite raw outside.

3 hours ago, BristowWx said:

November can’t get here soon enough.  I want a do over.  Actually Injust want to track winter storms.  It all I live for. 

Careful what you wish for! (remember the movie Click?)  Imagine us actually getting decent tropical, Derecho redux...
There are some things using that skip button would be good for.  Holidays and traffic come to mind.
 

18 hours ago, adelphi_sky said:

My wind speed sensor reported a 65 mph gust today in Adelphi. I’m in Richmond. Please tell me it is incorrect.

What kind of sensor and how high is it mounted?
.

You can always get some of this!

https://www.amazon.com/d/Artificial-Snow/Santa-Spray-Snow-Frost-Glass/B00P80139O

13 minutes ago, wrb129 said:

Light flurries in Jarrettsville for last 20 minutes. 34/28

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

I noticed this as well but it stopped.

4-7" and ending by midnight?  Going to be some serious rates!  May even beat the 2/19 event.

3 minutes ago, clskinsfan said:

Yeah. No chance we hit 40 with the fog. I am 32 right now.

Same here.  Glaze on trees is beautiful.

42 minutes ago, ThePhotoGuy said:

Seemed like some decent gusts here but honestly thought it would have been worse overnight/today. 

Worst here was last night.

Also see the HWW canceled, WA in effect.  Besides the occasional gust, average is very low for a "wind event" here.  We tend to bust frequently on legitimate wind (sustained) that is.  This is certainly nothing like last March for sure.

Which, TBH, is good for us as we have a lot of tree work to do and I don't want to deal with a costly insurance claim when they come down.

And that video, FTS.  Too much rolling for me.  Rolling on a ship is bad enough but the period is much shorter on an airliner.  Multiple replays of breakfast is no fun.

Big roar through the woods.  Frequent max readings over 50.  Highest 57 at 19.57.

Very gusty profile and we have lulled considerably.  Security cameras have picked up power line flashes to our south.  We've had a few brief brownouts so far, nothing major.

Looks like the worst will come around 2AM for us and lasting past rush hour.  I don't care too much for night time wind events particularly at damaging levels.  Wife already nervous.  She let the dogs out close to when that big gust hit and said she hasn't heard the pines roaring like that since last March.

Wind advisory upgraded to high wind warning now.

The ground is so saturated here, ponding everywhere.  This could be bad with trees falling.

6 hours ago, frd said:

Have avoided iceing on the Scott Pines next to my home now I worry about limb damage due to the gusts and a small concern for uprooting due to the saturation of the ground. 

Looks like Monday mid morning is prime time when the mixing occurs , of course late Sunday is not fun either, not sure what to do with the trashcan cans yet. Monday is pickup day, luckily last week was recycle.

For me here there is a big difference between 50 mph and 60.  Some folks have trees that are more prone to high NE winds others have concerns with Westerly winds. All the nature of the tree and the previous damage done.    

NE gale = trees into barn.

W-NW gale = trees into pool house or pool.

Can't win!

3/2/18 was fun.  Still have logging to do.  I love wind but the cleanup and fixing broken stuff not so fun.  2' of snow is much easier.

Definitely calm before storm if it verifies.  Been in a long lull of wind here.

If we can't get snow at least let there be wind!

Sun angle today is the same as October 20th.

11 hours ago, mappy said:

i had about the same, was just a light rain all evening. 

lots of melting when we finally left the house this morning. the kiddo went out to play and i told her not to go under any trees has it was none stop snow and ice falling from branches to the glacier below. 

The sound of the water dripping off the trees onto the fresh aka mushy snowpack sounded like a downpour.  Eerie with the bright sunshine.  We did not breach 32 until after 830 here.  Fortunately the precip shut down as if it rained all night there would have been tremendous tree damage.

20 minutes ago, nj2va said:

I would love an early spring...not a fan of 40 and rain on March 28.  

How about 7" on that day...1984 seems like yesterday!

https://www.wbaltv.com/article/1984-report-colts-leave-baltimore-overnight/6802490

I remember that storm.  Strong Noreaster.  Frequent gusts of wind to 50-55mph on the evening of the 27th.  Official forecast was rain changing to snow before ending, little or no accumulation.  Here in Harford we got 7" maybe more.  And it was heavy AF.  Broke two shovels at the bottom of the lane with lots of water running beneath.

Also woke up to the lowest recorded barometric pressure of 28.87".  Well until 03/13/93 (28.53")  March can be amazing here.

And fickle too!  3/1/80 we got 7" and exactly a week later it was close to 80 and we had severe that evening.

What I do NOT enjoy is cold April fog/drizzle cold air damming nonsense.  Typically ends suddenly with summer DPs in the 70s.  1989 had a lot of that.

10 minutes ago, Yeoman said:

Any power flickers yet? We're way overdue for that report to come in

Not here but we're sensitive to it and with the ZR headed our way accretion is going to hit the 1/3" range on trees.  Last time we had that category of ice would have been 2014.  We got clobbered with that storm and a lot of folks along the MD/PA line were without power for a week or more.  BGE is our supplier and they are decent with maintaining 10' clearance on overheads but with the mix of pines and oaks up here a Y split down the middle bringing half a tree across overheads is game over. 

EDIT:  Winds are very slight so still a lot of snow on the spruce trees.

When the wind starts to kick up with ice covering the forest it's one of the neatest sounds of nature hearing that crackling noise.  Of course it can be dangerous too if you're too close and a big piece comes down on you!

Such as this!

Just starting to get cranked up here.  Dusting on everything including paved sufaces.

Took forever for that column to get saturated but we finally have flakes flying!

27/17

Jarrettsville MD

Our station is here:

39.580323 -76.477394

1st WSW tonight for us.  Pushing 7" here, never changed to rain.  A few pockets of sleet/snow mix around 1600 EST.  Jarrettsville MD, Harford County.  Plowed out the lane at 15:30 and now it's snow covered.  Back roads are freezing up.  School tomorrow is 2hr late.  Probably announce closed tomorrow.  That would be six days now.

Our blue spruces and balsams are sagging and we've had a few power flickers this evening.  Lots of 13.8kV and 7.2kV overheads in the woods this way so it doesn't take much to cause something to pop.  Thank goodness for reclosers.  (and standby generators!)

March 2nd wind event.  Peak gust of 67mph which is the highest non thunderstorm gust since December 28, 1988.

Wind events are fun, power did go out but we have several gennies and two big diesel tanks.

And the work with cutting up the trees is good exercise. 

And too, the Jan 23 blizzard for us was a BIG event.  We got under some bands that pushed totals way up!  The candle is 48" tall!

Best squall I've experienced in my life was in Harford County MD near Jarrettsville.

It was Friday, January 25, 1985.  Story time!

I just got finished up with dinner.  Turned on the TV and was flipping through channels.  WTTG (Channel 5 in DC) was always sensitive to sferics and I used that to know in the summer when TRW was nearby or so.  Never expected to see white static and crashes through the speaker in Jan.  WTF!  So I watched and again, not even a minute later, another one!  So, I take a look out my den window facing due west and sure enough, I can see lightning in the distance.  While this would be no biggie in May, in Jan it is and this area rarely sees thundersnow.  As I kept watching, I noticed what I thought was a dog that got loose from one of the neighbors.  It waddled closer in and to my surprise it was a HUGE Canadian goose!  Well that surely was strange.  And then there was another flash that was bright enough that it took my attention off the goose.  I noticed a few flurries coming down as well.  There were two more flashes and I heard thunder.  This was sounding just like a decent thunderstorm approaching in the spring or summer.  But!  It was snow.  And boy did it snow.  The streetlights up on the main road disappeared and I thought perhaps the power went out, then the houses across the street completely obscured from view!  Not foggy-ish, just gone.  Then I realized what was happening.  It arrived.  What would normally be a torrential downpour was an intense snow squall that was a total white out.  Looking out the window was like looking out there with a white sheet over the glass.  Simply amazing.  There was a blinding flash followed by thunder less than a second later.  It was exceeding blue-white brilliant like a huge high intensity discharge (HMI) lamp starting up.  The wind was also roaring.  I ran downstairs to my shack and checked and the wind speed on my Heathkit ID4000 was at 49 mph.  It was a very high sustained wind during the event.  The peak gust was 53mph.  The anemometer was mounted at 10 meters on a free standing Rohn 25G tower so those numbers are legit.

The funniest part of the story is when I pulled the curtain back to look outside, there was a blinding flash of light and right outside the window was that damn goose!  I scared him and he spread his wings and jumped in the air and I nearly fell backwards away from the window.  I actually recall screaming, it was that bad.  If you've ever seen the movie Free Willy, near the beginning where the kids were at the aquarium painting the tank windows with graffiti and the lightning flashes and Jessie sees Willy for the first time with mouth open and screams, well there you go, that's it right there!

Anyhow, after that was over, we had a good 6 or 7" of new snow in well under an hour, 40-45 minutes tops and most of that was in that heavy burst.  I would not want to be caught driving in something like that for sure.  Those are the kind of *instant whiteout* that cause big traffic pileups on the interstate.  Because someone is going to stop and someone isn't.

I've never seen this happen before.  Have seen thundersnow several times, but that was truly legit and it was wonderful.

Probably the most recent winter event that was exciting for me was January 26, 2011.  That was a pretty good "flash freeze" event for us.  And the second time I had to get help with clearing snow off the lane.  The Cyprus trees took a terrible beating with that one.

I'm new here, been reading the site for years before finally joining.

My biggest issue with these wireless stations is the lack of refresh rate.  Understandably, due to the limits of battery capacity, this is necessary.  I wish there was a wired version which being powered (POE or Power Over Ethernet) is a good idea and allows up to 100 meters of cable between nodes, etc.

Of course this pushes into the realm of a professional product costing many times more than the home or hobbyist station.  I'm OK with that.

In the early 1980s, I had a shack with a wall of Heathkit instruments.  I loved that system!  A close strike on a tower took out the wind sensors (vane and cups) but this was in 1985 and Heath was still in business and I was able to get replacement parts and was back and running in a few days.  The bearings on those sensors were of extremely low friction (the sensor boom used on the ID-1890, ID-4000, and ID-5000 family) and was great for reading even the lightest breeze.

Of course today there's ultrasonic (but again) the cost is prohibitive for most.

Speaking of cost, my ID-4000 cost $399 back in 1982 (Kit) and the 5000 came out was $599.  Bargain compared to today if you can locate one in perfect shape!

I do miss seeing the display which was essentially like watching a speedometer while driving showing gusts in real time.

My wife got me an Accurite for Christmas and I did manage to get it set up a few weeks ago.  It seems to work (the rain gauge I'd say is the most convenient part) and the wind speeds just don't seem to reflect real winds and/or gusts.  I've been watching weather for nearly five decades and as a mariner in the past I'm pretty good with Beaufort estimating.  Of course we have trees and the location isn't optimal.  For gusts I just don't believe the recordings are accurate due to the very slow update rate.  It does not appear the device samples internally faster with a memory and reports the gust on the transmission to the base.  The lightning sensor is hilarious.  I was mounting it under the canopy of a large spruce tree and it started beeping because it was detecting the EMI from the DeWalt cordless screw gun I used to lash it to the trunk!  Not sure how it will work when we do get activity in the spring as a few weeks ago there were strikes <12 miles away and it was silent.

I did pull the trigger on an autonomous unit that is solar powered with a GPRS radio.  That one's going on a free standing tower at 10m in the pasture here.  The ultrasonic anemometer polls at 30Hz so I don't think instantaneous gust capture will be a problem.