Saguaro

Looks like most of Maine held off the gloom but it creeped into western ME towards late afternoon. There have been a copious amount of clouds here in AZ today as well, but still managed a high of 90. This is definitely the time of year when being in AZ vs the coastal plain of NNE pays handsomely.

It's been a long week and I just now have gotten the time to write up my experience Monday. I was deciding between Colebrook, northern VT, or Eustis area. In the end given the satellite cloud trend, and to maximize totality time, I went for Third Connecticut Lake on the Quebec border. There were no clouds to speak of, not even cirrus, so viewing was perfect. Conditions in the area were still pretty set in Winter, with the lake frozen over thick enough that most people were out on it in chairs and had tripods set up. The snowcover was at least a foot deep if not more. The eclipse itself was magnificent, and it looked better overall that the 2017 one I saw in Idaho which was marred by a thin haze of forest fire smoke. The corona looked a lot larger this go around, and the large flare at the bottom stood out. I regret forgetting to look for shadow banding in the minute before and after totality. I imagine on the expansive snowcover of the lake, it would be very easy to notice. I'm wondering if anyone got video of it in that area. I do not have any decent camera gear so I was only able to manage a phone picture pre-totality and short video during. The drive back took at least twice as long as normal, about 5 hours, thanks to closures of alternate routes to US 3, and an enormous backup in Errol that took over an hour to get through. It was still worth seeing and I'm glad I was able to experience it. It's amazing the weather cooperated so well with the timing. Right after I went back to Arizona, the usual spring time perpetual gloom, cold, and dampness settled in to plague Maine for what looks like a long stay.

Yea I have hesitation about that area and there's only one major road there. I'm probably headed to Canaan/Colebrook/Pittsburg.

Unfortunately they only have that specific time. There does seem to be a bit of an E trend if you check the previous model run. https://www.pivotalweather.com/eclipse2024/?m=srefens&p=cloudcover_tle_2-mean&r=us_state_ne_n

High clouds creeping towards w VT. Hopefully they'll hold off.

Got into Portland from Phoenix late Saturday night. Original plans were for southern TX but I pulled the plug on those Thursday/Friday. The departing storm was still spitting out snow from around 7k feet all the way down to around 900ft in PWM area where it changed to rain showers the rest of the descent. A pretty big difference from the 70s and 80s we've been getting in AZ. The snowcover is melting rapidly, already down to patches, hard to believe 18" fell a few days ago. Starting from Harrison tomorrow morning and am thinking Norton, Canaan, Colebrook, Pittsburg or maybe Newport. Eustis to QC border area is a possibility too.

My original plans for Texas aren't looking good. Have backup plans for Maine, tip of NH or Quebec, will lose a minute of totality but that seems the best bet currently.

IZG reported brief switch to sleet but it's back to snow now. Curious what things are like in Harrison and Bridgton, looks like their expected totals may be cut down by the sleet.

I saw the 2017 one in Sawtooth National Forest in Idaho. It was spectacular with exception of being marred by forest fire haze. I'm planning on driving from Phoenix to southern Texas for this one, and getting an early start from San Angelo Monday morning. Hopefully the climatological sunshine % in that area comes to fruition.

The monsoon storms in AZ have been more impressive than anything I've seen here. Last July a complex ripped through from SE to NW with 80mph gusts, knocked the power out for 18 hours. Helps when it's over 100 degrees out ahead of the storm.

Finally the first peeks of sun today behind that line as it moved off to the SE.

Yea it's been solid overcast draw the shades mood all day. The line arrived here about ten minutes ago and the only thing noteworthy is torrential rain. No thunder or wind or anything like what's happening in NH and SNE. The only excitement I've seen in Harrison is the mini tornado outbreak back in July 2018. Multiple hits in Bridgton and one lifted as it crossed long lake moving into Harrison.

It's pretty remarkable how consistent warm fronts are in dying on our doorstep. Even when it's not the low level crud, as today proves.

IZG with the ultra rare 73 dp at the moment. Today has been surprisingly soupy.

Anything south of Bethel ME has fizzled. Even those have no polygons so they must not be very impressive.

Looks like that cell collapsed pretty fast. After it moved through we finally broke out into the sun after being plagued with high overcast most of the day. I was in Naples and Rome last month and I noticed the same thing with the latitude vs weather. It was remarkable how consistently they were able to both get into and hold onto a solid summer airmass and not have it constantly assaulted by backdoors, unrelenting buzzsaw troughs, heat ridges getting cut in half, marine layers, cloud debris, et al.

Little cell blowing up in southern oxford and the fishtail of cumberland county, moving NNE. Hearing lots of thunder and some rain starting now.

cod satellite is broken today. Lots of clouds putting a damper on highs so mid 80s are going to be as warm as it gets. Yesterday was spectacular, a day earlier than I expected the marine sludge to get dislodged. Forecast looks terrible for any more sun before next Tuesday.

I think it's mostly a Maine thing. I can definitely feel a difference outside tonight versus the previous several evenings. IZG dp is 66, PWM 64, AUG 66. Getting a lot of marine intrusion, the whole of Androscoggin county was socked in with it all day under low overcast like a May gray or June gloom day in the LA basin. The high is far enough offshore that we're having to deal with these issues now. We probably won't clear out until Wednesday.

This marine taint has knocked dewpoints down to mid 60s

That marine puke never went away for inland areas east of here. It's now marching ominously back in like a wall of doom and it's looking like it never goes away at all tomorrow for places on the wrong side of the mountain divide well inland from here. Today has been much cooler than yesterday due to onshore flow I am guessing, since FIT was stuck with similar overcast conditions for the morning but still managed upper 80s. Upper 70s here, dewpoints still up there though. Going to guess our next chance at sun will be Wednesday, based on similar past events this sludge will be slow to budge.

Yea we managed to luck out today somehow in the fishtail of cumberland county. Still lost a good 6 hours of insolation but we may be able to salvage the rest of the day if convection doesn't move in too soon. The rest of cumberland and points east look pretty porked the rest of the day, if anything the marine sludge is expanding inland even further.

Outflow boundary cut temps down 10 degrees and then cells developing overhead with heavy rain have now dropped it down to 70.

Lots of debris clouds have put the dent into late day heating. Did manage 90 yesterday and today upper 80s. Dewpoints have been consistently high the last week or two which is reminiscent of how summer was when I lived in SW CT many moons ago.