wxeyeNH

36.9/28  That roaring sound is starting in the forest trees.  Davis high gust last hour  E 27

1 minute ago, Saguaro said:

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.

 

18Z GFS cloud parameter says New England is the place to be!

50 minutes ago, hiitsjenna said:

@wxeyeNH thank you so much for this detailed response! Quick question: you mentioned Milan, NH. It doesn't look like Milan is in totality. Do you have any town suggestions within or just keep going North?

I would like to position myself in a spot where I can quickly get going south bound. I'm resigned to the traffic and ready to deal with whatever I need to in order to experience this once in a lifetime event.

Thank you!

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk
 

This is where I would go if staying in Conway.  Like others have said the traffic could be crazy.  I don't think the State of NH is prepared but we will see.  Yellow is totality but you want to get at least 5 to 10 miles further north  If you are right on the line it only lasts for seconds.  Yellow glob would be good.

43 minutes ago, hiitsjenna said:

Can someone give me their thoughts on this plan - it's super last minute. My husband and I were considering letting the kids ditch school and having an adventure but we are concerned about the traffic, etc. so I've been given free reign to head out Sunday on my own to get into totality. Monday happens to be my birthday and, for personal reasons, I really need to witness something awe inspiring at the moment. So I'm thinking of this:

- Driving up from Boston to North Conway on Sunday afternoon (renting a last minute hotel for the night, plenty available there right now).
- From Conway, I'm about an hour and a half away from St. Johnsbury or could even drive further into northern NH on Monday morning.
- After the eclipse, I would shoot back to Conway and travel home down 16 to 95 back to Boston.

There is also the option to stay overnight again in Conway Monday night, if traffic is looking horrendous. I do need to be back in Boston by 1:00 PM on Tuesday.

My goal would be to position myself somewhere that I could quickly get on the road back to Conway before any mad rush. Any suggestions would be very appreciated!

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk
 

The weather in Northern New England is looking to be some of the best in from Mexico up through the US.  An eclipse like this in New New England has never happened in the modern era.  So there is so much guess work as to the traffic and how many people will come up to view.  Personally,  I think the traffic is going to be a diaster.  From Conway you don't want to go to Vermont.  Take 16 north to Milan.  If you drive perhaps 10 miles further north you will be in totality for over 1 minute.  Remember there will be no facilites, no bathrooms, limited cell service and gas.  Also a lot of snow and mud off of pavement. With all this in mind our travel to Aruba in 1998 was so worth it to see a total eclipse.  Just mind blowing good.  

1 minute ago, CoastalWx said:

NAM might even be warmer lol.

Up to hour 36 on Weatherbell.  850 is slightly warmer

Let's get to 40"!! 

I want that 966mb low back that was forecasted last week

6 hours ago, kdxken said:

The good news is for the folks who do get snow the pack will stay for a while. Won't get much melting due to the eclipse.

Good luck to all the tow guys in NNE.  Getting off any pavement right now is deep mud.  

9 minutes ago, dendrite said:

If this is going to trend toward slop up here let’s just ram it to YUL and dryslot as much as possible. I’m ready to start growing cranberries here. 

Brian,  I'll take your sloppy seconds.  I will do the very minimal cleanup as the week after will quickly melt it.  Of course you have your pesky north exposure and things dry out slower.

6 hours ago, ariof said:

in Northern New England, especially 93 south of Concord, and further up 93, potentially at Franconia Notch since everyone will be trying to go through. 25 across from Plymouth might be a good choice.

 

Since I live in the Plymouth NH area I know the backroads pretty well.  Take 93 up to Plymouth.  Get off and go west on Rt 25.  Head up on the NH side of the Connecticut River.  Then take one of the bridges over to Rt 5 or Rt 91 into the St Johnsbury area.  Then decide how far north or west you want to go to get into a longer and darker eclipse.  This will be a darker eclipse vs 2017 as the path of totality is wider.  Unfortunately for travelers the center line is near Canada. On the edge of totality is interesting however as the Diamond Ring and Bailey's Beads last much longer.  As I say over and over.  A 99% partial and a 100% total is like the difference between kissing someone and marrying them.  Oh, another idea.  There are lots of small businesses in the path of totality.  Pick where you want to go and call one of them in advance.  Ask if you can park in their lot and tell them you are even willing to throw them a few bucks their way.  Or  bring them a small gift, like a couple of 6 packs of beer.  With that in mind they might let you use their bathrooms as potty break as bathrooms and gas  are going to be hard to find.  This is all weather dependant of course. 

Just for eye candy, a clown Kuchera map.  Actually the 10:1 is more in E Massachusetts but this trys to take in the warmth.   

1 hour ago, Typhoon Tip said:

It'll be interesting to see how fast 15-20" of blue bomb high h20 content snow disappears.   As persistent as this signal has become in recent days ... so too is the handsome mild to warm signal for the 7-10th of the month.  But obviously ... long range blah blah not withstanding.

The Euro and GFS both implicate a middling to major snow potential, followed by a real shot at 70 F by the afternoon of the Eclipse.

There is still solid snowcover from our last storm plus almost 1" liquid from this storm.  Add a blue bomb next week and sunny and 70F on eclipse day, people coming to NNE and pulling off any side road will be deep in mud.  The ground is mush at the moment and with a big storm of snow or rain next week it can only get worse.

Just your average 966mb low in the Gulf of Maine.  Maybe it will stick around all week and slow down the weather pattern so high pressure moves in  next weekend and the eclipse?  

We all know how forecasts 276 hours work but just for fun this is this mornings GFS run.  Won't it be the kicker if Texas is cloudy and NNE is clear!

41 R+   I'm glad I paid to have our roof shoveled off.  9" of heavily weighted snow remains on the ground. Since our big snowfall the temperatures have remained in the 30s except 41F yesterday and 44F today.  I have no idea what is going to happen over the next week with all these systems and snow/rain.  

51 minutes ago, nrgjeff said:

I'd probably try @PWMan in almost any forecast scenario. In 2017 some KCMO friends thought they were hosed with mid-level clouds but they got a lucky break for several minutes at just the right time. 

If there is any chance of a breaks in clouds I would take a chance on it. I suppose have some other activity to justify the drive. Again, one should still experience some effects under overcast and observe animals react. Even mostly cloudy could yield bits and pieces of the main show.

The KCMO story was a morning MCS. Of course that day clouds lingered well after the storms departed, rather than quickly clearing. Friends gave it a shot despite lots of afternoon clouds. They got the break they needed. Sometimes things actually go right! 

At this point it's too early to worry about the forecast though. Maybe consider some back-up locations. One can still get a motel off the path of totality in the Midwest no problem. Then drive on in that day, early of course. 

From a Meteorological perspective what I remember from my Aruba eclipse is the wall of darkness coming down the beach.  I could see to the horizen and it was pretty pronounced racing towards us at 1000mph.  Most people just stare at the sun through totality but I really noticed how the strange light reflected of the scattered cumulous around and the rapidly changing sunrise to sunset effect in the distance all around us.  The only thing I remember about animals was that the hotel had lots of exoctic birds in cages.  Normally as dusk falls the staff would cover the cages up in the evening.  No one remembered to do that and the birds were going nuts trying to figure why got became night all at once.  If you can't make it to centerline it will not get that dark but at the edges of totality Bailey's beads and the Diamond Ring effect last longer.  As i keep harping, 99% partial and a 100% total is like the difference between kissing someone and marrying them. 

6 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

I would imagine it must get dark as night during totality if there’s cloud cover.

It will get dark at night.  Even in areas like mine with 98% it will get extremely dark.  

17 hours ago, ariof said:

This is going to be a study in bottlenecks, and coming back will sort of be a ski weekend on steroids. I doubt traffic going up is going to be a huge issue: a lot of people will go early and it will be relatively spread out since people have the whole morning and much of the afternoon. I'll definitely leave some extra time, though, and be ready to find some back roads if necessary. Franconia Notch will be interesting since it will squeeze traffic down to a single lane. There's almost never enough traffic there to cause backups, because so much peels off further south, but this could be an exception, since totality starts further north.

Back roads may help since I don't think many non-frequent travelers up there will take them. Boston to Saint Albans via Kinsman Notch and Route 15 only adds about an hour of drive time but probably avoids the traffic. Assuming 93 isn't jammed up into Concord. I'd guess 91 will be in better shape than 93/89, although the interchange at 89 might get tricky. But the way up the dispersal of people onto different routes should help.

Now, for the way back. The optimal viewing location is somewhere you can view the eclipse and then get the hell out of dodge as quickly as possible. You want to be on the side of totality your eventual highway is on, and you want to be close to it. This is what we did in Southern Illinois in 2017. Get in the car and hit the road. The only issue there was that there kept being 2-lanes-to-1 construction which led to long bottlenecks. I could foresee that happening to Franconia Notch, and I'd probably take 91 around that. (If there is a bluebird day, my plans are to head up to the NEK, possibly via 89 and 91 instead of 93, and definitely avoiding the Notch on the way back. But if you can be an early vehicle through the Notch, that will meter traffic onto 93 south quite well, and you'll probably get to Concord before the masses come down 93 and 89. I think the optimal location to view it would be somewhere along I-91 north of St J, but in the southbound lanes. Eclipse passes, you're already on the road ready to go south. It's going to be as if every skier at every mountain on a Sunday afternoon got off the lift and into their car at the same time. I'd expect the roads to be, uh, busy.

I remember in 2017 watch the red on Google Maps across the country on either side of the eclipse. It's fun!

I live in the Plymouth area of Central NH.  Route 25 west and up along the Conn River on the NH side is another option.  Cross one of the bridges into Vermont and take side roads at least up to St Johnsbury.  Also the NW are just west and north of Littleton NH gets briefly into totality. There are quite a few country roads if you have Google Maps etc. although cell service is very spotty in that area of NH.. It will not get very dark but Bailey's beads, Diamond Ring will last longer and you might be able to avoid lots of traffic.  It all depends on the weather.  If there is a high probablility of good weather a couple of days in advance, the more people will decide to head north.  If it is iffy or of course a poor forecast with a large synoptic storm about to hit.... then just sleep in.  

Crap,  another snowstorm!  My 18" on the north side of my nearly flat area of my roof is not melting.  Whether it's rain or snow I have to have it snowraked.  Crazy for the very end of March.

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

That Northfield guy can gtfo with 21.4”

Calling it 16” here

I guess maybe if you clear just before IP, then wait 6 hours and clear again before flip?  I just waited until the storm was over and do 1 measurement.  It's always a controversal issue.  No way Northfield got more than me.

30 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

How in the Sam hell did you have 58” prior? Surprised it was even that much.

Take a look of my records on the snow thread. I had one storm early in the season with 8 in while at the bottom of my Hill was like a slushy 2 in. That helped in a lot of nickel and dimes. But I recorded everything.

Just about at the end.   18.75".   This brings me to 76" for the season.  Slightly below my norm but very close.

845pm  SN  17.5"   

740pm SN++  the heaviest snow i have seen with a synoptic system in the past few years other than the crazy meso band in the Dec 2022 storm.    Almost snow squall intensity.   14.25"

4 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Absolutely vomiting IMG_6747.mov 17.99 MB · 0 downloads  

 

 

Complete with dripping sounds.  SN+ here. Vis is down to under 1/4 mile.  Almost "squall" like heavy