wxeyeNH

81/68

I expected a lot more cloudiness and shower/storm activity up here today.  It has turned out to be a mostly sunny warm and humid day.

The smoke to the north has not made much progress south.  My skies are still very blue.  I have never seen so many fires to our north.  Quebec province is mostly clear but look how many fires are burning!  I have never seen this before. Of course out of sight-out of mine so people in the Northeast big cities don't realize how big of a deal this is.  I would assume most people think the fires are  put out.

.65" yesterday.  Meanwhile the wildfires are brutal in Quebec.  The smoke is just now crossing into extreme NNE.  Wonder how far south it makes it with the BD cold front?  If it does make it to me in CNE and we have some afternoon T storms it is going to be pretty dark.

Meanwhile glad we don't live in Quebec.  

EAB arrived here a few years ago.  Ash are dying like crazy.  My neighbor just cut 3 dead ones down.  We spent $600 last year to treat our 2 ash.  

Brian,  by the way the 3 chestnut seedlings we bought several years ago are doing great.  The biggest one is now about 7 feet tall.  Frost killed the first leave sprouts but they bounced back. 

1 hour ago, tamarack said:

I've seen oak defoliation from Farmington to Phillips and also Rome/Belgrade.  Also saw some on our NJ/PA trip last month, mostly NNJ - no frost damage there. just spongey moth.

Oh that's right.  Gypsy moth's are no longer politically correct.

As of June 15th things are nice and green in my hood of Central NH.  We took a ride down R93 to the Mass line and boy have the oak trees taken a beating.  Around here they are starting to leaf back out after the May freeze but south of here towards Concord many are bare.  Gypsy Moths plus the freeze?  Maybe Brian would know since he travels that stretch.   

If it had been overcast it would have been near midnight dark.  This has happened a few times in history but this is definitely a once in a generation (at least) event.  The upper low over Quebec was in the perfect position to drive the smoke plume down the coast.  

This is a once in a life time event for the Northeast.  Perfect setup to bring smoke down from Quebec.  I have been watching the Empire State Building Cam.  Earlier it was hard to see over the East River.  Now I can not see even street level.  This is with clear skies.  If it had been overcast or thunderstorm activity I could see how those dark days of yesteryear could have happened.

View is so low you can not see ground level atop Empire State Building.  If there had been cloud cover over thunderstorms it would be night black

Just now, Snowlover11 said:

not total ground stops, newark is operating with significant delays

Total ground stop LGA

Lower Manhattan earlier today and 1pm

2 More pictures.  Lower Manhattan earlier this morning and 1pm

NYC at 12:45  100% clear skies over the Tri State area.   This is the view from the Empire State Building looking east.  You can't see across the East River so that is 1.4 miles away.  A once in a generation (perhaps) smoky day 

10 minutes ago, Cyclone-68 said:

Probably a dumb question but how does smoke from a fire hundreds of miles to the north and east of here retrograde back to the east coast? You would think steering currents would normally push it east or at least north?

Normally there would be a west component to the wind but there has been a big upper low around Nova Scotia.  That has been bringing the upper level winds south.  Take a look at the satellite pictures.  You can clearly see it.  The low will eventually weaken which will improve air quality somewhat but there are many fires burning across Canada so don't expect dark blue skies anytime soon

These Canadian wildfires are really exploding today.  Amazing how much smoke is coming down into the US.  I wonder why this season started so early?

Flow is bring the Quebec fires south into the East Coast.  

1pm   30F with moderate snow atop the Rockpile.  Grabbed this picture a bit earlier. 47F with rain in my hood.  

Cold morning on the Rockpile

Cold June 4th on the rockpile

About .60" yesterday.   I wonder what the June record number of hours below 50F is for my location

48.7F as of solar noon

Heavy thunderstorm moved through.  Not severe but pretty close.  Lots of lightning and .43" rain

Tomorrow is June 1rst so it is time for a NNE warm season thread.

Going into the summer May has been very dry.  Probably the biggest weather event was the late freeze on the morning of May 18th.  Just about everyone got down into the 20s and I think there might have been a few teens?  The oak trees around here took a big hit.  The small leaves had just emerged and now the oaks are mostly bare with brown dead curled up leaves.  I'm sure they will bounce back quickly.

Below is the regional precipitation deficit for the month and a chart of my temperatures and rainfall here in Central NH.

There is one batch of smoke moving NNW that is over SE New England that seems pretty thick.  Then less smoke over the Atlantic.  Over the past few hours another big fire looks to have started in NS.

38 minutes ago, cleetussnow said:

I just commented in the NY thread…I smell smoke on the breeze.  The air down here is thick with haze, as bad as its been this week.  
 

Is it from Canada or is it something else?  This has happened before about 13 yrs ago when Colorado was on fire so it is possible.

50.4F on the other side of the cold front up here.. Behind the cold front the air is crystal clear.  About .10 with the convection.  Awaiting the afront rain coming in.

Aurora tonight?  Skies should clear out, at least up here and there is no moon.  Currently a solar storm is going on.  Will it continue tonight?  Spaceweather.com