powderfreak

1.12” after emptying the Stratus this evening. Another round is en route but expect it to diminish quickly as the solar energy is gone. We’ve been a bit dry as is usual this time of year… but a good soaking for the soil with this FROPA as we start to plant the garden. Memorial Day weekend is the anecdotal start to the growing season locally.

Nice TOR just immediately outside Montreal today… every time I go to Montreal the surrounding farm land just looks like it might as well be the Midwest. Flat and wide open. Mile after mile. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0217okPGDMGNEs2cTLDA3CB2fkE6ysAhKTWFPYjwppkXRHXYU9DfLbix98tf2obXUTl&id=100003808557806&mibextid=w8EBqM

Seems like there are only two types of definitions for warm season days… absolute dumpster fire terrible cold/wet weather, and if it doesn’t fit that, then it’s filed under a glorious perfect summer day.

Shut ‘em down. Very patchy natural snow cover around the Co-Op Stake site this Memorial Day Weekend (usually recorded as a trace in snowpack if any snow is left in the vicinity of the stake). Maxed out at 91” in March, then melted but rebounded back to 90” in April. Seven and a half feet of natural snowpack with at least a couple feet of water equivalent (24-30” liquid/SWE/QPF) always takes a while to melt out. This is about normal melt out, despite the positive departures the past 6 months.

75/54 up here. Awesome.

Been an awesome Fri-Sun stretch for Memorial Day Weekend… looks like we may hold off the rain tomorrow too. Perfect hiking weather. Dog is milking those snow patches at the top of Haselton where the hiking trail goes up the Nosedive turns.

The one I find fascinating is at the highest elevations you can get buds to start to open up even with patchy snow melting out around the tree in May. See it more out west with their snowpacks, but I’ve noticed it a couple times on Mansfield at that like 3-4K feet level where patchy snow remains into May…and it’s kind of a head scratcher to me. Like the vegetation is saying we don’t care about the ground being insulated with a melting snow cover, the sun is so strong we need to take advantage of it while we have it.

Less species diversity in the colder and mountain climates? No idea, just thinking aloud. Or once the ground finally thaws up to a growing temp the sun is very high in the sky and it all explodes? It does happen fast.

72/48 and sun. Gahhh.

37F at MVL and 36.9F at the neighbors PWS. It’s chilly out. SLK at 30F.

No one will convince me otherwise but their population has to be increasing, rapidly in areas. Even a half dozen more cubs spread out in an area will increase the sightings and it can only take an extra litter of so for a local to double bear encounters. They have zero predators. They also aren’t predators. So they just exist and thrive. Humans aren’t concerned because they are docile animals who just amble about looking for easy food sources; they aren’t hunters. Live and let live type animals. I went almost 10 years without having a bear encounter in Vermont. Now I have at least a half a dozen encounters with them per warm season between the mountain and town. Something has changed in the past 5-6 years despite my same life patterns.

En route to finding a birdfeeder or dumpster in our neighborhood. Gotta stop and get out the cell phone to let the bear cross.

SNE takes the cake +1 today though, damn, low 80s and dews in the 40s is like the holy grail of businessmen. Widespread RH below 30% across interior SNE.

Feels like we went through the whole year of seasons in a few days. Deep summer near 90F and humid and now it’s September with maxes struggling to get to 70F and low dews, breeze and puffy Cu.

Great description.

What a day to be outside. Had to go find some snow for the dog.

70/39… still warm but dews into the 30s now. Nice evening. Warm 70s after 9pm with dry air. Great time to be alive.

Today is the winner. Sunshine and 77/45 with a breeze. Chamber definition with rapidly lowering dews.

Nice phantom cold shot in there Day 7.

Last night's min in the 60s wasn't very far off from where our average highs should be this time of year.

Warm season is here. The daily dog walk route along the valley bottom. Very green along the river here at 750ft. Fun to live next to some moving water in the warmer months. Hit 87F today.

It’s getting real green in a hurry during this heat. Been hitting 70F+ even up at the picnic tables the past couple days. Really torching the remaining snow patches. Just about gone. I love winter, but May has been becoming one of my favorite months of the year. It’s all solar driven… the days are long and just keep getting longer. Still twilight at 9pm this evening. After work recreation, hikes instead of skin laps, still feels like midday. Shadows look different on the mountain when cast by towering Cu. At the time of this photo, it’s pitch black out already in the winter. November, everyone is inside and winding down at this time. Daylight is a good time. Shut ‘em down.

NEAR TERM /THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT/... As of 552 PM EDT Wednesday...We did hit 90 degrees at Burlington shortly after 3:30 PM this afternoon, which is the first time we`ve hit 90 this year. To put it in context, the average first date of the season to hit 90 at BTV is June 19th. The earliest we ever hit 90 was April 17th in 2002. So this is early, but by no means record early.

The western ski areas have been on a bender for about the same amount of time we’ve been sucking car tailpipes. You can see it in a lot of the bigger snowfall locals. Like Utah’s Wasatch went through a stretch of winters with snowfall in the 300s, well below normal for them back in the earlier 2010s. Starting around 2017 they’ve been going to town and now each year is like 600”. I follow a lot of the western snowfall totals and it isn’t a coincidence that we’ve been struggling for years now while they’ve flipped snowier/stormier.

It’s hot. MVL looks offline but local PWS are 85-89F. Most are 85-86F but a few higher into upper 80s.