powderfreak

Just had our trash raided by a black bear and he took a big ol’ shit in the driveway.

Guess they are awake now.  Shoveling trash with a snow shovel is always fun in the rain, ha.

43 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

It’s always amazing how that one or two days up north just shuts and ends things. Even with a ton of snow left up high., the vibe and folks just shut it down 

You guys down south certainly stop traveling northward and move on to other things…

Even the locals start looking to the warm season.

This amount of snow and skiable terrain in November would be a gong-show of crowds.

But people want seasons-in-seasons with the sun/solar calendar.  Long daylight in April, they are looking at warm season.  Short daylight like October and November, they want to rush cold season activities.

The other day with sun coming through at times, there were a total of 8 people riding the FourRunner Quad here. The flagship lift.  Only 8 people on the line at 12pm.

The general public has moved on completely and these rainy days show why ski areas lose money this time of year operating.  

Midweek operations after like April 1st are brutal.

58 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

 

That was the vibe today for sure, ha.  This was the first day that was like, yeah the spring melt is happening and it won’t recover like it has every other time this winter.

1 hour ago, AstronomyEnjoyer said:

Not sure when it happened (within the last few days), but noticed a big hemlock cracked open over the river when I went down there earlier today.

Rivers and creeks are raging this evening with 1”+ rain and heavy heavy snowmelt.  Rivers look like it rained 3+ inches and SWE melt must’ve been pretty high out of the upper elevation basins.

BTV hit 76F and now under a Severe Warning.  Wild day.

Up here the ASOS has hit 57F for a dew so far.  It feels like a 70F dew lol.  The snow doesn’t like it either.

The sun came out briefly yesterday to reveal a total of 8 people on the Quad at noon.

Midweek in April.  This is why ski areas close this time of year.

Imagine the demand on this look in November?  People will swarm one icy route down.  This time of year, nope. 

4 hours ago, ChangeofSeasonsWX said:

I mean I am still debating whether southern Spain or Egypt is a better option. I haven't calculated the expense difference but both Spain and Egypt will be expensive. 4 minutes 30 seconds of totality in Southern Spain versus 6 minutes 22 seconds in Egypt. In your opinion do you think that it would be worth going to Egypt for those extra two minutes of totality? I've never experienced 100% totality so I dont know if its worth it? Plus I'm not really familiar with either country but I'm assuming that Spain is more modernized than Egypt.

The longer the totality, the better.  But 4+ min vs 6+ min are both solidly long.  The key is totality.  Other factors like cost, ease of access, accommodations/flights would play into that decision… both are solid totality sites.

Tying an event like that into a bonafide vacation/exploration trip would be wild.

11 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Spring snow elevated my total from ratter to 110% of average.  Snowiest post-equinox years:
2024:  40.9"
1982:  38.6"   (Fort Kent)
2007:  37.9"
2001:  35.6"
No others approached 30".

Never over until it’s over.  That’s awesome.

15 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Buds are sorta swelling here. But this is still a problem…

It sometimes seems true that late season snow is natures fertilizer.  That stuff melting into a warming ground… get a few sunny days and things can green up fast.  Unfortunately we’ve got more soggy ground coming for New England.

2 hours ago, wxsniss said:

I love seeing these spontaneous poetic impressions from so many posters independently and across-the-board expressing how extraordinary this experience was.

And hits the spot as we all try to cling to the magic while real life shoves its way back.

I wish I had space to upload a video I took of the scene before/during at Prouty Beach, which apparently was a makeshift forum GTG... the anticipation the 30 seconds before, and then the eruption of shrieks and oh-my-gods the instant we get to 100%... still gives me chills.

Life has its ups and downs... you win some and lose some.  However, the factors that lined up to make this possible were pretty incredible.

This has been the wettest year, winter, whatever on record for some spots in New England.  It has precipitated a lot, it's been murky, we are back into it for a few days right now up here.  Its cloudy and damp right now, changing to cloudy and wet high elevation snow and valley rain showers over the weekend.

It has been so wet.  For so long.  However for this rare cosmic event the universe gave us euphoric weather.  Even without the eclipse, that sunshine and warmth (even in snow covered areas) would've been a banner day.  Throw in totality during the peak awesomeness of the weather/afternoon.  Mind-blowing.

How did we get so lucky?  It could've been 35F with dense fog and/or thick stratus with ease.  The fact that it wasn't raining and instead was perfect weather during this unstoppable event, damn.

6 minutes ago, Lava Rock said:

Here's a close up.

Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk
 

Very hard to tell… not a fat rabbit? Ha.

On 4/8/2024 at 5:57 PM, Lava Rock said:

Saw these tracks across the lawn. I assume moose?

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Moose would’ve knocked that post over if it walked past it that close.

Definitely not moose by the snow in the middle of the print.

5 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

All true as it was incredible but I would want to hear from those people with young kids. Easy for some to say who basically walked outside though.

Ha, you’ve seemed to be finding reasons to meh this for a while, odd given how stoked you get for certain things.

I am sure you can find people who had a rough time in traffic but read the thread, everyone is saying the same thing.

I’m definitely traveling for another one.

12 minutes ago, mreaves said:

I think that there was enough communication about what to expect for traffic that people were ready for it or at least resigned to dealing with it.

Yeah thats a good point.  Being mentally prepared for it is half the battle with traffic.  I can't think of any other event where people are like "I just saw it and then waited in traffic for 10 hours... and I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat."

3 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

I would have probably stayed a day...but yeah I don't think it would have bothered me all that much. 

Yeah stay the next day is the best move but it’s funny to see the largest traffic jam in NNE history and the lack of people complaining about it.  The only ones really struck by it were the people not in it .

34 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

I have trouble with 3 cars at a stop sign here in hickville

It is interesting that so many people were just so awestruck that it didn’t matter.  Love that.  People like, yeah so what, that was the coolest thing I’ll ever see, etc.

Busted out the shorts for first time this year with the dog this evening.  68F felt glorious.

19 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Can I get a hell yeah

Windows and doors open.

12 minutes ago, Cold Miser said:

...I only spoke to a couple people who didn't bother with viewing the eclipse due to, "what's the big deal", and "who cares, it's just the moon passing by the sun, it happens".  I guess I don't understand or connect with this kind of mentality.  Is it just me or is it too geek to be pumped up about, and enjoy something like this on high euphoric levels? 

I don't think I'm in the minority when I say, these events are WELL worth viewing if you can, and this eclipse was so much better than 2017 for obvious reasons.  

 

We've been talking about it a lot today (obviously) but for me it was this cool vibe that nothing else in the world seemed to matter yesterday.  Politics, money, worries, how much you hate your neighbor, etc... the entire lead up throughout the day was this universal knowledge that something wild was about to happen and the anticipation of it.

Then when it happened, to have every single person and humanity as a larger collective just get their mind-blown, led to this feeling of togetherness that we don't often get these days.  Everyone is so divided on every topic but this was one thing that humanity agreed upon for a day.

I said it yesterday and I'll say it again, I really did not understand the profound awesomeness of it.

5 minutes ago, kazimirkai said:

0.5 miles from the Canadian border Looking toward Jay peak near Newport center.  

Great shot!

Love that lower left flare has been visible in photos no matter where they’ve been taken in totality.

4 minutes ago, klw said:

As for the event, this was my first totality or at least that I remember.  The view was fantastic where I was.  Honestly though it was a bit meh and I say that from the perspective of someone with a lifetime interest in Astronomy.  I think the hype of event was so overwhelming that it would have been hard to match.  Sort of similar to a great piece of advice about movies.  "Don't go in expecting Shindler's List, go in expecting American Pie:Band Camp and you won't be disappointed."

I think for me it was that our relationship with the sun changed for a brief time. From the day we are born to when we die, the sun rises and stays there until it sets.  It’s baked into our evolution and minds.

This disrupted that cycle, with a shadow being cast during the peak heating time of day. Something about it got me.

This is what I wrote on social.  I completely get why Gene was harping on totality for the past couple weeks.  There was something about it that was a profound experience.  Natural, no control over it, we as humans are just microscopic dust in a large universe.  And collectively we just had our minds blown.

"Totality. I now know that I did not appreciate exactly what that meant. Sure, I knew it would get dark, but the experience was so much more profound than that. I now understand why people travel for this and why totality is different than even 99%.

This was an incredible day. The excitement, the anticipation and togetherness of humanity, knowing that a once-in-a-lifetime event was going to happen. Sharing that with fellow humans, on my favorite snow covered mountain with flawless weather. This will stay with me for life."

We tried to describe it as such in the snow report opening lines...

A momentous convergence of three cosmic titans, Earth and Sun split by the Moon. Today we were all on a cosmic odyssey in the path of totality and what a scene it was. 

1 minute ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Just got a text from a friend. I-91 in N VT is moving at 5mph.

It’s happen by exactly as it was thought it would, ha.  Two interstates in VT, both jacked up.