calculus1

Yesterday, a buddy and I hiked from Brown Gap north on the AT to Max Patch. It was a beautiful clear day. Snow the day before had come down to about 3300. Brown Gap is at 3500 and Max Patch is at 4600. Thus, we hiked in about an inch of snow the entire way - just under 7.5 miles round trip. I love being the first on a trail after a snowfall, so that my tracks are the first made (other than the many animal signs we saw). When we got to Max Patch summit, we had it completely to ourselves. 360 views under clear skies. Beautiful views of the snow line on the Black Mountain Range to the NE, Mt LeConte to the SW, and Roan Highland balds way in the distance to the N. According to my Kestrel, the temperature at the summit was 24 F, the max wind gust I recorded was 21 mph, and the average wind speed was a stiff 12 mph producing a wind chill frequently in the single digits. Fortunately, we were dressed for the elements, and the sun made it very pleasant (as long as you kept your back to the wind). And, that part of the AT is quite sheltered, other than when on the summit. I love a good winter hike! (These are some lower-res uploads from Tapatalk. Not that great, but you will get the idea.)

1.50 inches of rainfall today, on the dot, here at my house. It was raining all afternoon, long after the radar-indicated line of showers had moved through. Just a wedge day in the NW piedmont of NC.

I count five, I think. Isn't that a small doe/fawn head behind the other head, second from the left? The are both looking to the left. Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk

That was a big change from picture to picture. Beautiful!

Most of us are snow hounds more than severe weather followers. I enjoy a good thunderstorm, but it’s the snowstorms that spark the most interest for most of us. Also, we have very few posters in this forum from MS, AL, and LA, where most of the tornado action occurs. Yes, there are tornados in GA, SC, and NC too, but not like in Dixie Alley, typically.

It's been for several days, unfortunately. https://weather.cod.edu/textserv/raw/KGSP/NOUS62_FTMGSP/

Came home last night after Christmas Eve service to water pouring into basement from a busted pipe. Yuck! Not how I envisioned spending the evening: cleaning up water. Now, I just have to repair it in the next day or so to make our home livable again. Gonna put in pex where I take out the old pipe section and get it away from the block wall. Merry Christmas to you all! Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk

How does something "violently" agree with something else? I'm trying to picture that...

I think we've gotten soft recently, regarding rainfall. My wife's boss referred to this weekend as a 100-year rain event for Hickory and wants them to work from home on Friday. What?! I have a conference ending early on Friday in Surry County, NC, because of potential bad weather; i.e., heavy rain. Really?! HS football has been moved up a day in Hickory because of Hurricane Ian. We can't play in rain?! Since when did we begin to cancel things because of rain? This is nuts. I think we get 2-3 inches of rain maximum in Hickory, NC. We can get that much in a single summer afternoon with thunderstorms. Maybe I am wrong and we get 10 inches of rain, but I don't get all the panicking in interior NC outside the mountains. Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk

Same here in Hickory, NC. We got 0.62 inch of rainfall last night due to a rogue storm on the frontal passage, but that was the first measurable rainfall in weeks. We need the rain here.

Been pretty boring weather-wise, recently. Picked up a heavy rain shower this afternoon, though -- 1.86 inches in about one half of an hour. That brings my yearly total up to 29.10 inches of rainfall, just off my ten-year average pace (see below in signature).

Crazy dynamics with this system. All day snow blowing in Boone. Never any accumulation after sun came up, though, but the mood flakes were fantastic. Then, driving back down US 321, even witnessed snow/graupel at Cheek's Crossing outside Lenoir and between Lenoir and Taylorsville on NC 90. The crazy thing about this is that the temperature was at 50! That was a 15 degree difference from Blowing Rock to the bottom of the mountain, and yet the snow still survived the journey to the ground. I'm pretty sure that's the warmest ground temperature I have witnessed snow falling at. Crazy. And pretty cool. [emoji16] Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk

At App State's Open House with my daughter today. It is bitter outside, but the flakes flying in the air are beautiful! Just a light dusting here in Boone proper. It helps the flowers pop against the white background. Sent from my moto e5 supra using Tapatalk

The endless obsession with ground temps gets old in the main thread. How many times do we have to rehash this? Anyway, whether it accumulates or not, just seeing snow fall is always a win in my book.

Wow! That's significantly more icing than we got in NW Hickory. Newton is further to our SE, but it appears you got the goods, there. Incredibly long icicles for something that was supposed to be so minor.