radarman

Try cutting out as much sugar as you can stand to

Seems there may be something affecting the maples around here. All across town the leaves are turning a dull green brown and drying up. Looks awful. Setting up for a dud foliage season locally.

severe thunderstorm watch hoisted

In my 15+ years of watching the way storms evolve in the valley on the UMass radar, if I had to pick one single spot for a generic chase it would probably be Turners Falls airport.

Honestly, for the terrain you describe, just find some mid waist ski and you really can't go wrong. Everyone here may have their personal preferences but IMO I'd just take the kids to the shop and ask them which ones they like and roll with it. Having em love their gear is more important than any subtle performance differences they may note.

There are some decent spots to chase in the valley, and once every 10 years or so you might see a tornado. Good news is that we're due...

Thanks, it was chilling and stalking some small prey.

Saw this guy at Quabbin today. They really are the coolest.

Kind of a ways out, no?

What a spectacular morning out there. Unfortunate it won't last all weekend.

KTix just went on sale. $75 weekday, $85 weekend/holiday. No blackouts. I usually get a few. https://shop.killington.com/s/k-tickets/p/k-tickets-2

are the peanut bunker running?

Per the NOAA Atlas, ~5" in 2 hours in the NYC area is basically 1000 year return period (with all the caveats about return period calculation)... but anyway, yeah, crazy stuff.

I think the record set in Henri was like 1.94". Talk about smashing it... Granted it was ridiculously low before Henri, and still highly prone to smashing afterward.

Some rivers N of EWR in major flood stage, may get near record levels. EWR reported 3.24" in 1 hour. Makes that supposed 1 hour record at NYC in advance of Henri look like child's play.

Very interesting analysis but given the low sample size of northeastern tornadoes specifically you might be comparing primarily against systems on the prairies/plains. Not totally clear if the lofted debris has the same characteristics everywhere... In other words are rain soaked deciduous leaves showing up the same as dry cottonwood leaves, grasses, roof shingles, etc? I don't know the answer

The damage to a couple of those manicured lawns alone outdid the entire state of Oklahoma this year

Folks can steal my rain if they want to

yeah... Ninja'd me there... It's a cool place to visit actually. They have these depictions over time all created as scenes mad of snipped tin, with thousands of little leaves. It's hard to describe but super cool.

Thanks. As you mention the Quabbin area took a tremendous hit. Vast swaths laid flat. There is a museum/visitor center at the Harvard Forest in Petersham where a lot of this is well documented. It totally changed the characteristic of the woods. Closer to the river itself may not have experienced the worst, possibly due to the expanding ET wind field as was mentioned, avoidance of the RFQ, and maybe with the usual trouble mixing down winds. But the surge related flooding was very bad, second only to the great 1936 flood (which is in a league of its own) just 2 years prior.

Did not know that about the worst winds... Wonder if maybe it could be partially related to the density of reliable observations? The tree damage was absolutely catastrophic here east of the river.

heavy rain in these little cells

I have these on my touring setup, and I mostly like them. They're lightweight and seem to perform well on the descent. These are the first tech pin bindings I've had and I find them on occasion a little bit less than totally secure... if I were on some big western high alpine tour I could see taking a bad step and torquing out of them on accident in a less than great spot. But for all things eastern sidecountry it's not a concern, and for all I know the bad step caveat could be said about any tech binding.

I may have hooked a good size shark on Marconi beach today on a big Kastmaster. Pulled 200yds of 50 pound braid off and never slowed down for a second. I was fumbling to crank down the drag to no avail whatsoever... If the line hadn't snapped when I grabbed the spool either the rod or I were going in. Zero chance.

This happened to ours too. We cut the flowers to take the weight off and help the stems stand up again. We'll see if they can be saved.