Spring Banter & General Discussion/Observations

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

Two things:

Girl name - Xylee - pronounced "Zie-lee". Bryce and Xylee sound good together as siblings.

I had a bald eagle fly waste high around two feet from me as I was putting last year at Centennial in ENY. I felt and heard him carving through the air. I was frozen in awe, the coolest random experience with a beautifully rare creature. 

[powderfreak]

22 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said:

43F  light to moderate rain.  Main batch about to exit east.  .65"  Big story is the wind the past hour.  Roaring through the forest.  My old Davis anemometer just gusted to 33mph but seems much stronger than that.  Trees just leafing out with small leaves.  Good thing or else we would be having power issues.  Really surprised how light winds are down below...

 

Edit:  (630pm)

Ten minutes after I posted the above the rain shield has passed and down to just very light rain.  Wind also has greatly reduced to just a breeze.  Maybe the rain was bringing down winds from above.  Whatever, the strong winds of the past hour or two have passed....

Some high winds on the west slopes of the Greens (downslope flow on SE flow) and I just drove through on the interstate, getting knocked around in the car.  Tractor trailers visibly swaying.

Looks like 51mph in Underhill west of Mansfield, 51mph Bolton and 47mph in Jonesville on I-89.  

Looks like Rutland County down wind of Killington/Pico area of Greens is the winner so far with 74mph at Wells and 54mph at the Rutland Airport.

[Damage In Tolland]

Everyone stay safe.

[dendrite]

1 hour ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Two things:

Girl name - Xylee - pronounced "Zie-lee". Bryce and Xylee sound good together as siblings.

I had a bald eagle fly waste high around two feet from me as I was putting last year at Centennial in ENY. I felt and heard him carving through the air. I was frozen in awe, the coolest random experience with a beautifully rare creature. 

Good thing landlines are becoming extinct.

Scoot: "Xylee! Phone!"

[CT Rain]

Pretty epic gravity wave induced windstorm on west side of the Greens this afternoon - including some 75 mph mesonet reports in Rutland Co. Check out this pressure trace from a mesonet station in Williamstown MA. 

Really cool - I imagine downsloping helped or at least made some difference in being able to mix down the really strong gusts on the lee of the Greens. 

[Damage In Tolland]

Was Ski MRG hurt?

[CoastalWx]

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

Good thing landlines are becoming extinct.

Scoot: "Xylee! Phone!"

  It's Elyse. 

[Typhoon Tip]

7 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

There's actually a lot of literature on bird migrations being affected by the huge increase in popularity of bird feeders...many birds that were rare in winter are now more common because they have plentiful food sources from feeders. It's an interesting topic regarding our impact on animals outside of just climate change. The moose is another one...we drove the moose pretty much completely out of southern New England over a century ago (and even out of a lot of VT/NH...esp VT) when we had clear-cut much of the forest for farms and fuel...but as the forests grew back in rapidly during the mid and late 20th century, the moose expanded back south. Now they are relatively common in chunks of Massachusetts whereas 30-40 years ago they were not. Our land use was the dominant factor.

You ever hear/see that story about the couple in ...I wanna say Arizona. They had an in-ground pool - typical one like you'd see in any residential backyard.  One fateful day they noticed two ducks waddling around in the pool.  How cute - right?

They didn't think much of it, only to set to watching them...  Then they flew off after a couple few days.   The next year around the same time, they came home to something like 200 ducks of the same species in the pool fighting for waddling space...and walking around dropping duck bombs all over the patio and furniture ...basically, transformed their back yard/pool area into an aviary resting despot along their migratory path.

Here's the funny part - that species of duck is Federally protected; so the last I knew they were stuck with them.  Every year...the backyard and pool fills up with ducks for few days ...they trash the place then move on. 

[mreaves]

8 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

There's actually a lot of literature on bird migrations being affected by the huge increase in popularity of bird feeders...many birds that were rare in winter are now more common because they have plentiful food sources from feeders. It's an interesting topic regarding our impact on animals outside of just climate change. The moose is another one...we drove the moose pretty much completely out of southern New England over a century ago (and even out of a lot of VT/NH...esp VT) when we had clear-cut much of the forest for farms and fuel...but as the forests grew back in rapidly during the mid and late 20th century, the moose expanded back south. Now they are relatively common in chunks of Massachusetts whereas 30-40 years ago they were not. Our land use was the dominant factor.

Moose population has taken a relatively dramatic drop in VT.  Ticks have been sucking them dry.  They have had to reduce the number of permits issued each year. 

[mreaves]

4 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Some high winds on the west slopes of the Greens (downslope flow on SE flow) and I just drove through on the interstate, getting knocked around in the car.  Tractor trailers visibly swaying.

Looks like 51mph in Underhill west of Mansfield, 51mph Bolton and 47mph in Jonesville on I-89.  

Looks like Rutland County down wind of Killington/Pico area of Greens is the winner so far with 74mph at Wells and 54mph at the Rutland Airport.

I call bs on th Wells 74 mph report. Nothing close to that except 75 mph on the Rockpile. 

[w1pf]

Temp rose 8 degrees in the past hour..

Moderate rain, 58.9/58.3

[S&P]

In honor of upcoming hurricane season 

 

[Hoth]

God I love the Onion. 

[eekuasepinniW]

Just 6 more days until sunsets reach 8pm.

[CT Rain]

8 hours ago, mreaves said:

I call bs on th Wells 74 mph report. Nothing close to that except 75 mph on the Rockpile. 

I dunno. At first I was skeptical and then I saw their pressure trace. A 9mb pressure drop in an hour is legit. There were a few >60 reports around Bennington and also on the other side of the Taconics in Rensselaer Co NY. 

[Hoth]

Kevin, did you see the marathon record got absolutely shattered yesterday? Old world record was 2:02:57, new one is 2:00:24. Never thought I'd see anyone get near the 2 hour barrier. That's like 4:34 a mile! Kipchoge is a beast!  Edit: should note that it was run on a special course designed for speed and so won't stand as the official record, but even so, absolutely incredible.

[dendrite]

1.00" of rain so far. Sheet drizzle right now.

[CT Rain]

4 minutes ago, dendrite said:

1.00" of rain so far. Sheet drizzle right now.

Congats on the sheet drizzle!

[dendrite]

1 minute ago, CT Rain said:

Congats on the sheet drizzle!

Thanks. Getting the septic pumped right now so it's literally more like shiet drizzle.

[CoastalWx]

54 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Thanks. Getting the septic pumped right now so it's literally more like shiet drizzle.

Sh*tter's full?  

Could be worse. It could back into the house on Thanksgiving like it did to my parents a few years ago.

[Angus]

2 hours ago, Hoth said:

God I love the Onion. 

+1

[powderfreak]

11 hours ago, mreaves said:

I call bs on th Wells 74 mph report. Nothing close to that except 75 mph on the Rockpile. 

I don't know, I could see it.  KRUT AWOS gusted over 50mph and then lost power, and they could've gone higher but I think that 47kts was the last issued before it lost power.

Mansfield was sustained at 60mph gusting around 80mph as that wind max lifted north and it was stronger to the south (weakening slightly as it lifted north).  Downslope areas with the gravity wave could have mixed that down from 4,000ft to the surface, especially as that area of Rutland County is very prone to downslope wind events.

Sounds like widespread damage in Rutland County...but yeah hard to say if 74mph is truly legit as I have no idea what equipment it was registered on.  I think there is support there though for some 70mph gusts.  That area is pretty hardy too from previous downslope wind events.  They can usually take some decent winds in Rutland County.

[CoastalWx]

Based on what we know with these waves, how strong the LLJ was just off the deck...those winds could have easily materialized. Ryan and I were saying that the gravity wave could have enhanced that already standing upslope-downslope wave that exists from strong SE flow. 

[Damage In Tolland]

Shaping up to be a beaut of an afternoon with clearing racing NE into CT

[eekuasepinniW]

Sad we don't live in Rutland county yesterday afternoon only.

[powderfreak]

9 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Based on what we know with these waves, how strong the LLJ was just off the deck...those winds could have easily materialized. Ryan and I were saying that the gravity wave could have enhanced that already standing upslope-downslope wave that exists from strong SE flow. 

Good point.  The downslope areas already have the low level jet getting very close to the surface as the air comes over the barrier and crashes down towards the valley like water pouring over a dam.  Intense pressure drop with the gravity wave probably had that 60kt low level jet at the surface for a brief time.

[jbenedet]

56 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Shaping up to be a beaut of an afternoon with clearing racing NE into CT

Yea I think even up here we manage a nice second half and clear out by 2pm. Long daylight hours ftw.

[HIPPYVALLEY]

1 hour ago, eekuasepinniW said:

Sad we don't live in Rutland county yesterday afternoon only.

Friend of mine was there this morning, he said the damage was significant.  

[HIPPYVALLEY]

3 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Friend of mine was there this morning, he said the damage was significant.  

http://www.rutlandherald.com/articles/storm-deals-region-big-blow/

[Damage In Tolland]

So Phil talked to his friend who is an Entomologist. He said that the fungus will not work this year due to the severity of the gypsy moth outbreak