Spring Banter, Observation and General Discussion 2018

[#NoPoles]

Mosquitos

[CoastalWx]

Mitch is going to have mosquitoes gnawing his arm off and flying it back to its nest.  

[tamarack]

10 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

Mitch is going to have mosquitoes gnawing his arm off and flying it back to its nest.  

That's a deerfly's job.  Mosquitos sip daintily thru their straw.  They'll just have most of Mitch's blood when they fly away.

[Lava Rock]

lol.  I haven't looked at much weather lately so don't have an opinion on the ridge, but this statement is hilarious when you consider your overall state of opinion for the past 6 months.  The same discussion not long ago would've had you talking confluence or blocking or whatever to keep the ridge at bay.
I mean, literally you have flipped a switch.  You've spent the last half a year fighting any warmth like it can't happen, be it general pattern or individual synoptic systems.  You need two different accounts depending on the time of year.

Lol at your last sentence

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[Sugarloaf1989]

About 95% bare foliage here. Some Cherry, Dogwood and Forsytha are in bloom. Foliage is about 10 days behind here.

[wxmanmitch]

19 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Ha, that's hilarious for a livable spot.  Aside from some condos or very expensive home sites up here near the Stowe or Jay Peak base areas, you won't find anything like that snow cover for inhabited areas. 

To me its crazy the difference in elevation this time of year.  Also compounded by the fact that in the spring with increasing low level instability, differential heating and bigger ULLs/cold pool instability, the elevations can see a lot more clouds than the valleys.  Take the places that get more snow to begin with, and limit their insolation moreso than other areas, and it just seems to compound itself over time to lead to a bigger disparity.

Stratton has some super expensive homes up at 2,600'. Aside from maybe one house on Tilda Hill Road in Florida, MA just above 2,500' those places by Stratton are probably the highest residential properties in all of New England and maybe NY and definitely NJ as well. 

[AfewUniversesBelowNormal]

Really powerful +NAO to start May, enough to pull the whole midlatitude ridge north. 

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, wxmanmitch said:

Stratton has some super expensive homes up at 2,600'. Aside from maybe one house on Tilda Hill Road in Florida, MA just above 2,500' those places by Stratton are probably the highest residential properties in all of New England and maybe NY and definitely NJ as well. 

Wow yeah that's way up there.  Didn't know they had 2,600ft homes...that's filthy high up there.  

Bolton Valley has homes up to 2,300ft, not sure if it's any higher than that.  But those are the highest living locations I know of.  At Stowe the highest home is around 2,200ft I think.  

 

[CoastalWx]

Almost half inch today. About 2" over last two days. We greening. Things will explode next week.

[ORH_wxman]

3 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Wow yeah that's way up there.  Didn't know they had 2,600ft homes...that's filthy high up there.  

Bolton Valley has homes up to 2,300ft, not sure if it's any higher than that.  But those are the highest living locations I know of.  At Stowe the highest home is around 2,200ft I think.  

 

I've always wondered how high you can theoeretically build in each state. Like where you can buy a plot and just build a home. I know some states have max elevation rules but not all. 

[CoastalWx]

Looks like it’s clearing fairly quickly. Should be a nice day.

[mreaves]

8 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

I've always wondered how high you can theoeretically build in each state. Like where you can buy a plot and just build a home. I know some states have max elevation rules but not all. 

In VT it’s 2500’. 

[Baroclinic Zone]

11 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

Almost half inch today. About 2" over last two days. We greening. Things will explode next week.

Over 2.5" here.  Wet AM so yardwork will have to wait.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Dropped off the daughter at her Girl Scout camp a few towns east of here.   Mayflies are out

[Ginx snewx]

7.63 April precip 

[ORH_wxman]

3 hours ago, mreaves said:

In VT it’s 2500’. 

Apparently they got waivers up by Stratton then because Mitch is right that there's some at 2600 feet. 

That elevation is brutal in New England though. Like I can't imagine building something at 3000 feet in white mountain national forest if you were able to. You'd have snowpack probably 6 months out of the year. 

[ORH_wxman]

7 minutes ago, White Rain said:

Its huge in New England. If you were to talk to the average person though, they would probably say 2600 feet doesn’t make much difference. Everyone assumes you need massive elevation as they base their opinion off the west. 

Sitting with a bunch of engineers and scientists in Natick years ago we had talked of going skiing at Wachusett. They were convinced that the elevation difference between there and Natick would result in zero difference in snow cover because it was “only” 2000 feet. The linear nature of temperature falls with height combined with the colder climate didn’t register with them.

Yeah you even see a massive difference between 400-500 feet in Fitchburg and 1100-1200 in ashburnham. Often like two different worlds and they are like 5 miles apart and "only" 700 feet difference. 

[HoarfrostHubb]

3 hours ago, White Rain said:

Probably make for tough walking at Barre Falls, that place is a bug magnet.

Definitely. Although here in Hubbardston the bugs are minimal at the moment.  In a few days they will be nuts

[Typhoon Tip]

Yeah...that's true, buut... I also suggest that the base-line perennial pattern offers freezing levels that are lower on average in this part of the N/A continent... We just don't have 10,000 peaks above a static 6,000' elevation like they do out west.

I'm not suggesting anyone's arguing differently .. however, in the case of the engineers 'not getting it' .. They may not have? But they may have had it in mind like looking west for Boulder Colorado, where one can see snow caps at 12,500 feet until July 1 ... if they don't totally leave at all, and were thinking along that same topographical/atmospheric interaction.

... I suggest because we statically maintain lower freezing levels, we 'cheat' and achieve something similar to snow capped mountains at mere 2 K elevations ... which may be less common world over to find that.

Just a supposition..

[Typhoon Tip]

2 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Definitely. Although here in Hubbardston the bugs are minimal at the moment.  In a few days they will be nuts

I saw a mud dauber the other day head butting my front screen door ...then gave up and flew away.  Those are those nasty lookin' dark brown/black wasps, with hooked abdomen .. housing a 13 inch long stinger ...

[rimetree]

Probably the ovipositor, not stinger. If that was a stinger, that youtube guy who lets anything and everything sting or bite him would have to make an episode for that wasp.

[CoastalWx]

Man what a day.

[BrianW]

Picked an epic weak for vacation in West Palm beach FL. Absolutely gorgeous down here with no humidity and a NW breeze. 

 

[OceanStWx]

4 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Apparently they got waivers up by Stratton then because Mitch is right that there's some at 2600 feet. 

That elevation is brutal in New England though. Like I can't imagine building something at 3000 feet in white mountain national forest if you were able to. You'd have snowpack probably 6 months out of the year. 

We do have cold season obs from Hermit Lake to give you an idea. Sweet April... (high/low 2nd and 3rd columns, precip/snow/depth the last three)

2018-04-01	33	14	23.5	41	0	0.00	0.0	57
2018-04-02	M	M	M	M	M	T	T	M
2018-04-03	30	13	21.5	43	0	0.00	0.0	57
2018-04-04	37	23	30.0	35	0	0.06	0.4	57
2018-04-05	37	5	21.0	44	0	0.21	T	56
2018-04-06	13	5	9.0	56	0	0.00	0.0	56
2018-04-07	28	8	18.0	47	0	0.37	6.3	63
2018-04-08	26	5	15.5	49	0	T	0.4	63
2018-04-09	32	4	18.0	47	0	0.14	3.2	65
2018-04-10	14	4	9.0	56	0	T	T	62
2018-04-11	31	12	21.5	43	0	0.22	4.3	66
2018-04-12	41	12	26.5	38	0	0.02	0.6	65
2018-04-13	45	24	34.5	30	0	0.22	0.8	63
2018-04-14	42	32	37.0	28	0	0.40	0.0	59
2018-04-15	32	14	23.0	42	0	0.42	1.0	59
2018-04-16	23	15	19.0	46	0	0.42	1.1	60
2018-04-17	36	17	26.5	38	0	1.80	3.0	63
2018-04-18	34	19	26.5	38	0	0.27	1.2	65
2018-04-19	26	20	23.0	42	0	0.04	0.2	64
2018-04-20	32	20	26.0	39	0	0.46	5.7	70
2018-04-21	26	20	23.0	42	0	0.31	2.4	72
2018-04-22	34	22	28.0	37	0	0.00	0.0	70
2018-04-23	37	23	30.0	35	0	0.00	0.0	68
2018-04-24	58	27	42.5	22	0	0.00	0.0	65
2018-04-25	M	M	M	M	M	0.00	0.0	62
2018-04-26	42	36	39.0	26	0	0.68	0.0	60
2018-04-27	44	31	37.5	27	0	0.80	0.0	58
2018-04-28	48	31	39.5	25	0	0.31	0.0	57

[ORH_wxman]

1 hour ago, Typhoon Tip said:

Yeah...that's true, buut... I also suggest that the base-line perennial pattern offers freezing levels that are lower on average in this part of the N/A continent... We just don't have 10,000 peaks above a static 6,000' elevation like they do out west.

I'm not suggesting anyone's arguing differently .. however, in the case of the engineers 'not getting it' .. They may not have? But they may have had it in mind like looking west for Boulder Colorado, where one can see snow caps at 12,500 feet until July 1 ... if they don't totally leave at all, and were thinking along that same topographical/atmospheric interaction.

... I suggest because we statically maintain lower freezing levels, we 'cheat' and achieve something similar to snow capped mountains at mere 2 K elevations ... which may be less common world over to find that.

Just a supposition..

Yeah it's a bit different here for sure. Even up north in Quebec you get sort of this semi-tundra like environment at 3000 feet where it's just miles and miles of dwarfed boreal forest...I forget the name of the plateau up there. But you'll often see deep snowpack on the maps there well into May. 

There's a shrinking couple of glaciers on Baffin Island at a mere 5000-6000 feet elevation that are the last "largish" remnants of the Laurentide ice sheet from 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. I believe they are called penny ice cap and Barnes ice cap...but at that latitude it's possible to keep (or slowly shrink) an ice cap that low in elevation. I mean, I guess it makes sense...you look up there now at 850mb (the approximate level of the glaciers) and you see -20C almost in may. The melting season is so short. We're sitting here complaining about bare trees still as the calendar is about to flip to May....You sometimes wonder how they ever even farmed in Greenland back during the Viking era during the warmer periods. Just a brutal and unforgiving climate at those latitudes. 

[ORH_wxman]

3 minutes ago, OceanStWx said:

We do have cold season obs from Hermit Lake to give you an idea. Sweet April... (high/low 2nd and 3rd columns, precip/snow/depth the last three)

2018-04-01	33	14	23.5	41	0	0.00	0.0	57
2018-04-02	M	M	M	M	M	T	T	M
2018-04-03	30	13	21.5	43	0	0.00	0.0	57
2018-04-04	37	23	30.0	35	0	0.06	0.4	57
2018-04-05	37	5	21.0	44	0	0.21	T	56
2018-04-06	13	5	9.0	56	0	0.00	0.0	56
2018-04-07	28	8	18.0	47	0	0.37	6.3	63
2018-04-08	26	5	15.5	49	0	T	0.4	63
2018-04-09	32	4	18.0	47	0	0.14	3.2	65
2018-04-10	14	4	9.0	56	0	T	T	62
2018-04-11	31	12	21.5	43	0	0.22	4.3	66
2018-04-12	41	12	26.5	38	0	0.02	0.6	65
2018-04-13	45	24	34.5	30	0	0.22	0.8	63
2018-04-14	42	32	37.0	28	0	0.40	0.0	59
2018-04-15	32	14	23.0	42	0	0.42	1.0	59
2018-04-16	23	15	19.0	46	0	0.42	1.1	60
2018-04-17	36	17	26.5	38	0	1.80	3.0	63
2018-04-18	34	19	26.5	38	0	0.27	1.2	65
2018-04-19	26	20	23.0	42	0	0.04	0.2	64
2018-04-20	32	20	26.0	39	0	0.46	5.7	70
2018-04-21	26	20	23.0	42	0	0.31	2.4	72
2018-04-22	34	22	28.0	37	0	0.00	0.0	70
2018-04-23	37	23	30.0	35	0	0.00	0.0	68
2018-04-24	58	27	42.5	22	0	0.00	0.0	65
2018-04-25	M	M	M	M	M	0.00	0.0	62
2018-04-26	42	36	39.0	26	0	0.68	0.0	60
2018-04-27	44	31	37.5	27	0	0.80	0.0	58
2018-04-28	48	31	39.5	25	0	0.31	0.0	57

Yeah that is ridiculous. That's bordering on uninhabitable (at least for a few months)  as our current society functions at this latitude. Obviously it's not that ridiculous every year but you can imagine that there would have to be quite the upgrade in snow removal fleet numbers if a large portion of our region was at 3000 feet. It would probably be more like those northern Rockies ski towns in winter where it's a constant battle...the cold too at this latitude. At least a place like Lake Tahoe or Colorado has a bit more pleasant temps. 

[dendrite]

Really freakin glad we don’t live there.

[OceanStWx]

1 minute ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah that is ridiculous. That's bordering on uninhabitable (at least for a few months)  as our current society functions at this latitude. Obviously it's not that ridiculous every year but you can imagine that there would have to be quite the upgrade in snow removal fleet numbers if a large portion of our region was at 3000 feet. It would probably be more like those northern Rockies ski towns in winter where it's a constant battle...the cold too at this latitude. At least a place like Lake Tahoe or Colorado has a bit more pleasant temps. 

Yeah, it's hard to get the brutal cold air masses into the West Coast, but around here you are sometimes hoping for downslope warming to bring your -25C to -15 if you're lucky downwind of the mountains. 

[dendrite]

3 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah that is ridiculous. That's bordering on uninhabitable (at least for a few months)  as our current society functions at this latitude. Obviously it's not that ridiculous every year but you can imagine that there would have to be quite the upgrade in snow removal fleet numbers if a large portion of our region was at 3000 feet. It would probably be more like those northern Rockies ski towns in winter where it's a constant battle...the cold too at this latitude. At least a place like Lake Tahoe or Colorado has a bit more pleasant temps. 

94" depth there last March.

[powderfreak]

8 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Apparently they got waivers up by Stratton then because Mitch is right that there's some at 2600 feet. 

That elevation is brutal in New England though. Like I can't imagine building something at 3000 feet in white mountain national forest if you were able to. You'd have snowpack probably 6 months out of the year. 

Yeah I didn't even think of that... ACT 250 in Vermont makes it pretty much impossible to do anything above 2,500ft.  Even the ski resorts pretty much need a permit to cut a tree above that elevation.

I've always thought about it, where the High Road snow plot is on Mansfield that it would be incredible if you could live at that elevation.  You'd need to plow like 4 days a week all winter long... but like the ice storms and just precipitation in general (70+ inches of liquid eqiuv) is amazing.  From the riming and icing though, living there would be like ending every winter with 70" of snow on the ground and 25" of liquid in the snowpack.  Just the building itself would have to be burly, ha.