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Fall 2019 Observations


Carvers Gap
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39 degrees in west Kingsport with wind chills in the lower 30s at best.  Truly awesome cold front today - a true howler.  Those never get old.  Is that a 30 degree temperature swing since later morning?  Rain got out of here in time for trick or treating.  We built a fire in our portable fire pit in the front yard and roasted marshmallows.  LOL.  I keep saying it...it is absolutely amazing to look at the range of weather for the month of October.  Set the all time record high for like four straight times to begin the month.  We had been 33 days with only 0.1" of rain.  Today we had severe storms, ~1.25" of rain IMBY,  and the event ended as snow for some.  Mid 90s on the first day and wind chills in the upper 20s to low 30s and snow to end it.  Certainly was not boring, though I don't ever want to see 90s in October again.  This is one for the archives.  

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Looks like WCYB on their FB page has a couple of photographs of the tornado that went through the far southwest corner of Virginia.  Fortunately, that is a very rural area.  What a wild weather day it was yesterday.  Looks like Roan Mt and Leconte both picked up light accumulations of snow.  Just glancing at the webcam, looks like Sugar might have been blowing snow last night...but I could be wrong.

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Tis the season for cold chasing snow in the Valley; and, chaos on 441. 

Perhaps I've never noticed in years past, but Chattanooga's Lookout Mtn, Raccoon Mtn, and Signal Mtn appear to all be peaking color at the same time top to bottom. Usually the top is past peak when the bottom is lit. Might be one more good weekend of foliage viewing. Better late than never. Also color looks good. Drought is not a deal killer if spring is rainy (it was). Rain returned recently, but that was after trees started going to sleep anyway. Spring rain is why they made it through the drought. 

Thinking about local hikes around Chatty. Other possibilities include Cherokee NF, and Little River Canyon, AL. Prentice Cooper would be great; but, I think it's closed for hunting attm. Anybody else notice good color top to bottom of mountains and ridges? 

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Agree that colors pretty much changed in unison...a true testament to the duration and strength of the warm anomalies and then accompanied by a quick switch to seasonal and then below.  I don't think it was much cooler at elevation.  That said, our leaf change up here was super quick for maples, locusts, sweet gum, sycamore.  The oaks are basically are way behind.  So, it is almost like a two tier change here, and it sort of has been lately anyway.  The rain and wind knocked the leaves down from the trees that had just changed...and left the oaks in tact.  Also agree that fall actually turned out to be quite nice at lower elevations from a color standpoint.  The wet spring helped, and I do think the recent rains helped.  And rainy days IMHO are great days to photograph the leaf change.   The colors are just richer.  

Today is beautiful.  Temps are chilly.  The wind chimes are singing.  Going to be super cold tonight - compared to what we have been used to.  I think our band is changing-up its routine as playing when it is below freezing is super tough on the instruments...especially the competition stuff.  These HS band don't have the budgets of those northern marching bands who can make sure that they have good, cold weather instruments ...and instruments for the rains.  A good example, is that one needs a plastic clarinet for the rain and wood for concert.  The brass(while being played and warm air is in the instruments) also sweats similarly to a Coke bottle that has just come out of the fridge. .  It has been a great marching season.  Lots of great stories.   The national championships are this weekend in Indianapolis. Our kids are heading to the Rose Bowl parade instead, and will not make the trip to Indy(too expensive to do both trips).  Was a tough decision since DB won't be able to defend its 3A national title(its first) from last season.  However, what a great opportunity to go to Pasadena, and be in that parade.  We are really blessed to have so many kids who play in our full band - 388.  Just under 20% of the kids in the high school play in the band.  Crazy!  Plus, DB is in the playoffs this year after a rough couple of seasons.  Glad to see them bounce back.  They are such an easy team to pull for.   In smaller towns in NE TN(and really most areas in the state) high school football is a great community event that brings everyone together.  In smaller towns, we don't have changing school zones...so some of these kids are walking on playing fields as fourth and fifth generation athletes or band members.  

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5 hours ago, nrgjeff said:

Tis the season for cold chasing snow in the Valley; and, chaos on 441. 

Perhaps I've never noticed in years past, but Chattanooga's Lookout Mtn, Raccoon Mtn, and Signal Mtn appear to all be peaking color at the same time top to bottom. Usually the top is past peak when the bottom is lit. Might be one more good weekend of foliage viewing. Better late than never. Also color looks good. Drought is not a deal killer if spring is rainy (it was). Rain returned recently, but that was after trees started going to sleep anyway. Spring rain is why they made it through the drought. 

Thinking about local hikes around Chatty. Other possibilities include Cherokee NF, and Little River Canyon, AL. Prentice Cooper would be great; but, I think it's closed for hunting attm. Anybody else notice good color top to bottom of mountains and ridges? 

Virtually all leaves are gone here except for a few trees, but elevation didn't play a role this year here either. The peak was short and almost universal over about a 2000 foot elevation window.

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Morgan County about the same as Chatt. Just noticed it today lol, before I read this. In late September, just after I moved though, I did notice a lot of trees above 2000 feet were losing leaves but not really changing too much. Just splashes of yellow at that time, all over the ridges top to bottom. 

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TRI is a whopping -7F below normal for the first nine days of November.  November's start is nearly a polar(like that?LOL) opposite of October's.  I mean I still leave the house without a coat, because I still assume it is gonna be 90+ during the day.  Pretty sure this is the earliest that I have not had to mow...but just mow it now to knock down the tops of a few fast growing patches of grass and to pick up leaves.  The heat pretty much wiped out my yard...then the cold went off the top rope and ended its meager hopes of returning to form.

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1 hour ago, Carvers Gap said:

Pretty impressive cold to begin November at TRI.  We are -7.2F through November 16th.  Not a single day AN so far.  That will change, but still impressive.

625966156_ScreenShot2019-11-17at4_19_26PM.png.732a19c140efa5952115cacc4985d18a.png

I often wonder how these are calculated. There's a station a few miles west from me but at 700ish feet lower in elevation. That station is 28/14 for the 13th, meaning the front had passed before midnight there. It is -26.3 for the 13th.  Tri is -18.6 but only because they were briefly that warm around midnight. Honestly the 28 was brief in this area.  The balance of the day was spent in the low to mid 20s here.

I guess it balances out with times where it may be cold for a short time during a day but quickly warns for hours but the average can be misleading as to how cold or warm the day actually was. 

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Looks like Sugar Mountain is open for business.  Slopes look decent considering it is only November 25th.  That is a testament to the cold November that we are having.  Good for them...last year was not a great season.  Getting open by Thanksgiving is always a good think for the hills in Boone-Banner Elk.  If you need a snow fix...you can watch some of the night skiing session this evening.  

http://www.skisugar.com/cams/

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