Heat Wave & Water Temp, June 2020
 

On Sunday, 21 June the air temperature at Black Cat Island reached 90 degrees for the third consecutive day, making an official heat wave. While 90 degrees is not unusual on the island between May and September, official heat waves are much less common.

Surrounded by much cooler lake water, the island requires a great deal more heat energy (and 100 percent cooperation from the Big Lake's quirky microclimate) for that to happen. Typically, when the lakes region towns get an official heat wave, the lake islands miss 90-degrees by just a couple of notches on at least one of the days, like a meteorological game of tic-tac-toe.

The last official heat wave on the island was Independence Day weekend 2018.

The max temperatures of this month's heat wave were:

19th: 92 F
20th: 90 F
21st: 91 F

A greater-than expected onshore airflow (North Atlantic Ocean influence with fog) held today's morning temperatures down until midday, and as a result the sun had only enough time to produce a max of 87 F, thus ending the waterfront heat wave of Father's Day Weekend 2020.

There is some potential for a return to these temperatures later this month (but forecast confidence in that is not high) after a cool-down (75-80) later this week. A round of showers and thunderstorms will mark the transition on Wednesday.


...Water Temp...

After triggering cold water safety messages from the National Weather Service on Memorial Day Weekend, the water temperature spiked in response to the heat and humidity, reaching 79 F today. Several swimmers near the site exuberantly confirmed validity of that reading.

That is the warmest June water temperature ever recorded at Black Cat Island since records began in 2004. The average summer seasonal max is 75 at that location -- a boat-stirred, wind-exposed part of the lake. An 80-degree water temperature occurs about once every five years and last occurred in August-September 2017.


...Air Mass Thunderstorms...

There have been pop-up thunderstorms in this heat. Staying safe from those can require a great deal more vigilance than is necessary for a well-predicted squall line ahead of a front (which is more typical here.) There is no knowing which town, or which part of the lake, will have enough of an updraft to create a thunderhead over it. They generally remain stationary until the updraft cools and collapses. That has proven destructive because the collapsing air column hits the ground with a "whump" (if you can imagine) and flows out in all directions like when you point a leaf blower directly down.

Sudden outflow from collapsing thunderheads this past weekend put a tree across the road/wires in Sanbornton and caught a few lake paddlers off-guard in the otherwise-calm conditions. First, a sudden outflow wind from a collapsing storm over the Ossipees, and an hour later it became an equally-strong outflow wind from the collapsing storm over Sanbornton in the opposite direction.

Tonight some are seeing lightning over the southwestern shores, but any boater checking the radar can see there is nothing in the area. No, the radar's not broken. Thunderheads are tall, often reaching the cruising altitudes of commercial flights, and lightning in the upper portions of those clouds can be visible 100 miles away in otherwise-clear air in a wide-open area with no visual obstructions like trees. Regional radar and lightning detection indicate that thunderstorm-in-question to be over southern Vermont.


Weather quirks like this are what make this area the water equivalent of the Presidential Range in the White Mountains.

If Winni is destined to boil we had better get more lobsters!

Great to hear from you CLA
 

CLA, nice to see you post about the weather, and teach people something about weather. You've been absent way too long.

In a prior life, I was an air traffic controller and loved dealing with the all weather aspects I had to face as a controller.

Keep it coming.

Dave

Thank you Dave! I've missed you, the others, and this. Getting back to it hasn't been an overnight process and isn't finished, but it's made me realize I want to do this for a living, not just a side-thing that earns a few extra bucks. I've been in transition for a couple years after a family emergency. The pandemic lockdown provided unexpected time to just think, like Frost's "Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening" and being able to hear the sound of each snowflake without interruption from thoughts like "But I have miles to go before I sleep..."

A fuzzy picture has evolved of future involving some combination of weather, aviation, &emergency management in a ratio to-be-decided. Positive influences welcome.

In the pandemic "stay-home" I found myself much calmer after using screen-time for getting back into weather vs. checking news stories. Then I saw all the weather geeks now gathered on YouTube (where I want to be) were more concerned with "vortex" than "virus" and I laughed because nothing about the crowd had changed -- the toys just got fancier. It felt like coming home after a long trip around the world.

The fuzzy picture includes a desire to refurbish the web site from its 2012 status, maybe bringing others aboard, maybe crowdfunding to get out of 2012 and do things like go live... lots of thoughts, lots of "how would I do that?" and "where would I start?"

Swim Time
 

The water temperature at -18" on East Bear Island this morning is 75 degrees. 🐻

Geekdom
 

Black Cat water temp at 2 ft. deep is still 79 with a SE wind (sea breeze inland reach) getting started. You've reminded me of forum weather discussions "back in the day" when we all commented on the local variability of Winni water temps. Now graphics and virtual modeling are wayyyy better than they were, and getting better every year. How cool would it be if we all monitored lake water temps and made a colorful graphic of the thermal differences? I can imagine clicking "play" and watching it show us warm pools, cold pools, and currents shifting and flowing...

Awesomeness in the kingdom of geekdom.

Update
 

The water temp yesterday was 81 F. That's about as warm as the water gets at the location, and typically only once every five years. Wind and boat waves have churned the water pretty well in the last few days, which stirs water up from the bottom (and that water is usually colder.) It appears the warmth is well-mixed in the water.

The dewpoint is a primary driver of water temp because it controls the rate of surface evaporation, a cooling process. The same thing determines how cold you feel when you get out of the water. Evaporation cools your skin, which is one reason your body sweats.

We can expect the lake water temp to climb even higher for the rest of this week because tropical air (high dewpoint) is now moving in. The dewpoint just hit 70 F for the first time this summer, about as muggy as it normally gets in New England. We have seen dewpoints in the mid-70s every few years but it's the everyday norm for the air over the Gulf of Mexico, "The Steambath of the Americas." That kind of mugginess is not out of the question for the remainder of this week in the lakes region.

Record high temperatures are NOT in the forecast, but a dewpoint in the 70s can make 88-degree air feel like 100 or more. Less evaporation means less cooling for your body (hence the issuance of heat alerts) and less cooling for the lake.

How Nice!
 

The water temperature at East Bear Island this Monday morning is a toasty 81 degrees. Yippeeeeeee! 🐻

That's like Florida water temp. :D

Brain eating amoeba temperatures .

81 water temp ties the record for the last 11,000-years, so it will most likely drop back to 78 over the next couple days, before going back up. Is gonna be an 11,000-year new hot water record, for sure, golleeee! ... :eek:

Yeow!!!
 

The water temperature at East Bear Island this afternoon at -18" is 83 degrees. Air temperature is 90 degrees. 🐻

Great Blobs of Green...!
 

We've got a July algae bloom like I've never seen before. :eek2:

Four-foot green blobs! :eek:

Really,,,

Not good, yuck.

Surface water temp this morning in the broads is 79 degrees...

Dan

Bear Water
 

How low is the lake now?

Heat Wave & Water Temp, June 2020
 

Winnisquam down 4-5” water level. Temp 75?


Sent from my iPhone using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

Requested Update
 

The water temperature at East Bear Island is 77 degrees at -12" this afternoon. The lake level is down about a foot. 🐻

On Sunday Sept 20, at 6:40-am, the weather info warnings here says that Mount Washington, NH is the coldest spot in the entire country at 23-degrees ...... and this includes all of Alaska and Hawaii.

Wonder if that is the mountain or the boat ..... now, it says Whitefield, Mount Washington regional airport is 23-degrees.

The Weirs cam says it is 30.0-degrees so it must mean high up top, yon-duh mountain ....... a-yuh!

Meanwhile, water temp in this lake is reported to be 64.5.

Balmy Here
 

The air temperature at sunrise here on East Bear Island is 43 degrees. Much warmer than on the mainland. Come on out! 🐻

Hey there weather fans all across the 50-states plus all the ships at sea, here's your totally fascinating weather factoid for right now on Thurs, Oct 8, 2020.

Mount Washington is reported to have both the coldest temp, 19.4-degrees, and the highest wind speed, 71.4-mph in the entire USA, including Alaska.

Can this really be true?

Winds Over 200 MPH. Temps Minus 40F, from Memory...
 

Your numbers for the mountain observatory are way off. :rolleye2:

No, what I meant is these are both the coldest at 19.4-degrees and the windiest at 71.4-mph, at the moment of 5:46-pm, Oct 8, 2020, all across the USA at that present time, and not the all-time, forever records.

Is still true now for Mount Washington and the entire country at 7:16-pm with a minor change to 19.4-degrees and 70.2-mph.

Go to the local weather and click on warnings to see where it reports these numbers as the highest and lowest at the time and includes their location.

................

Early Friday morning, October 9 at 6:40, Mount Washington is reported to be 14-degrees with 56.4-mph wind ...... probably want to be wearing a hat and gloves if you are now hiking that very easy Ammonoosic Ravine Trail on the western side ....... and good luck! ...... seems pretty danged cold for October 9 ....... is still like summer around here at the big lake.

:offtopic: Today, Tuesday November 3, 2020 is effectively the first day of winter here in Waterville Valley because it snowed overnight, about 1-2"or something, enough to totally cover everything, including the black asphalt roads, except for the cast iron, town sewer manhole covers in the middle of the paved asphalt roads. Probably, not enough snow fell to bother snow blowing the two miles of sidewalks.

The temp right now is about 26-degrees with occasional wind gusts that blow some snow around, sideways. And, holy snow flakes, a town snow plow just went by with its blade down, clearing this new snow off the road.

Definitely looks like winter is here in Waterville Valley ..... at least for today. With indoor ice hockey, ice skating, skiing, xc skiing, walking, hiking, and bicycle riding and outdoor ice skating on the golf course www.watervillevalleygolf.com pond that serves the skaters with hot chocolate, marsh-mellow s'mores and a real wood burning, outdoors camp fire..... winter RULES in Waterville Valley ...... is a virtual www.waterville.com/cams snow pocket!

Kristi Yamaguchi, Tara Lipinski, Sonya Henie, Tonya Harding, and Nancy Kerrigan are all here, FIGURE SKATING, every Tuesday and Thursday at 10-am ....... on that outdoors, golf course pond, right next to the club house, in the first photo ..... where it catches that big, middle morning sunshine!

It will all be gone by tomorrow. Temps will be in the 50s and 60s for the next week.


Sent from my iPhone using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

Saturday November 7 and the 11:40 Waterville Valley temperature on my thermometer situated in indirect sunlight, under an overhanging eave is 82-degrees ..... which seems very amazing considering we had a winter style snow storm, last Tuesday, with both the town and state snowplows out plowing and salting the local roads.