Winni Weather - winter 2007

[christo1]

I am looking to ride the sleds this weekend,can anyone tell me how much snow you got up there?

[wildwoodfam]

Hey everyone - well - I hate to do this - but in the end I was right - - in my earlier post I declared I would not allow for a rain mix and sure enough, Haverhill NEVER turned to anything but a mix of sleet and mostly snow - as a result - 12.6 inches and there is astill a hefty band coming up from the south so maybe we end up with 14" on the 14th! Would be cool!

It stayed very cold here - climbed to 24 at around 4pm (heavy sleet at that time). I'd say we had about 4 inches of sleet mix - plowed at 12noon and then again at 430 and the 430 was sleet - sleet - sleet. Snowing and blowing as I type - gusting to 16 mph on the back deck.

How'd you all do up around that gorgeous lake!!

[DRH]

Originally Posted by christo1

I am looking to ride the sleds this weekend,can anyone tell me how much snow you got up there?

I would estimate we have about 12" and it's still snowing here in West Alton.

[CanisLupusArctos]

Thank you for the compliments on the new weather data with the web cam. GWC, your cam was actually one of several that originally inspired me to this idea - it's one of my favorites.

...Storm Log...

At 9:00 p.m. on Black Cat we passed the 1-foot mark for the snowstorm. There was an average of 12.5 inches in the yard with many places blown down to bare ground by northeast winds that gusted to 39 mph this afternoon. There are other areas of snow drifted over 2 feet. On the lake's new snowpack, the bottom layer is turning to mush like it always does, because the water below the ice is still above freezing and radiating "heat" up.

On land the snow is *not* the perfect western-style powder they're getting in Vermont and NY State. It's not snowball-making snow, either. It has about the consistency of manmade snow from the ski areas. This is due to a brief period of heavy sleet and just a tad bit of freezing rain between 3 and 5 pm. During that time the wind was straight east and introduced just a little bit of the milder ocean air from the seacoast part of the state, but it was short lived.

As the storm moved farther up the coast our winds actually wrestled between east and northwest for a half-hour or so. When the winds were east, sleet and some freezing rain would mix. After a few minutes it would blast out of the northwest and change to all snow again, and repeated the process a few times in the course of an hour.

Around the dinner hour the winds switched into the northwest and stayed, indicating the storm's passing by. A normal winter storm would be over at this point, but this thing is such a strong whirlpool in the atmosphere that it's pulling the snow around to its backside as well. On the strenth of the "whirlpool;" check your home barometers! The pressure here has dropped to 29.05, which is more often seen in the eyes of Category 1 hurricanes.

After a 1-hour lull during the storm's passage, the snow is now back in high gear. For snowfall reports go to this self-updating text report from the National Weather Service:

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/box/products/PWMWRKGYX

There is a link to it and many others like it, at www.blackcatnh.com/weather.

Forecast... Tomorrow should be bittersweet for skiers... on one hand it will be great to cut some freshies in the slopes but getting there will be the issue since blizzard conditions will continue into the early morning (off and on), even after the snow stops falling. Also, tomorrow will be a return to the walk-in freezer we've been living in for over a month now, and winds will howl out of the northwest. If it weren't for the presence of fresh snow, tomorrow and Friday would be good days to hang out in the base lodge.

For the mountains this means more snow because the nearby storm will keep the air unstable and moist enough to wring out more snowflakes from any air current that finds itself riding uphill into the cooler summit air. This should continue into Friday, gradually diminishing.

...UPDATE AT MIDNIGHT...

Woweee, windy. Winds now averaging 15 out of the NW (and blocked by a tree in that direction too) and gusting regularly to 30 mph... increasing. Lights flickering. Temp is headed back into the single numbers within the hour. I just went to use the mouthwash, whose bottle I haven't opened since this time last night, and it actually gave a "hissss" as it opened. That shows how dramatically the air pressure has fallen with this storm so close. Pressure's 29.07 and on the way back up.

[SteveA]

The kitty litter bucket gauge was a total flop... the wind kept blowing off the snow..

A simple tape measure reading had us at between 13 and 14" here in Gilford Village.

I did try to use the actual Yuki Gauge... but based on his reaction, and for the sake of my relationship with my wife, I decided not to try it.

[Weirs guy]

Originally Posted by SteveA

I did try to use the actual Yuki Gauge... but based on his reaction, and for the sake of my relationship with my wife, I decided not to try it.

Steve, have you ever seen "strangers on a train" (I haven't, but it came up on a CSI re-run last night). You know, 2 strangers fix each others "problem" so there's no link to the crime? Maybe I could run the Yuki Gauge and lend you my Sophie C Gauge!

(Whats that dear, no, I'd NEVER put our precious little Sophie kitty out in this type of snow dear. No, not even when she bites my toes in the middle of the night.)

[SteveA]

WG

I still don't understand why she won't let me toss the cats into the snow... I bet they would actually really like it.....

PS... you lie... I'll swear to it!

and what's up with the "middle of the night toe biting"..? We had one like that when we lived back in Melrose Mass

[DRH]

Today was a sunny but very cold, very windy winter day. The wind gusted to 40+ mph at times.

I took this photo at 4:30 PM, showing the blowing snow out on the frozen lake. It was 14 degrees outside when I took the picture, and I can only imagine the wind chill out at those bob houses (which were unoccupied today!)



Click here for a larger image.

[trfour]

Being a weather nut – without the (wing) – in front of it – myself , I have to commend CLA, R2B, DRH, our resident lovely Rose and others here for this very informative and interesting thread!!


I believe Rose was our first forum weather forecaster (correct me if I’m wrong) a pioneer if you will, and dearly beloved.>>
>>
Speaking of pioneers, I remember back when all we had was the US weather bureau to rely on for forecasting. In 1951 WBZ-AM radio hired the first meteorologist to broadcast forecasts of weather in the Country; his name, Don Kent. He didn’t have many of today’s computer models or other tools to help him and to use a phrase,“flew by the seat of his pants“ and consistently nailed the forecasts. My very large family relied totally on Don whenever weather was concerned, from a good day at the beach or a nor’easter hurricane, from NS, Vermont, New Hampshire, Mass., Florida and out west as well.>>
>>
I always wanted to call and thank him for helping to keep my family prepared & safe over his long career and this past Tuesday I did. He was so gracious to talk to me, for the better part of forty five minutes, and you would think in his retirement he would be kick’n back and taking life easy, but he told me that on Monday he had been out in the yard burning brush, and while talking to me, was watching no less than three computer screens tracking Wednesday’s storm. He not only gave me his forecast and snow depths for this one, “right on Don “, and hinted about the next Big One!. Part of our conversation of course, was for him to come out here and visit this thread and maybe give us a comment. He said to give him about two weeks.>>
>>
Anyway, thank you all for letting me ramble on here, and keep it coming!!>>
>>
Kudos to you all! >>

[CanisLupusArctos]

Trfour, I'm so glad to know that Don Kent is still around, and still doing what he always loved. As a little kid I watched Don Kent on Ch. 4 Boston draw weather systems on a chalkboard map -- and the fact that I'm only 30 (yet I remember TV weather done on a chalkboard) shows how far weather forecasting and presentation has come in a short time. As a teenage weather nut I got to know Barry Burbank, who told me Don Kent had been his own childhood inspiration while growing up in southern Maine. Barry went to college in Massachusetts and has been following Don's footsteps in the Boston TV market ever since. Needless to say, Don Kent has inspired several generations of us weather geeks and New Englanders (for the record, I think every "true" New Englander is at least somewhat of a weather geek by nature.)

DRH, great photo! The light, color, and contrast jump right out at me.

SteveA, thank you so much as always for keeping me entertained with "Yuki vs. the snowstorm." The first photo a couple weeks ago should be a greeting card, and this most recent one pretty much puts the Valentine's Blizzard into perspective! Given the previously discussed Yuki scale it sounds like you had a Y2-level snow event there in Gilford Village! Purrhaps Yuki will someday get to meet Nin, the Mount Washington Observatory's cat.

For anyone wondering what the NH snow tallies were, here's the report from the National Weather Service. Center Harbor was my report.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

...BELKNAP COUNTY...
CENTER HARBOR 14.4 829 AM 2/15
GILFORD 10.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
TILTON 7.8 820 AM 2/15

...CARROLL COUNTY...
NORTH CONWAY 17.0 728 AM 2/15
SOUTH CHATHAM 15.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
MADISON 14.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
CONWAY 13.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
WOLFEBORO 10.5 655 AM 2/15

...COOS COUNTY...
GORHAM COMMON 28.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
DIXVILLE NOTCH 24.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
PINKHAM NOTCH SCENIC 23.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
COLEBROOK 22.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
COLUMBIA 22.0 712 AM 2/15
TWIN MOUNTAIN 22.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
ERROL 20.0 750 AM 2/15
TWIN MOUNTAIN 19.5 750 AM 2/15
LANCASTER 19.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
WHITEFIELD 18.0 1145 PM 2/15

...GRAFTON COUNTY...
LISBON 21.0 750 AM 2/15
LOST RIVER 20.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
FRANCONIA NOTCH 19.5 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT
WOODSTOCK 17.0 900 AM 2/15
WEST CAMPTON 11.0 730 AM 2/15
PLYMOUTH 10.0 500 AM 2/15 NH DOT

...MERRIMACK COUNTY...
NEW LONDON 17.0 607 AM 2/15
HENNIKER 12.0 740 AM 2/15
CONCORD 8.3 700 AM 2/15

...ROCKINGHAM COUNTY...
EPPING 13.0 1130 AM 2/15
NOTTINGHAM 12.5 634 AM 2/15

...STRAFFORD COUNTY...
STRAFFOD 7.5 820 AM 2/15
SOMERSWORTH 7.2 418 AM 2/15

...SULLIVAN COUNTY...
NEWPORT 17.0 930 PM 2/15
SUNAPEE 16.0 338 AM 2/15
WASHINGTON 16.0 708 AM 2/15


And a snowfall map with colors we haven't seen on a snowfall map in a while... (bear in mind this is snow DEPTH, not just the most recent storm.)

[trfour]

Not only is he still around, first of all, I expected to get his answering machine and finding out that he was wintering in Florida! Not Don, he was up to his eyeballs in, like you said, doing what he loves and that is this crazy good O’L New England weather.
The phone only rang once before he answered, and of course I recognized his voice instantly. I was pleasantly surprised during our conversation of his wonderful sense of humor that of course he mostly left out of his broadcasts. I guess we are all more serious when working. Goes without saying, he’s very well educated, chipper, friendly, down to earth and very interesting to talk to. I was thrilled, and he now knows that my family and I love him.

Barry Burbank is good friends with my younger brother and sister in-law, in fact went to their wedding. Small world!

Don did tell me that he doesn’t do E-mail or many phone calls, understandably because he’d be spending all of his free time answering them.

So for now, lets keep our fingers crossed that he will check out this thread, and like you said CLA, he knows he fostered all of us weather nuts, and I’m sure he will be proud of you.

PS, On a snowy day, if you look just right you will see the smile of the great spirit high in the Ossipee's!

[Rose]

I'm not sure if I was the first or not, but thanks for your kind words. They're much appreciated.

I think it's awesome that you called Don Kent!!! He always seemed so gracious on air...nice to know he's the same in real life.

[SIKSUKR]

Don Kent was is my all time favorite Weatherman,hands down.I loved watching him draw the lows and highs and wind direction on the weather board.He was paired with Jack Chase on WBZ for what seemed like 25 years.He just made you feel real good listening to him.Glad to hear he's doing well.Does he still have that same accent?

[trfour]

Hi SS,
About Don’s accent, no mistaking who your talking to, that one of a kind voice, as is he. He was teamed with, and very apropos I might add, some of the most talented and entertaining people in the world! I’m adding a link for all of those history buffs out there.
>>
http://www.wbz1030.com/pages/3721.php >>

And my dear Rose, you are so eloquently modest, and a gem!
>>
CLA; It is a God send in having a specifically customized weather station for us here in the Lakes Region, brilliant!

[CanisLupusArctos]

The lake looks so much better with all that bright white snow on it. All-natural remedy for SAD if you ask me.

For those who were asking earlier (Such as Gatto Nero), the time-lapse Java animation of the Valentine's Day Blizzard of 2007 is now online. It starts with the red sunrise on the 13th, skies cloud up during the day, then follows the storm through the 14th and ends after showing sunrise and lots of blowing snow on the morning of the 15th.

I should warn you, there are 460 images that are programmed to pre-load before the animation starts. Otherwise, Enjoy!

www.blackcatnh.com/blizzard2007

For future reference, major weather events and any other phenomena I deem worthy of a saved animation will be posted on www.blackcatnh.com/archive.html.

CLA

[JTA]

Fabulous! I'm really enjoying your webcam work!!