Will Do!
 

I'm totally lost with all the technical weather stuff.... but I really like this thread.... The Furry One is named Yuki.. I'm told it translates from Japanese to ... Snowball.. (how perfect is that)

PS If the snow really get's to more than 7” I’ll end up with a pissed off cat and a really pissed off wife…!

So… we’ll have to use the kitty litter bucket..

(Yes darling.. I told them…. Yuki will be fine up to about 7”…….. I promise…)

One Yuki, two Yuki...
 

...There's your solution for measuring snow over Yuki's head! Get that cat a buddy! Then you can measure the snow in Yukies, whereby a snowstorm of Y1 is 7 inches or a "typical winter storm," Y2 = 14 inches or a good dumping of snow, Y3 = 21 inches or a very heavy once-in-a-few-years snowstorm, Y4 = an all-out blizzard of 28 inches, and Y5 = a return to the kind of winters they used to have when everyone's parents had to walk uphill through 10 feet of snow to get to AND FROM school.

On another note, this is the dryest air I've seen in a while - dewpoint dropping from -16 F, temp at +4 and dropping. Incredible considering we had almost T-shirt weather this afternoon (up to near freezing now feels like T-shirt weather!)

Just a quick check-in
 

Before I start, Steve A, is your new avatar taken from the new video: "How they Light a Fireplace on Governors Island"?

Getting to the weather, it is still looking like a good storm. Consensus of models seems to be holding just inside the benchmark of 40/70, that magical point out off the southeast New England coast that give us the best (most intense) storms when they track over that point. The GFS is still looking like a flatter, multiple-centered storm on the individual runs. This can reduce the snow amounts, but I do not think the GFS has a great handle on this.

CLA is right, the air is dry and it is cold. It could be the battle of the air masses that enhances the snow. Thunder snow?? Perhaps in a few places.

I just do not see the storm taking an inside track with such reinforced cold air well in place. If there is a warmer marine layer a mile or so up, it will mean sleet or freezing rain because the surface layer is likely to remain well below freezing.

I am going with almost 3" of liquid in total and a overall 8:1 ratio, one-and-a-half to two feet of white gold! Perhaps more in the White Mountains .

I am sorry I am missing it!

Time will tell!

R2B

CLA showed dewpoints of -16.Don't know where that was from but I can say they were even lower than that in northern NH.Whitefield was -22 F this morning.That's some cold entrenched air but as I have seen in the past,it doesn't take long to turn that around with a large coastal storm. Having said that,looks like I might have to up my estimate to 12-16 inches in the lakes region.I'm as giddy as a 3 year old at X-mas.I still wake up to watch the plow go by on my street in the middle of the night.Bring it on!!!

Not a problem
 

Yuki already has all the buddies we can handle... Harley,Charley,Maya,Jada,CC,Lexi and Lucy...
Lexi and CC are 15 and 21 years old... so they would have to be a last resort..:D

If I had to use them would it be a...... (get ready) at CATagory 8 storm?

Someday we'll make the channel 9 news.... I can see it now.. neighbors being interviewed.. "They really seemed to be very normal people..":laugh:

All of the talking heads that I've seen on TV are saying 25"+ in the Lakes Region and north. Yee Hah

Yuki scale
 

I'm forecasting a Y2 to Y2.6 in the Lakes Region. :D

.... and what about MA
 

Since I live near the hump of 495... how much will I get... also Concord MA where I work??? I selfishly want to know if work will be called off tomorrow!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!

Sharpen the old ice skates, if you do not have studded snow tires or chains... ;)

1 to 2 Yukis for you
 

I'm forecasting 6-10" for Concord, MA and 8-12" for the hump. Of course, I'm ready to fall on my sword because this is one nasty storm to forecast what with warm air being wrapped around the storm at upper levels, leading to a mixed bag in places. And there's always those damn precipitation holes that seem to form whenever a Nor'easter is bombing out near us (and I'm usually under that hole :( ).

Just got the latest files in to run the Bufkit utility on. Looks like more mixing further inland in MA, so knock half a Yuki off the above estimates.

Very dry!
 

For those wondering, all my readings are taken from Black Cat Island unless otherwise noted. This morning the dewpoint bottomed out at -20 and the temp has yet to reach 10 degrees. We are at the day's high of 9 and it is 1:30 p.m. I'm looking forward to a Y2-Y3 level snowstorm (see previous posts about Yuki the cat!) If we all pray maybe it'll even become a Y4. :) A CATagory 8 storm would be more like the movie, "The Day After Tomorrow" I think!

Haven't had time to look at the models yet but will cast my bet when I do, sometime this afternoon. Wooo hoooo, this is fun! SIKSUKR, like you, I never outgrew watching the snowplow go by! I agree, R2B, a definite battle of the air masses is setting up. That dawned on me within 5 minutes of my waking up and turning on the TV. First we consider all the moisture that's getting sucked into the system from the Gulf of Mexico (This morning's headline on NBC News is a deadly--and rare--tornado that ripped through New Orleans last night.) Then we look at the air mass it's going to be battling (by checking our own thermometers, pressure, and dewpoint readings right here in NH) and we see it's almost a battle of North Pole air vs. Equator air. Thundersnow? Good call. Something I've always wanted to see is a snow-nado! :D Then we could call it a Y5-F5!

The immediate project for this afternoon is getting my new weather station online alongside the Winni WeatherCam. I've had it for a few weeks and there's nothing like an impending snowstorm to provide motivation. Everything physical is installed, now just a matter of CLA vs. the Software.

Here's a shot from the WxCam this morning - "Red Sky in the Morning, Sailor's Warning..."

Black Cat Island
 

Not to be intrusive, but do you live on Black Cat Island in the winter???? If you do, I'm awestruck. Good for you!

Forgive my ignorance, Black Cat is a bridged island. Next time I'll do some research before I ask the question. Sorry about that!

IG, can I come work with you? Where I work all it means is that you can start earlier and end later because you don't have communte time! As long as the phone lines and comcast are online, work doesn't shut down anymore. :rolleye1:

WxCam
 

CLA,

I'm looking forward to checking out the time lapse section of your web cam tomorrow so I can watch the snow pile up. Is there anyway to save a more than the normal number of pictures for that so we can watch the whole day?

For those of you that don't know what I am talking about check this out this very cool feature.

http://www.blackcatnh.com/timelapse.html

How is that done?
 

Very cool view. How is it done?

Shhhh
 

Many people at my company do not have outside access... so they have to let all of us not work when they call it off for the day!!! Then again some of us do some work anyway... since I work at home 2 days a week .. I try not to abuse the situation too much.... and my boss has a place in Alton region and is probably reading this!!! ;)

Come on folks... dance with the Babes!!!

This is my first post although I have been hanging out for awhile. Just wanted to say Hello, and wish I was there for the coming snow, but I missed it by a week. Wanted to let all the weather nuts like myself know that I am
one hour northwest of phila, PA, and your snow is on the way,. It has been snowing pretty good here for a couple of hours now, with unfortunately some heavy sleet mixing in now. Hope to get up next weekend to play in the snow.
Hope you all enjoy...its been a long wait! Be safe... I am going to figure out fun activities for an ice storm....which is what we're getting 2-mmorrow!

WxCam for snow viewin'
 

Got ya covered. I've been saving the images in a snowstorm folder on my desktop since sunrise Tuesday. At the end of the storm I'll put them all together into one long time-lapse of the storm. To see an example of this, look in www.blackcatnh.com/archive.html and click the link to the "snow squalls time lapse" (or whatever I called it.. can't remember...). That's from one of the snow squalls we had last week.

Now as for how it's done... I got the idea from someone else's web cam in the midwest, and googled it to see how it's done. It brought me to a site about how to create animations using a string of JPG images and java code. I had to teach myself the Java code and customize it for my purposes. You can do it too - all you need is a web cam that keeps a rotating archive of images on your web server.

On the weather end of things, temps topped out at 14 today with a low of -1, and we're just waiting for the snow now. The dewpoint is gradually coming up and currently stands at -10 with air temp of +10. The radar shows a lot of snow falling over us now, but it is not reaching the ground because it is evaporating into the extremely dry air above us. When the intensity picks up it will finally break through to ground level, and then.... watch out.

The National Weather Service has upped the storm total for the lakes region to: 1-3 inches by morning, 12-18 inches during the day, and 6-10 inches tomorrow night... with winds of 40 mph possible. I still haven't looked at the models because I been wrestling with my weather station's networking connection to try to get that bad boy online in time for the storm! I'm a few steps closer than I was earlier (got it to upload data from earlier today) but still can't get the "LIVE DATA" element going. And now I'm yawning. Oh well. Better luck after morning coffee. :)

Snow?
 

I just took a quick look at several webcams is that snow I see? The B.O.S. seem to gotten the 2 step fiqured out!


We have a mess here in Joisey.

Haverhill MA - on the 495 corridor/Plaistow NH line...
 

Reporting in at 15 degrees :eek: - pressure at 29.95, with windswept snow AND sleet - stings the face!! I'd say we have had around or just over 3 inches...though it is blowing around and my measuring may be a bit off. Hard to believe that with the track moving out off Cape Cod that we could make the change over to freezing rain as the TV folks are saying....I am holding out that we will only go to snow AND sleet which it is doing now....that track is critical!

Snowing Hard in West Alton!
 

It's 7 degs here at 9:00 AM with heavy snowfall. There's about 3" on the ground at this point.

WMUR currently shows the lake straddling a 12" - 18" projected accumulation area and a 15" - 30" accumulation area. Most of the state is under a Blizzard Warning throughout the day.

gtxrider has it right ... the Babes on Sleds seem to have done their job! They'll be out there playing this coming weekend for sure.

http://www.echoshores.com/images/sleds.gif

Yee-haw!!
 

And what's even better, gtxrider, the nephew and I will be there with them!!!:D

Blizzard Warning!
 

We have about 5-6 inches of snow on the ground at Black Cat... still in nightclothes, the farthest I've been outside is to lean out the door with a cupful of birdseed for those hungry chickadees et al, so no "real" measurement yet. The rain gauge heater works! (so far...) It was one of my Home Depot jury-rigs to save money, and it's melted 0.34 inches so far this morning. The average rate of fall is 0.10 inch/hour.

Lots of temperature uniformity among stations this morning: Temps are 12 F at Concord, Rochester, and Keene. Laconia is 10. Meanwhile the truly arctic air is just across the river in VT where all stations are 3 F this hour. By contrast Beverly Airport in MA is reporting 28.

The National Weather Service has upgraded the winter storm warning to a Blizzard warning for most of the state of NH including the lakes region. It has been 2 years since I heard those two beautiful words! And I had to go down to Boston to get the brunt of it last time.

For those wondering, a Blizzard Warning means visibility is reduced to under 1/4 mile in heavy snow (falling anew, OR just blowing around without new snow falling)... and winds sustained at 35+ mph for several hours. The Blizzard Warning actually has nothing to do with amounts, but usually a snowstorm capable of producing sustained 35 mph winds (tropical depression equivalent) is usually going to produce a lot of snow. In the midwest where it's flat, blizzard warnings often remain in effect for a day or two after a storm because the wind keeps blowing the snow around, limiting visibility. That would be a "ground blizzard" but if you're trying to drive through it, it's all the same.

Let's hear some blizzard stories - anyone ever gotten disoriented on the Winnipesaukee lake ice in heavy snow? Happened to me in the early 90s.

The Black Cat Island weather station is now online. It finally started uploading after I rebooted the computer (one more time.) The page that's up now is the software's own automated creation so I'll figure out how to customize it later. In the meantime you can view the data at www.blackcatnh.com/weather/index.htm.

CLA,

For the slow guys in the crowd, like me..... The Current Conditions part of that page is generated from your physical equipment on Black Cat and the rest is downloaded from a central server? Is that correct?

Black Cat Is. Weather
 

GN (and others wondering,)

The data (temp, wind, etc.) all comes from my weather station, which is wired into my computer, and that sends the info to the internet using the software I bought from ambientweather.com.

The other stuff (sattelite pics, etc.) doesn't come from me. I'm actually still trying to figure out who's producing it (reading the user manual.) I just moused over some of the included links to see what the addresses of the links were (because I was as curious as you are, and I didn't put 'em there...) and it seems a lot of it comes from weather underground (www.wunderground.com.) Looking in the Ambient software's toolbar I see Wunderground has its own drop-down menu, so I'm assuming the suits at Wunderground and the suits at Ambient have shaken hands in a board room.

I'm still exploring this software myself, after lots of hair-pulling trying to get it to work yesterday it finally started working on its own while I was in the shower this morning... so lots for me to figure out -- in between sessions of playing in the snow and polishing my skis, of course. :)

Great idea CLA.Thanks for the weather station on Blackcat.

Happy Valentines to Snow Lover's and Weather Buffs
 

CLA love your web cam and weather info. Here in Sandown it is really picking up too. :D http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopo...500&ppuser=628

The WOLFEBORO CARWASH CAM is actually giving a pretty idea of the snow at the lake. Looks like it's light and blowing around.

Snowfall amounts?
 

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

Final totals from MASS
 

Hey everyone - well - I hate to do this - but in the end I was right - :rolleye2: - 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!!

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

Storm Log...
 

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.

About 1.9 Yuki's
 

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.

Attachment 1201

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! :D

(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.)

All the cats are in lockdown...
 

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.....:D

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

A Cold, Windy Day
 

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!)

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopo...s_1_021507.jpg

Click here for a larger image.

For weather nuts and then some
 

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!!
<O:p</O:p
<O:p</O:p
I believe Rose was our first forum weather forecaster (correct me if I’m wrong) a pioneer if you will, and dearly beloved.<O:p></O:p>
<O:p></O:p>
Speaking of pioneers, I remember back when all we had was the US</ST1:p 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, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com[IMG] /><st1:country-region w:st=[/IMG]<ST1[IMG] /><st1:City w:st=[/IMG]Cape Breton Island</st1:City> <st1:State w:st=" /><st1:State w:st="on">Vermont</st1:State>, <st1:State w:st="on">New Hampshire</st1:State>, Mass., <st1:State w:st="on"><ST1:pFlorida</ST1:p</st1:State> and out west as well.<O:p></O:p>
<O:p></O:p>
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.<O:p></O:p>
<O:p></O:p>
Anyway, thank you all for letting me ramble on here, and keep it coming!!<O:p></O:p>
<O:p></O:p>
Kudos to you all! :) <O:p></O:p>

Wow!
 

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." :laugh: 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.)