Large winter storm coming

[MichaelJ]

Franconia Notch conditions? Anyone in the area? Waumbek, what do you see?

 

[DrewKnight]

After a promising start, this one went over to an ugly bust: wet, sloppy, freezing mix all night at 1500 feet. The couple of inches of snow that fell through about 7pm last night are still there -- but are thoroughly saturated. It's 34 right now... if it cools off (and it's supposed to), this is going to be a frozen mess.

--M... if you're skiing, it's going to be Birdseye conditions (aka frozen cauliflower), and if you're hiking, I can't imagine that traction won't be a big part of your day.

 

[Andrew]

Snow depths not as predicted in Gorham, only a couple of inches and freezing rain right now.

 

[Mattl]

Turned into a very bad ice storm, looks like an ince world in Lebanon, NH. Most of the Whites only ended up with 4-8 inches before it changed to sleet and freezing rain. -Mattl

 

[--M.]

--M... if you're skiing, it's going to be Birdseye conditions (aka frozen cauliflower), and if you're hiking, I can't imagine that traction won't be a big part of your day.

Hey thanks, what a bust! I'll be hiking; it'll be crunchy. I think anything too exposed is out, but perhaps there will be views from the top? See you out there (somewhere)!

I guess that's December. Try again in January.

 

[MichaelJ]

Must be pretty bad in Northern MA ... WXRV 92.5 (the River) was off the air when I was driving to work this morning. They broadcast from Haverhill.

 

[Pat T]

In north central MA we listened to trees cracking and crashing to the ground all night long. There is at least 0.5" of ice on every surface. Birches are bent to the ground. If the wind picks up, as predicted, it will get much, much worse. We won't be going anywhere soon as our road is blocked by fallen trees on each side of our driveway. Definitely not a day to take a walk in the woods.

Pat T

 

[rocket21]

Apparently WMUR (SNH TV station) has been off the air a bit this morning due to the mess. Power keeps flickering here.

I think I speak for many other unofficial and official trail maintainers out there in asking for help from those of you who hit the trails this weekend, whether it be by simply picking up downed branches, or packing a foldable saw for some of the bigger stuff.

 

[mookie]

In north central MA we listened to trees cracking and crashing to the ground all night long. There is at least 0.5" of ice on every surface. Birches are bent to the ground. If the wind picks up, as predicted, it will get much, much worse. We won't be going anywhere soon as our road is blocked by fallen trees on each side of our driveway. Definitely not a day to take a walk in the woods.

Pat T

at least you have power, you can spend all day online

 

[peakbagger]

9 PM (Friday)Gorham/Randolph line 1400 feet elevation, 3 to 4" of saturated slush, tree branches have ice coatings, but no evidence of branch overloading. The softwoods are definitely "slimming down" from the load.

Add a cold evening and some wind and hiking on Saturday is going to be interesting either wet from the melt off or dangerous from falling frozen branches. Sunday will probably be a good day to cut back on the miles and bring a handsaw to cut out blowdowns.

 

[rocket21]

According to WMUR, the power outtages in NH have already surpassed the January 1998 ice storm.

 

[Mattl]

Incredible ice storm..wait till the wind picks up this afternoon, some snow falls, and temps plunge. -Mattl

 

[giggy]

seriously - I hope everyone's property makes it out ok - and with minimal damage. I was lucky enough to have all rain from this. My heart goes out those that lose heat, and suffer damage to their houses, etc..

ice is great to climb, but is a real hazard when like this...

 

[BobC]

Power is out all over the town where I live (Plaistow NH) and I also noticed it was out all over Haverhill MA on my way to work in Danvers. I've now heard it may take 2 days to restore power. I was up half the night from the sounds of trees falling in the woods and large branches cracking and crashing down. The roads were a mess of downed branches and low-hanging power lines. What a mess.

 

[marty]

Must be pretty bad in Northern MA ... WXRV 92.5 (the River) was off the air when I was driving to work this morning. They broadcast from Haverhill.

Yeah, that sucked. I missed my morning fix of the River.

 

[giggy]

Hillman was on WAAF.... oh yea, I need my mantown fix every morning... but does that really shock anyone here? I a pig now baby - a pig, pig, pig...

but you know your getting old when your brother calls you and has VIP tickets (free booze and free lap dance) for the nudie bar for the night - and you say - nah, I think I will hang in with the wife tonight...

I disgress - F the ice storm!

 

[arm]

Nostradamus got nuthin' on you Mattl

you should start a website where you predict weather before it happens

 

[grouseking]

If I was a betting man, I'd say northern VT gets the most snow out of this. It kind of looks like the sleet line will make it all the way into the whites. The mid level warm air is going to screw them over.

In other news, they just had HEAVY snow down in New Orleans, not necessarily expected. So the storm has already surprised some.

Well it definitely trended warmer, to the point where the Whites got more ice and sleet than anything. To show you how much midlevel warm air there was...Mt Washington changed over to plain rain.

Right now in Lebanon its snowing...back to snow after slight alleviation of the icing from this morning. I took some pics on my hike around the parking lot ;-)













ALl in all, we escaped (fingers crossed) with relatively minimal problems, only lost power for a couple hours. I hear that over 1 million thruout NY and New Eng have no power.

 

[weatherman]

Elevation was the amazing thing in Central MA. Our neighborhood at 600-650 ft got hit HARD.... we lost 4 whole trees and a couple dozen big branches, and some neighbors lost every tree in their yard. One 20 foot section came a foot from my daughter's bedroom window around 5 AM. NO house damage, thank goodness... very close call. I called work, 5 miles away and 250 feet lower, and they said "What are you talking about? Everybody's here." So, I'm posting from work... oops Hopefully the power will come back before it gets cold in the house!

 

[1ADAM12]

We got over a foot of snow in 24 hours here in Northern PA