Saturday, March 16, 2019

“Branch prints” in the snow

Morning Observation:

This morning in Huntington at 7:55AM it’s currently 37 degrees and snowing lightly under mostly cloudy skies. Winds are out of the west at 3-6 mph. Relative humidity is 83%, dewpoint 32, barometric pressure 29.69” and rising slowly. We picked up 0.02” of rain in the past 24hrs and have 9.5” of snow at the stake. Yesterday’s high was a balmy 60, and the overnight low was 36.

Forecast:

The balmy temperatures that we’ve been enjoying over the last few days are on their way out today as a cold front swings through ushering in another shot of chilly air. We’ll see cooling temperatures today with occasional lingering mountain snow showers, but these will diminish by Sunday, giving way to a dry but seasonably cold temperatures to end the weekend. Below-average temperatures will continue through Tuesday as high pressure delivers mainly dry conditions. Temperatures will start to rise mid-week, along with increasing chances for precipitation heading towards the end of the week.

We’ll see mostly cloudy skies today with a 20% chance of rain and snow showers. High will be near 38 with west winds 14 to 17 mph. Tonight should be cloudy with a 40% chance of snow showers. Lows will be around 18 with west winds around 10 mph. New snow accumulation of less than 1/2″ is expected.

Sunday should be mostly sunny with a high near 30 and west winds around 11 mph. Sunday night should be mostly cloudy with a low around 16 and west winds 3 to 8 mph.

Monday’s looking mostly sunny with a high near 31 and northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Monday night should be partly cloudy with a low around 13 and northwest winds around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.

Almanac:

Last year on this date we had a high of 27 and a low of 21. We picked up 4.5″ of new snow and and had 28″ at the stake.

Burlington averages for this date are a low of 22 and a high of 40.
The record low was -9 in 1963.
The record high was 78 in 1990.

Sky Notes:

Sunrise: 7:02AM
Sunset: 6:59PM
Length of day: 11:56:10
Today will be 3:05 longer than yesterday.

The Moon is waxing gibbous, 9.4 days old with 70% illumination.
Moonrise: 1:40PM
Moonset: 4:14AM

About Today’s Photo:

This is an example of one of my favorite early spring phenomena. Branches that had previously been buried beneath the snow are released by the combination of snowpack consolidation and the warm March sun. They leave behind bold “branch prints”, much like 3-D shadows in the snow.

Panasonic GM5, Lumix 12-32mm lens @  29mm, ISO 400, f/13, 1/1300″ exposure.