Friday, July 21, 2023

Funnel-veil amanita mushrooms pushing their way through the leaf litter by Indian Lake, NY

Morning Observation:

This morning in North Hero at 7:05AM it’s currently 69 degrees and raining steadily under overcast skies. Winds are out of the south at 15-17 mph. Relative humidity is 95%, dewpoint 67, barometric pressure 29.71”. We picked up 0.44” of rain so far today. Yesterday’s high was 80, and yesterday’s low was 66, The overnight low got down to 67.

This morning in Huntington it’s currently 64 degrees and raining under overcast skies. Winds are calm. Relative humidity is 97%, dewpoint 63, barometric pressure 29.75”. We picked up 0.47” of rain so far today. Yesterday’s high was 84, and yesterday’s low was 52. The overnight low got down to 57.

Flood Watches have been posted for most of Vermont today from noon today until 2:00AM Saturday.

Forecast Discussion:

Morning radar imagery shows a tight area of low pressure over Ottawa at this hour with a distinct band of shower and thunderstorms pushing its way through Vermont. These morning showers and thunderstorms should wind down this morning as a well-defined dry slot works its way in by mid-morning. As the aforementioned low moves slowly northeastward during the day today, showers and thunderstorms will redevelop this afternoon with the help of diurnal heating. Some of these storms may “train”, meaning that they’ll line up to bring repeated slugs of heavy rains over the same area as they move through. Unfortunately, this training effect is most likely to occur over portions of south/central Vermont this afternoon where previous rains have already done a lot of damage. Subsequently, Flood Watches have been posted from noon today until 2:00AM Saturday. If you’re in a flood prone area, please take care and stay alert. Showers and thunderstorms are expected to wind down tonight with only a slight chance of scattered showers extending into Saturday morning/afternoon. Thereafter, high pressure is expected to build in to dry things out Saturday evening and into Sunday. Sunday’s looking dry and seasonable with sunny skies, light winds, and highs in the upper 70s to low 80s. Monday is looking much the same. Perfect. We’ll take it! I’m also glad to report that the NWS is expecting a widespread pattern change for the northeast heading into next week with a more “zonal” flow setting up. This will allow for any storms to move more quickly through the region than we’ve been seeing for, well, most of this summer. This will hopefully greatly reduce the threat of flooding moving forward. That’s very good news!

3-Day Forecast:

We’ll see cloudy skies today with showers and thunderstorm before 11:00AM, then showers and thunderstorms likely this afternoon. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain and frequent lightning this afternoon. Highs will be near 75 with south winds 6-11 mph in Huntington and 15-23 mph in the Champlain Valley. Chance of precipitation is 90% with rainfall amounts between 0.50”-0.75” possible. Tonight should be mostly cloudy with showers and thunderstorms likely before 2:00AM, then a slight chance of showers. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain and frequent lightning. Lows will be around 60 with south winds 3-8 mph in Huntington and 7-14 mph in the Champlain Valley. Chance of precipitation is 70% with rainfall amounts between 0.25″-0.50″ with higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Saturday should be partly sunny with scattered showers, with thunderstorms possible in the afternoon. Highs will be near 74 with southwest winds 5-7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40% with rainfall amounts of less than 0.10″ with higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Saturday night should be partly cloudy with a low around 57 and light southwest winds.

Sunday should be sunny with a high near 81 and light west winds. Sunday night should be mostly clear with a low around 58 and light and variable winds.

Almanac:

Last year on this date in Huntington we had a high of 90 and a low of 68. We picked up 0.44″ of rain.
Last year in North Hero we had a high of 86 and a low of 75. We picked up 0.06″ of rain.

Burlington averages for this date are a low of 63 and a high of 83.
The record low was 45 in 1966.
The record high was 97 in 2011 (we had a high of 93 in Huntington).

The Lake Champlain lake level in Burlington is 98.59′
The water temperature is 77˚.
Last year’s lake level was at 95.23′.

Sky Notes:

Sunrise: 5:27AM
Sunset: 8:28PM
Length of day: 15:01:14
Today will be 1:52 shorter than yesterday.

The Moon is a waxing crescent, 3 days old with 11% illumination.
Moonrise: 9:02AM
Moonset: 10:44PM

About Today’s Photo:

I was in Indian Lake, NY Wednesday night (hence the lack of blog yesterday…) There were several spots along the shore of the lake where funnel-veil amanita mushrooms were pushing their way up through the leaf litter. They emerge as tight balls that expand to broad, classic mushroom caps (see photo below) While quite lovely in appearance with their creamy caps, amanita should be considered toxic.

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