Friday, January 19, 2024

Deep snow in the saddle between Bald Hill and Camel’s Hump

Morning Observation:

This morning in Huntington at 8:05AM it’s currently 15 degrees and snowing lightly under cloudy skies. Winds are calm. Relative humidity is 88%, dewpoint 12, barometric pressure 29.98”. We picked up 0.70” of fluff overnight and have 8.5” at the stake. Yesterday’s high was 24, and yesterday’s low was 8. The overnight low got down to 15.

This morning in North Hero it’s currently a brisk 9 degrees under mostly cloudy skies. Winds are out of the north at 3-5 mph. Relative humidity is 74%, dewpoint 3, barometric pressure 30.14”. We have 1” of snow at the stake. Yesterday’s high was 26, and yesterday’s low was 19. The overnight low got down to 8.

Forecast Discussion:

Outside of a few Lake Champlain effect snow flurries this morning, we should see a dry and chilly day today with highs topping out in the mid teens and brisk north winds. Some of the coldest air of the season is expected for the weekend under building Arctic high pressure with overnight lows tonight dropping into the single digits either side of zero and highs Saturday and Sunday again only in the low to mid teens. A weak disturbance will pass to our north on Saturday bringing some scattered snow showers over northern mountains and the NEK where 1″-3″ of fluff may fall. High pressure will push to our east by Monday setting up a southerly airflow and allowing temperatures to recover to more seasonable levels heading into next week. We’ll see a bit of a warmup midweek with temperatures pushing above seasonal norms Wednesday into Thursday. This will coincide with a rather diffuse low pressure system which will bring periods of snow and rain to the region Wednesday and Thursday. Doesn’t look like a washout at this point so there’s that…

3-Day Forecast:

We’ll see mostly cloudy skies today with a high near 14 and north winds 6-8 mph. Tonight should be cloudy with a slight chance of snow showers after 1:00AM. Lows will be around 2 with northwest winds 9-13 mph.

Saturday should be cloudy with a 50% chance of snow showers. Highs will be near 12 with northwest winds 9-14 mph. New snow accumulations of less than 1″ are possible. Saturday night should be mostly cloudy with a 50% chance of snow showers. Lows will be around 6 with northwest winds 8-10 mph. New snow accumulation of less than 0.50″ are possible.

Sunday should be mostly sunny with a high near 16 and northwest winds 7-10 mph. Sunday night should be partly cloudy with a low around 3 and light and variable winds becoming southerly around 6 mph after midnight.

Almanac:

Last year on this date in Huntington we had a high of 35 and a low of 27. We had 0.5″ of snow at the stake.
Last year in North Hero we had a high of 33 and a low of 30. We had 1.5″ of snow at the stake.

Burlington averages for this date are a low of 12 and a high of 28.
The record low was -24 in 1976.
The record high was 65 in 1996.

The Lake Champlain lake level in Burlington is 98.02′.
The water temperature is 37.
Last year’s lake level was at 97.19′.

The Mt. Mansfield snow stake depth is 52″.
The average depth for this date is 43″.

Mt. Washington Summit Conditions
Current Temperature: -5
Winds are out of the west at 35-38 mph
24 hr Precipitation: 0.9″ snow, 0.09″ melted precipitation
Visibility: around 80 miles

Sky Notes:

Sunrise: 7:22AM
Sunset: 4:43PM
Length of day: 9:20:58
Today will be 1:56 longer than yesterday.

The Moon is waxing gibbous, 8.6 days old with 63% illumination.
Moonrise: 11:38AM
Moonset: 1:49AM

About Today’s Photo:

Intrepid Catamount Trail Steward, Bill Hegman, led me on a great 10-mile adventure along “his” section of the CT yesterday. We climbed to the saddle between Bald Hill and Camel’s Hump where we found over 3′ of snow on the ground and powder clinging to branches like velvet on a deer’s antlers. Perfect! Thanks Bill!

Bill Hegman on the Catamount Trail