Below I will list what may be some of the better coverage potential sites for mesonet stations in Garrett County.
There is often one significant void in forecast for the area that has remained consistent over the years. Is it a lack of data, lack of time and manpower to get more detail? Absolutely no knock on the current forecasting that does hit the elevated areas well. I strongly emphasize this in no way is being critical. However recognizing areas where improvement is needed. The areas often overlooked as anomalies or insignificant, or areas that won’t pop out on a 2.5×2.5km grid. That would be the high valleys that cover more area than one would think and more population than one would think. Many folks live in these areas. Many folks grow food in these areas. This is a country/ rural area and while the population of Garrett County is not high, within the rural county many live in these such areas and the night time min forecast for these areas are the most major lacking aspect that exist in NWS forecast.
This is being written Sunday, April 9th and a huge glaring forecast need for this exact thing will occur Monday night. The forecast is a min of 40°. That forecast will hit well on the ridge tops. However the high valleys, especially the Cassleman Valley, the headwaters of Cherry Creek south of Bittinger. Herrington Manor area. Cranesville area on the MD and Wv side which Pitt covers Wv. The Loch Lynn area. Swanton area will see freezing and below. Not a big deal without the growing season in place, but when these are missed a month from now, it is a bigger deal.
Below are some areas this occurrence is common.
There is always variances within those areas, and times where some of those areas are more prone based on localized conditions to drop. One thing those areas have in common is
They are high valley areas that are often farmland, and towns. Meaning as well they are open which aids the cooling further.
The variances is often seen on the private weather station networks(Ambient, Weatherunderground, etc) During a time where station siting is a bit less critical vs a poorly sited station that is impacted by its surroundings during periods of high solar impacts.
Ex.
….
updated morning of 4/11 temps
updated morning of April 11th with a forecast Min of 38. Pvt Ambient and Weatherunderground stations as well as my location logged at 2m in a MMTS hive.
Grantsville areas Cassleman Valley
Bittinger 2nw Valley-Cassleman Headwaters
Oakland area
Mchenry-Deep Creek-Swanton
Back to the remainder after that update of what occurred overnight 4/10 in to 4/11
Overall the high ground is fairly uniform in most situations with exceptions. So, what you see at K2G4(Garrett Airport)MD014(Keysers Ridge) MD049(Savage Mt) are generally in line with one another. With the exception of CAD/over running setups. In which Savage Mt holds much colder and between Savage Mt and Dan’s Mt in Allegheny, those 2 areas would give the greatest sampling at elevation in those setups with Meadow Mt being a modest 3rd.
Finding 4 station sites to cover those ranges to detail basics when things are uniform, and when we have occurrences of radiational cooling and over running events to detail those differences while keeping it on public land could present a challenge. However there are sites that cover both.
Potential locations to cover what those high valleys are seeing on those calm, clear nights.
a similar but more extreme example of a high valley basin often occurs just south in Canaan Valley. On occasion the plateau valleys of Garrett perform similar. I would tend to think more data from these areas being put in the models would only help region wide.
Headwaters of the Cassleman River area near the Western MD 4H center. This area will be diverse with low and high spots within the open high plateau that’s nestled on the base of the west side of Meadow Mt.
The state owns and has recently purchased more land on the north side of Bittinget Rd(Rt495) in this area in conjunction with owning a lot of acreage on the south side. This view looks north to south. Again, it has lower and higher areas. A ridge within here won’t exactly show the temp spread of the valleys can have, but a lower area will. That will give examples of potential temps through the Cassleman Valley to Grantsville as well as other headwaters of the Cassleman River as well as the headwaters of Cherry Creek and even the headwaters of Bear Creek on the west side of Negro Mt. It’s a good state owned location to sample these temps. I am still in hopes of getting a private station on The Glades very close to this area which the site has already been approved by The Nature Conservancy who owns The Glades.
-another potential good state owned site is The Herrington Manor area near Oakland. It is within the Oakland zipcode. I know of plenty areas outside the state owned section in this area that would be a great temperature sampling on the colder nights. What is within the state owned area here would need scouted. It would potentially be just a good station site regardless without capturing the colder nights, but to give a great Oakland sampling and the flip side, the warmer side in the over running events. This area will lose the cold much sooner than will the Savage Mt-Finzel area.
I just strongly believe getting at least one high valley site to monitor those temps which would greatly improve forecast and modeling, which data being collected in Canaan Valley is already in process of improving modeling and forecast. More quality sites to illustrate this can only help. These sites are where the major data lack occurs.
For high elevation sites on state land.
I will start with the obvious before mentioned Savage Mt. A great eastern county sampling which at times can be significantly different than Herrington Manor, and even Keysers Ridge. The current MD049 site, if I am correct is not at the summit of Savage Mt and rather as you begin to drop east. Which still isn’t bad for the over running events. The summit would give the max of the extreme that occurs in many instances. As well as some of the higher wind readings that occur.
A optimal easy to get to site could potentially be had in the section between Rt.40 and 68 without any significant impact of those 2 roadways. Rare on that site to not have good airflow. State right of ways should occur within that section. Easy access. Another potential site would be on the south side of I68. Access is more of a chore, but more clear of other impacts. Towers and people.
High Elvation site potential #2
Meadow Mountain at Deep Creek State Park. Secluded with access via the access road to existing towers. There is open, flat land that slopes in 4 directions in that vicinity at high elevation of 3000′.
Another potential high elevation site that could sub for Meadow Mt is the Top of the Wisp. Earth Networks currently has a rooftop station up there. It is impacted some by poor siting, but good airflow most of the time makes max temp impacts a bit less noticeable. Min temps are high even for a ridge top site. There is County owned land on top from the ASCI purchase several years ago.
The area is relatively close in relation to K2G4.
Low elevation potential sites, not unlike the high valleys, but often won’t run as cold on ideal nights of cooling. They will though run more consistent at night with chilly conditions even vs the high valleys simply due to lack of wind. A good potential site of this nature is at Sang Run State Park.
This can give a sampling of cold air trapped, and County variances for temp, wind as you get down to 2000′ and under.
A quick thought on Allegany County
I’m sure this may already be a given, Dan’s Rock area on Dan’s Mt at nearly 2900′ on the Allegheny Front. A great area to sample over running and the temp variances that will work both ways vs much of the lower areas of Allegany County. At times much warmer and even sunnier than the low level moisture trapped below. While the majority of the time running much cooler than the lower elevations below. If any of these mesonets had cams like the stations PSU is installing, this would be a optimal site for that.
Allegheny Mountains Weather 