November 8, 2024

November 8, 2024November 9, 2024 / alleghenymountainsweather / Leave a comment

November 8, 2024

Forest Service Cam offline since 6/24/21

Nov 8(Fri)

Some areas began clear, others low clouds, everyone cleared today. Sunny, breezy, cool

Bittinger 2NW Valley

Dyacon Data Below

The Glades

Garrett County Airport

Top of Wisp

Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE

Climate Reference Network Canaan

Cabin Mt at Bald Knob

Cabin Mt-Western Sods

Bear Rocks-Dolly Sods

Spruce Knob

Canaan Valley Refuge

Mt. Davis

no data due to mid October bear attack on station

Snowshoe

Petersburg Grant County Airport

Elkins Airport

Site Comparison

Dy007-Canaan Valley Refuge 3150′, Dy008-Bittinger 2nw Valley 2600′, Dy002-Cabin Mt at Bald Knob 4350′, Dy003-Cabin Mt-Western Sods 4035′, Dy004-Spruce Knob 4820′, Cvpw2-Climate Reference Network Canaan 3380′, KW99-Petersburg Grant County Airport 961, K2G4 Garrett County Airport 2933′, KCBE Cumberland Airport 774′, KEKN Elkins Airport 1985′, KMGW Morgantown Airport 1227′, PMN16-Mt.Davis 3038′, KDCA-Reagan National 15′, G1472 Snowshoe 4500′, F0183 Burkes Garden 3050′

The Valley vs Cabin Mt

Bittinger 2NW Valley vs Garrett County Airport

Canaan area temps

High Ground Comparison

Up High and Down Low

Up High, High Valley, Low Valley

The Valleys

Wv High Ground Cold Spots vs DCA

RTMA

Radar

void

Satellite

Flow

Current Surface Features and 500mb Height Anomalies and Flow

Oakland

Cranesville

The Yough at Sang Run

Grantsville

Frostburg

Lavale to Cumberland

Town Hill

November 7, 2024

November 7, 2024November 9, 2024 / alleghenymountainsweather / Leave a comment

November 7, 2024

Forest Service Cam offline since 6/24/21

Nov 7(Thurs)

Cloudy most of the day, some fog at times, shower, mist, drizzle clearing late

Bittinger 2NW Valley

precip .11

Dyacon Data Below

Garrett County Airport

Top of Wisp

Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE

Climate Reference Network Canaan

Cabin Mt at Bald Knob

Cabin Mt-Western Sods

Bear Rocks-Dolly Sods

Spruce Knob

Canaan Valley Refuge

Mt.Davis

no data due to mid October bear attack on station

Snowshoe

Petersburg Grant County Airport

Elkins Airport

Site Comparison

The Valley vs Cabin Mt

Bittinger 2NW Valley vs Garrett County Airport

Canaan area temps

High Ground Comparison

Up High and Down Low

Up High, High Valley, Low Valley

The Valleys

Wv High Ground Cold Spots vs DCA

RTMA

Radar

Satellite

Flow

Current Surface Features and 500mb Height Anomalies and Flow

Oakland

Cranesville

The Yough at Sang Run

November 6, 2024

November 6, 2024November 8, 2024 / alleghenymountainsweather / Leave a comment

November 6, 2024

Forest Service Cam offline since 6/24/21

Nov 6(Wed)

Cloudy, little sun at times, breezy, brief light showers.

Bittinger 2NW Valley

precip .02

Dyacon Data Below

Garrett County Airport

Top of Wisp

Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE

Climate Reference Network Canaan

Cabin Mt at Bald Knob

Cabin Mt-Western Sods

Dolly Sods-Bear Rocks

Spruce Knob

Canaan Valley Refuge

Mt.Davis

No data due to bear attack mid October

Snowshoe

Petersburg Grant County Airport

Elkins Airport

Site Comparison

The Valley vs Cabin Mt

Bittinger 2NW Valley vs Garrett County Airport

Canaan area temps

High Ground Comparison

Up High and Down Low

Up High, High Valley, Low Valley

The Valleys

Wv High Ground Cold Spots vs DCA

RTMA

Radar

Satellite

Flow

Current Surface Features and 500mb Height Anomalies and Flow

November 5, 2024

November 5, 2024November 6, 2024 / alleghenymountainsweather / Leave a comment

November 5, 2024

Forest Service Cam offline since 6/24/21

ELECTION DAY

Around 2a.m 11/6 Donald Trump was the projected winner

Nov 5(Tues)

A chilly sheltered valley start from northern Garret County and north. A warm day, clouds and sun. Some low cool partial rainbows in the western skies in the morning.

Bittinger 2NW Valley

Dyacon Data Below

Up from Bittinger 2NW Valley morning

Bittinger morning….right side of trees rainbow

Rock Lodge Rd near The Glades morning “another”

Garrett County Airport

Top of Wisp

Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE

Climate Reference Network Canaan

Cabin Mt at Bald Knob

Cabin Mt-Western Sods

Dolly Sods-Bear Rocks

Spruce Knob

Canaan Valley Refuge

Mt.Davis

No data due to mid October bear attack on station

Snowshoe

Petersburg Grant County Airport

Elkins Airport

Site Comparison

The Valley vs Cabin Mt

Bittinger 2NW Valley vs Garrett County Airport

Garrett College, Mchenry nearly same elevation as Bittinger 2NW Valley had a consistent morning wind while Bittinger 2NW Valley was calm and 20° cooler

Canaan area temps

High Ground Comparison

Up High and Down Low

Up High, High Valley, Low Valley

The Valleys

Wv High Ground Cold Spots vs DCA

RTMA

Radar

void

Satellite

Flow

Current Surface Features and 500mb Height Anomalies and Flow

November 4, 2024

November 4, 2024November 5, 2024 / alleghenymountainsweather / Leave a comment

November 4, 2024

Forest Service Cam offline since 6/24/21

Nov 4(Mon)

Mix of clouds and sun, high clouds mostly. Southeast breezes.

Bittinger 2NW Valley

Dyacon Data Below

Garrett County Airport

Top of Wisp

Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE

Climate Reference Network Canaan

Cabin Mt at Bald Knob

Cabin Mt-Western Sods

Bear Rocks – Dolly Sods

Station Install day. Seasonal

Spruce Knob

Canaan Valley Refuge

Mt.Davis

no data due to Bear attack on station mid October

Snowshoe

Petersburg Grant County Airport

Elkins Airport

Site Comparison

The Valley vs Cabin Mt

Bittinger 2NW Valley vs Garrett County Airport

Canaan area temps

High Ground Comparison

Up High and Down Low

Up High, High Valley, Low Valley

The Valleys

Wv High Ground Cold Spots vs DCA

RTMA

Radar

void

Satellite

Flow

Current Surface Features and 500mb Height Anomalies and Flow

Sideling Hill Creek at Northcraft

Town Hill

Rocky Gap

Cumberland to Lavale

Frostburg

Savage Mt to Grantsville

November 3, 2024

November 3, 2024November 5, 2024 / alleghenymountainsweather / Leave a comment

November 3, 2024

Forest Service Cam offline since 6/24/21

Nov 3(Sun)

Bittinger 2NW Valley

Dyacon Data Below

Garrett County Airport

Top of Wisp

Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE

Climate Reference Network Canaan

Cabin Mt at Bald Knob

Cabin Mt-Western Sods

Spruce Knob

Canaan Valley Refuge

Mt.Davis

no data due to mid October bear attack on station

Snowshoe

Petersburg Grant County Airport

Elkins Airport

Site Comparison

The Valley vs Cabin Mt

Bittinger 2NW Valley vs Garrett County Airport

Canaan area temps

High Ground Comparison

Up High and Down Low

Up High, High Valley, Low Valley

The Valleys

Wv High Ground Cold Spots vs DCA

RTMA

Radar

void

Satellite

Flow

Current Surface Features and 500mb Height Anomalies and Flow

November 2, 2024

November 2, 2024November 3, 2024 / alleghenymountainsweather / Leave a comment

November 2, 2024

Forest Service Cam offline since 6/24/21

Nov 2(Sat)

Clear cold valley start, chilly pleasant fall day

Bittinger 2NW Valley

Dyacon Data Below

Garrett County Airport

Top of Wisp

Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE

Climate Reference Network Canaan

Cabin Mt at Bald Knob

Cabin Mt-Western Sods

Spruce Knob

Canaan Valley Refuge

Mt.Davis

no temp data due to bear attack on station in mid October

Snowshoe

On this day 10 years ago

Petersburg Grant County Airport

Elkins Airport

Site Comparison

The Valley vs Cabin Mt

Bittinger 2NW Valley vs Garrett County Airport

Canaan area temps

High Ground Comparison

Up High and Down Low

Up High, High Valley, Low Valley

The Valleys

Wv High Ground Cold Spots vs DCA

RTMA

Radar

void

Satellite

Flow

Current Surface Features and 500mb Height Anomalies and Flow

A LOOK BACK AT OCTOBER 2024 AND A BIT OF THIS N THAT

November 2, 2024November 2, 2024 / alleghenymountainsweather / Leave a comment

~A Look Back at October 2024 And A Bit Of This N That

November 2, 2024

October 2024, is now in the books. It will go down as a dry month and a month that saw temps overall, just above the average for October. That was created by many swings of both above and below normal days. The dry, and often clear weather dominated by high pressure that’s been all too familiar since June, allowed for a continuation of colder valley nights.

With a lengthening night time period, those valleys have more time to chill and that’s exactly what we saw. Enough so that the Northern Canaan Valley Refuge station at 3150′ averaged a monthly minimum temp of 26.3°. That’s low enough for the coldest average minimum temperature for October 2024 in the eastern U.S.

Canaan Valley Refuge WV 26.3°

(occured by radiational cooling-calm clear conditions)

Mt. Washington NH 28.4°

(occurs by the airmass in place accompanied often by strong winds)

Saranac Lake NY 32.3°

(occured mostly by radiational cooling-calm clear conditions)

Before we get back to monthly temperatures, a look at the precipitation on the month:

Bittinger 2NW Valley 1.75″
Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE 1.87″
Canaan Valley Coop 1.43″
Snowshoe 2.37″

Those numbers are well below par for the month:

This has lead to a continuation of dry conditions. A look at a few different drought products. The first of which I think is superior to the drought monitor which will be shown as well.

And the drought monitor

Also, I would encourage those interested to go back through some of the great products out there and view previous dry/wet periods in the link below.

https://www.drought.gov/states

Our year to date precip is running very close to 2023

At October 31st.

Bittinger 2NW Valley

-2023 43.76″ -2024 43.52″

Canaan Heights/Davis 3SE

-2023 45.67″ -2024 47.18″

Snowshoe

-2023 44.10″ – 2024 47.88

Snowshoe liquid precip data appears fine. Later on, I’ll explain why temp data now will have no comparison to previous years and snowfall data has suffered for years.

Below is a current soil moisture and streamline image

NOAA sees the dry weather continuing

Long range modeling varies run to run and will struggle. Modeling often tends to trend towards climatology and that does not always pan out.

The 0z ECMWF ensemble mean supports the overall drier than normal conditions through mid month

As does the GFS ensemble mean

Anything beyond the next 2 weeks should be took with a huge grain of salt. As we go through the transition season that ofyen features pattern changes, drastic changes in the mid range (10 to 15+ days) can suddenly occur on modeling.

With the dry weather, fallen autumn 🍂 debri and dry forest floor, grass areas and fairly dry gusty cold fronts comes the increased risk of wildfires. Be aware of that! There are burn bans currently in place in areas for this reason.

Ok back to temps for October

Milder bookends with the cold mid month that did provide for a touch of winter on the Wv Tops

Spruce Knob October 16th, 2024

More from that event can be viewed at:

OCTOBER 16, 2024 SPRUCE KNOB EDITION

Speaking of high elevation sites. Snowshoe data which for years was observed at 4765′. A station move with no indication on Metadata has occured. Official Temperature data is now being collected at 4200′ at Silvercreek. With this move of distance and vertical feet, the station should not retain the original name and begin a completely new dataset. It has not as of yet.

For October at 4200′ base at SilverCreek

Here is the official data now from 4200′

Night time mins are MUCH colder. Again 5am reporting time leads to carry over mins as well. Daytime maxes are a bit warmer. They do not offset each other. They put in a huge discontinuity of years of data.

Let’s look at the data tallied at 4534′ CWOP station at Snowshoe. This will not be in a position to chill on radiational cooling nights and more in line with the original coop site. Daytime maxes here will be only slightly above the 4765′ site and mins will run very close

And we see maxes cooler at 4534′ and mins much milder. 35.3 to 43.4. That’s a 8° swing.

Lets look at Spruce Knob at 4820′

So you’d expect the original coop would have ran 58ish and mins around 42ish. So, you can no longer take Snowshoe temp trends with any form of accuracy. This NEEDS addressed.

Also looking compromised is snowfall. As we saw accumulation across the top mid month and lingered several days on top. Refer to the daily post here through that period.