This has been a non-snowstorm for the lakes region. Less than an inch for the day, and a little over 3 inches for the storm. There has been a great deal of snow on the northern slopes of the White Mountains, and also well south and east of the White Mountains. But not in the lakes region.
We have been shadowed by the White Mountains the whole time. As storms have the counterclockwise circulation around them, Normally in coastal storms, we get the wind from the northeast. Then, as the storm moves from near Cape Cod to the Canadian Maritimes, we get the "backside" of the circulation, resulting in a northwest wind.
That normally shuts off our snowfall, while it continues in the northern White Mountains for a day or so.
We should have known this could/would happen, but we don't normally get shadowed by the mountains because typical storms don't back in from the ocean like this one did.
With this storm backing in from the Maritimes to the New England coast, we got the northwest winds on its backside the whole time. Snow bands passed over the White Mountains from north to south. Mountains tend to "wring" moisture out of clouds as the clouds pass over. This results in the weatherbeaten side (the "windward" side) of many mountain ranges being very green while the other side (the leeward side) gets much less moisture and is not so green. The effect is called "Shadowing" on the lee side. It's a shadow not of darkness but dryness.
So, we have a meteorologist in Burlington Vermont now reporting 32.9 inches of snow there. Several reports of 1-2 feet of snow in the White Mountains. The Boston area has a foot, with more on the way.
But not in the Lakes Region. The storm was backing in from the ocean -- opposite the normal direction of travel. The moisture feed has been north-to-south -- the backside of the storm's counterclockwise circulation. The snow bands have been getting all the life sucked out of them during their ascent of the north-facing slopes, reaching the lakes region with few snowflakes left to drop.
They've been re-generating south of the lakes region. But the lake is in the shadow of the mountains this time, on the leeward side.
Quote:
Originally Posted by secondcurve
What has happened to CanisLupusArctos? He has been MIA for two months. Normally he would be all over a storm like this one.
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Sorry about that! Still have the same hobbies, still a forum member.... but apart from that life's had lots of changes in '09. One of them was joining Moultonborough Fire -- spent the summer taking duty shifts, getting oriented, encountering lots of new faces and new experiences. They gave me the firehouse nickname "Groundhog" for always talking about the weather. In October, the NH firefighter 1 course came to the lakes region, so I signed up. It's still going. Outside of that, lots of those projects we all have.
For most of the summer the plan was to update the WeatherCam's facebook page (since that's quick) and keep moving, every time. As winter weather forces one to slow down and relax more, I look forward to being back here more, making more lengthy weather comments than I can make on the Facebook Feed. You should see my whiteboard. I still have it on my list to "Do weather records 2008 summary."
To that I can now add, "2009 summary."
Temptation, temptation, to pick up the remote control and flip channels. All the while it was in my head, "I gotta get back to forum posts..... uhhhhhh, tomorrow." Tomorrow is now finally here! Thank you for the kind comments!