Hail forecasted

(not making this up)
The National Weather Service is predicting thunderstorms and a chance of hail this afternoon; you might want to get out there now (like the biker that just went by!).

At 10 am (sorry: sick kid, late morning)
It is 66.7 degrees and rising
50% humidity and falling
Barometer is at 29.68 and steady

Rained Overnight!

Up on the hill the conditions are: 65.1 degrees F and rising Temperature
98% humidity and steady
28.44 and steady Inches of Mercury and steady

At the Lodge the conditions are : 58.8 and steady degrees F Temperature
98 % humidity and steady
29.59 inches of mercury and steady
Since midnight we've had 0.08 inches of rain
Yesterday we had a total of 0.24 inches of rain

At 8 am this morning

We are expecting a nice day!

Rainy day

At 9 am, it is 49 degrees F and steady
98% humidity and steady
29.71 inches of mercury and steady
We've had 0.12 inches of rain since midnight (yesterday's rain never rose to measurable levels)
The stream is steady at 3.4 inches

The interns are soggily setting themselves up for the summer.

Drizzly

We got a total of 0.31 inches of rain yesterday; 'though we've had no measurable rain since midnight, yesterday's total was enough to raise the stream to 3.4 inches.
At 9 am, it is 48 degrees F and steady
98% humidity and steady; mist in the air
The barometer is at 29.91 inches of mercury and steady
The skies are overcast

It isn't clear if if the runner that just went through was running to keep up with his dogs or to keep warm!
The interns were here for their second night;we're hoping they were warmer last night than the night before! They'll be moving off to their summer (undisclosed) location tomorrow.

Soggy

The storms came in last night, adding up to 0.28 inches of rain since midnight
The stream has correspondingly gone up to 3.2 inches; we expect some real gain there in the next 24 hours.
It is 46 degrees F and steady
95% humidity and steady whilst raining
30.06 inches of mercury and rising (? I kid you not)

Enjoy it while it lasts!

Rain coming in later this week--yes, just in time for our interns to move into their tents for the summer--so get out into the sun while we have it!
At 9 am, it is 51.3 degrees and steady
48% humidity and steady
30.24 inches of mercury and steady
Clear blue skies
Despite the weekend rain, the stream is down to 3 inches. Summertime!

Fire on the hill

Worry not; it's been taken care of!
This morning started off with some hikers coming to the Lodge to report a smoldering fire on the edge of the Newton Trail (on the way up the hill), accompanied by two cases worth of beer bottles. Fire rake in hand, Colin headed up to deal with it, and he raked it out. We're also now $1.50 the richer in bottle refunds! Seems somebody had a party last night and was more than careless upon leaving .
Thanks, Katy and Iris!
If any of you up on Cataract see cars by the Newton Trailhead, 'though, call it in. Looks like we might have a new party spot, with people who are clueless about fire danger.

At 9 am, it is 69 degrees and rising
41% humidity and steady
30.03 inches of mercury and steady
The brook is down to 3.6 inches
We had some technical difficulties earlier; thus the late posting.

Busy place!

The new batch of summer interns for Cascades West are here today for their orientation. More about them to come!
We've also got a Worcester State College class meeting here; they're doing a survey of ice damage in the city (they were at God's Acre yesterday, and they're in Cascades Park and Cascades West today).
Will is here (it's his last week) working on signage.
And the DPW trucks are on the street, so we're making one last scramble to get branches out to the street. We've got plenty of downfall that we're just leaving in the forest--it is part of nature, after all--but we do need the trails and the cleared part of the property free of branches. We had a maple lose a limb in yesterday's wind that had been partly broken over the winter. It's still coming down!

At 9 am, it is 68.7 degrees and rising
44% humidity and falling
30.18 inches of mercury and steady under sunny skies
The brook remains at 4 inches even

Lovely day

It is a lovely day out today: sunny, clear, warm, light breeze. It's finally starting to make winter seem far away. Having those DPW signs notifying us of brush collection finally go up doesn't hurt, either!
At 9 am, it is 60.6 degrees and rising
The humidity is 49% and falling
Barometer stands at 30.30 inches of mercury and steady
The stream is starting its summer fall: it's down to 4 inches even. It is (like most New England brooks) a seasonal stream, so much of it goes dry for the summer.


On Monday it was 47.7 degrees and steady
58% humidity and steady
30.15 inches of mercury and steady
And the brook was at 4.4 inches

Sorry for the gap

Sorry that we haven't posted this week; today's front page of the local section tells you where our heads have been lately.
I believe we have a posting to go up for Monday, and we'll be sure to get one for today.

A Fabulous Day!

9:17 am, and it is magnificent out there.
Hikers have already been through.

61.8 degrees F and rising;
64% humidity and steady;
30.12" of mercury and steady;
no recorded rainfall yesterday;
sunny with a gentle breeze.

Chance of thunderstorms tonight.

Like a rainforest

The humidity this morning is up to 96% (quite a change from earlier in the week); be glad it isn't warmer!
That will take the fire danger right down.
At 9 am it is 58.3 degrees and rising
Barometer stands at 30.21
We have received no measurable rain since midnight; yesterday's total was 0.08 inches.
The Cascades Brook stream measurement is at 5.0" today.

Rainy and gusty (CORRECTED)

Every so often a small front goes through and the wind kicks up dramatically. There's a line of rain squalls coming through today. It doesn't look like anything serious, but it's raising the humidity, and if you're out on a hike, there's a good chance that you'll get damp!

The sign work continues, as Will has a post entirely squared off as of today!

At 9 am, it is 56.5 degrees and rising.
55% humidity and falling (at 9, it was not raining; at 2 pm, it's back up to 83%)
30.30 inches of mercury and steady
The stream stands at 4.8 inches
Fire danger is MODERATE

Clouds moving through

One minute it looks like rain; the next, it's sunny.

At 9 am, it is already 60.8 degrees and rising
48% humidity and falling
30.30 inches of mercury and steady under mostly clear skies
The stream is still flowing with 4.8 inches of water.

Right now, the black flies have largely subsided, and it's a bit early for mosquitoes, so you're in between bug seasons. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Spring visitors

I think we failed to mention that when we awoke on Sunday (at 6 am; Mothers' Day comes early around here!), we found a groundhog happily nibbling away at the plants around the house (nothing we planted). He was a bit disgruntled at being disturbed from his breakfast, and he waddled away under the house.

At 9 am, it is 54 degrees and rising
51% humidity and falling
30.03 inches of mercury under clear skies
The brook is steady at 5 inches

I'm not clear on where the rain forecast for today went, but it does look clear all down the coast.

Clear skies

Lovely right now!
At 9 am, it is 51.3 degrees and rising
55% humidity and falling
29.34 inches of mercury and steady under clear blue skies
Light breeze
Stream level is 5 inches

Hikers moving through steadily. Our Dynamy intern Will has one sign pole nearly squared off in the driveway. We had to re-rig his tent this morning, as yesterday's strong winds took it out!

A Fond Goodbye to the SCA Trails Crew!

Today ends five days of intensive trail work by the intrepid SCA crew (shown here with their fashionable GWLT tin camping cups). They were cutting access for hikers between the Trust's Brigham Road parcel and the City of Worcester's Conservation Commission "Cook's Woods" property.

Most nights it rained. Most days it did not. Overall it was very wet.

They tented out here in the great City of Worcester at Cascading Waters.
They cooked over camp stoves.
They removed numerous ticks.
They moved rock, chain-sawed trees, and setup erosion controls.

They were excellent workers and perfect guests.

They will be missed.

Today's weather has been fabulous.

As of this morning at 9:00 a.m. the weather was:
61 degrees F and rising;
81% humidity and falling;
29.77" of mercury and steady;
the Cascades Brook was at 6";
yesterday's rainfall was 0.98"!

Presently at 4:10 pm it is:
72.5 degrees F and falling;
44% humidity and steady;
29.71" of mercury and steady;
the sun is out and there is a light breeze.

Sunny again, but rain is coming back!

The SCA Trails crew is out blazing in the sun, which is a whole lot more pleasant than yesterday's conditions.

The Dynamy Signage Intern is chopping away doing timber shaping.


The conditions as of 9:20 am were:
48 degrees F and steady;
96% humidity and steady;
30.00" of mercury and steady;
0.31" of rain yesterday;
5" of flow in the Cascades Brook;
the sky is trying to clear and the apple trees are in bloom.

The rain is great for the trees we planted a week ago. Hopefully they made it through the drought to enjoy it.

Presently it is 1:30 pm and the conditions are:

63.9 degrees F and steady;
67% humidity and falling;
29.97" of mercury and steady;
and sunny! with a light breeze.

Raining

After a long day's work (they didn't come back until nearly dark), the SCA gang slept well in their tents and were out for another day's trail clearing before 8:30 this morning!
At 9 am, it is 52 degrees and steady
85% humidity and just starting to rain.
As of 9, we had not gotten enough rain to measure. At 2pm, we've gotten 0.08 inches.
The stream remains at 4.4 inches.
Barometer is at 30.12 and steady.
The current storm is moving offshore.

We've had an enormous amount of leaves come out over the past few days. The forest is really filling in!
Yesterday afternoon, we planted two forsythia bushes, one red maple (I know, I know! but it came free from the Arbor Day Foundation!), and ten mountain laurel. The laurel is down by the street. We're hopeful!

SCA Trails Crew on the way

9:35 a.m. weather and conditions:

57.9 degrees F and rising;
30.00" of mercury and steady;
73% humidity and falling;
overcast, light breeze, partial sun.

Presently we are awaiting the arrival of the SCA Trails crew who will be living at Cascading Waters for the week doing trails work in NW Worcester and SW Holden. Good work should ensue, though the forecast for the week is not in their favor with on and off rain all week long.

Cool, cloudy, overall pleasant

This morning it has been cooler, cloudy, and overall pleasant.

As of 12:03 p.m. the weather is:
63.5 degrees F and rising;
42% humidity and steady;
29.77" of mercury and steady.

This morning saw two teams from the Greater Worcester Land Trust out doing Earth Day Cleanups. One was over at Crow Hill and the other was over at Bovenzi conservation Park.

A nice day to cleanup the woods of old debris from past generations and set things aright for the next.

Misty

We can't tell if the rain gauge is broken or the rain has been too light to measure, but we've definitely had some rain, and we definitely don't have a measurement. We may need to go back to an old-fashioned, non-digital version for the summer.

The mist hasn't stopped the hikers--looks like a grandfather, father, and son--who just came up the trail during lunchtime.

At 9 am it is 59.4 degrees and steady
92% humidity and steady with mist in the air
29.83 inches of mercury and falling
The stream is a bit up to 4.6 inches
We're expecting rain on and off during the day today, possibly with some thunderstorms.

As we were coming home just before lunch, we scared a woodchuck who'd been hanging out somewhere in the yard at the Lodge. He skittered across the driveway, and then he stopped to take a look at us. Not the big guy we've seen before, either.

Yesterday, we had a total of three yellow-shafted flickers in the backyard. They're a member of the woodpecker family, a good size bird (the size of a blue jay), big enough to make you wonder what they are. Their relationship with the woodpecker isn't apparent until you see them on a tree, where they hop up the truck like any other woodpecker.

And we had a good turnout yesterday for platform moving, so if you're on the trail this weekend, you'll see that the big canvas tent is up behind the Lodge. We're having a work crew in next week; they bring their own sleeping tents, but we're providing ours for eating and such.