The Cascades are frozen!

If you've ever wanted to see the Cascades frozen (or for you artists looking for subject matter!), the Cascades are now frozen. Yesterday, they were running full spate despite the cold (as it had gotten cold so fast), but now they're ice.
Quite lovely!

Changing Weather

Conditions at the Lodge at Cascading Waters as of 8:20 a.m.:

28.85" of Hg pressure and steady (registering signs of stormy weather);
20.5 degrees F and steady;
59% humidity and steady;
The Cascading Brook is running at 4.4" (but the reading is approximate with ice frozen to the meter);
No wind is registering on the anemometer;
No precipitation in the last 24 hours;
The USFS Fire Danger Class is LOW;
The sky is partly clear with a blanket of high altitude clouds, and the sun is trying to burn its way through, and for the moment looks to be losing;
and the Cascades are icing over with water flowing as well.

The ground is definitely frozen out there!

Thawing

And we don't, incidentally, recommend this.

Icy

(Sorry if we seem rather fixated by that; the hike up the driveway is making it rather a prominent feature of the Lodge right now!)

At 10 am, it is 25 degrees and rising (up from 9 this morning)
Humidity stands at 73% and falling
29.77 inches of mercury and steady under sunny skies
No precipitation to speak of
Fire danger is LOW
Brook and the Cascades remain largely snow covered, with a rim of ice, and some water flowing under the ice

We may break freezing today, but only just, if we do. That's going to make all the difference in hiking conditions for the weekend. Where the trail is broken, it's frozen into a slippery mess. Where it isn't broken, expect a crust of ice that breaks under foot (if you're heavier than a squirrel; they seem to be having an easy time of it, trotting along on top).

Slippery

The trees are now dripping, but enough freezing rain fell last night to both make a nice thick crust on top of the snow ('though not enough to walk on unless you try it in snowshoes) and to coat every cleared surface in ice. It's tough going this morning!

At 10:30 am, it is 30 degrees and steady
70% humidity and steady
29.74 inches of mercury and rising under bright sunny skies.
Yesterday we got .31 inches of rain (on top of four or so inches of snow)
Fire danger is up to LOW
The Cascades brook is trickling under the ice.

Warmer

Yes, that is dripping you see from your roofline. We're hoping that it takes care of that ice dam over the door, at least a bit.
At 9 am, it is 26 degrees and rising (up over 40 at noon!)
77% humidity and steady
29.94 inches of mercury and steady
Fire danger remains LOW

We had an brave soul wading through the snow this afternoon. We do have more than half the parking area open down below, though, we'll warn you: we're going to have some sledders coming down that hill later this afternoon! Look out below!

Great day for winter sports

Sorry to post so late in the day, but we were out enjoying it. One of the neighbors has cleared off several hockey rinks' worth of ice on Cook's Pond, so we pulled on our skates! We highly recommend it! It's remarkable how warm the mid-20's are when one is doing something so active.

At 9am, it was 25 degrees and rising
62% humidity and falling
29.97 inches of mercury and rising under clear skies, which we had all day.
Fire danger is LOW
The stream is now FROZEN OVER: even good, hard stomping won't get through that ice!

We've also had a few new visitors to the birdfeeder (kudos to the middle junior ranger for noticing): we've had a few black-and-white warblers (Mniotilta varia), most noticable for their black and white striped heads (very unusual!). "Common in deciduous woods," says our bird guide, and it behaves "more like a nuthatch." If we catch a photo, we will post it!

Changing weather

Right now what's falling is sleet, but it has also been freezing rain. With the temperature hovering right at freezing, it will be going back and forth all day. The radar shows plenty of this storm still south of us, so, if you can, hunker down someplace warm and dry. It's rotten weather for snowshoes and skies, even. We have seen some intrepid dog walkers, though!

(We're having some technical difficulties with our equipment here at the Lodge this morning. We ventured out to get the readings on temp and humidity, but we can't give you much beyond that.)

At 9 am, it is 31 degrees F.
96% humidity
Barometer stands at 29.44 inches and still falling
We have frost warning (no surprise there!)
As of yesterday, the fire danger was still LOW, but I imagine that will be coming off entirely today.
Brook is at 5 inches exactly.
The falls are largely snow covered, with a crust of ice.

Photos of the storm

Here's a few photos from Cascading Waters from the storm:

Here's our view out the front door of the Lodge.

Cataract Street at the Cascades Bridge


Here's the Cascades Brook at the Cataract Street bridge.

The Cascades are never as impressive on camera, but here they are during the storm. Note the trees.

WE HAVE POWER!!

Back on at 1:36 pm this afternoon!
With the fireplace still roaring, the living room quickly got up over 80! We're pulling that back.
The kitchen was the temperature of a refrigerator (which in some ways is very handy: "Sure, just leave that milk out on the counter!"), and now is a more livable 65 degrees again.
I'll be honest and tell you that over the past 60 hours we've been paying more attention to the temperature inside than outside, but as of 4 pm:
The outside temperature is 36 degrees and steady(we're still getting a frost warning on that)
Humidity is 75% and rising
Barometer is a nice clear 30.33 inches of mercury
Fire danger is LOW
As of this afternoon, the brook was back down to 4 inches. We put a lot of water through there this weekend!
The Cascades Trail from Olean to Cataract is passable. And we've had hikers in since yesterday. Beyond that, we haven't ventured. If you have, and have any tree information to report, please do! And please do keep half an eye up, as there are branches hanging in trees.
In fact, send a report to gwlt@gwlt.org if you know of any trails that are impassible on GWLT lands. We won't get to them all right away, but we would like to know.

Ice is coming

For those of you who turned on WCCA and did not see us this morning: sorry! I got my times mixed up. You can see the "Snow Ghost Community Show":
Fridays at 8.30pm,
Saturdays at 11.30pm,
Sundays at 9.30pm,
Monday mornings at 9.30am
(thanks for the correction, Mike!)

The National Weather Service is warning that we're in for a doozy of a day:

.COLD HIGH PRESSURE WITH ITS RESERVOIR OF SUBFREEZING TEMPERATURES
IS BECOMING ENTRENCHED FROM NEW YORK STATE TO NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND
AND SOUTHEAST CANADA TODAY. LOW PRESSURE MOVING TOWARD NEW ENGLAND
FROM ALABAMA WILL CONSTANTLY DRAW UPON THAT POOL OF COLD AIR TO OUR
NORTH WHILE HEAVY PRECIPITATION FLOWS NORTHWARD WITH THE MOISTURE
LADEN LOW PRESSURE CENTER. THIS WILL RESULT IN A MAJOR ICE STORM FOR
PORTIONS OF INTERIOR SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. THE LOW PRESSURE GALE
CENTER WILL MOVE ACROSS EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS FRIDAY MORNING AND
DEPART FOR THE MARITIMES IN THE AFTERNOON.

So far, all we're getting is rain, and the barometer is staying high.
As they've also said to watch, in particular, northeast facing slopes,
we're keeping an eye out: that would be the Cascades.


At 9am, it is 33 degrees and steady. It's been just 33 for a number of hours now.
98% humidity and raining
So far today we've had 0.04 inches of rain. Our total for yesterday was 0.75 inches.
The stream is up to 6.4 inches and rising, no doubt!
Barometer is 30.03 inches of mercury and steady
Fire danger remains NONE

Traffic on the trail this morning is non-existent, but we did have a visit from
the DPW up on Cataract Street. Looks like they're keeping an eye on the bridges
and culverts today. The Cascades are running!

Spring weather

I'll spare you the truism about New England weather and how fast it changes. Suffice to say the enormous amount of snow that we got on Saturday is rapidly disappearing ('though I'd say the snowbanks will be sticking around for awhile).

Great day for a hike, if you don't mind getting a bit damp (looks like rain on and off all day) and have mud-resistant footwear. And watch out for the occasional patch of ice: it's sent more than one person sprawling already here this morning!

At 12:30 it is 44 degrees.
97% humidity and misting.
Barometer holding steady.

Clear skies, but slippery

The skies this morning are clear. With a brisk wind, rising barometer, and the temperature already at 39 degrees, this should be a good drying day.
Be careful this morning, however: overnight, some of the rain froze. We've had a spill here this morning already!

Not as cold as expected

As of 11am, it's 24 degrees. Unfortunately, I can't tell you the wind speed or windchill, but it isn't particularly windy, and so it is not as cold as was forecasted.
The brook and falls are trickling under the ice.
Trail conditions vary based on location. The Newton trail (entrance off of Cataract Street) has been well used, and so be careful, as it is icy coming down the hill. The Cascades trail has had some traffic, but not as much, and so is still crunchy.
Very clear and cold.