Weirdly warm and a seasonal reminder

So, having sent us all scrambling to bring in anything that could be killed by frost, our New England weather has now decided to treat us to a day with a high in the 70's with a chance of thunderstorms for this afternoon. Hope you haven't yet put your shorts away!
It is damp here under the trees, but a brisk wind is drying things out and continuing to bring down leaves. We have a trickle of water going over the falls and down Cascades Brook. 

ALSO, an important seasonal reminder:
HUNTING SEASON HAS NOW OPENED IN MASSACHUSETTS.
Archery season runs from October 15th - November 24th.
Shotgun season runs from November 26th - December 8th.
Muzzleloader season runs from December 10th - December 31st.

Hunting IS allowed on GWLT properties outside the city of Worcester: please recall that much of the Cascades parkland lies OUTSIDE of city bounds!

As such, we urge you to:

• stay on trails
• keep your dogs leased
• wear bright colors (blaze orange if you have it)

Let's be safe as we share our open space.

The Cascades are RUNNING!

The Cascades are running today!
The brook height is at about 7 inches (jumping to 8 occasionally) as 400 acres worth of water comes over the falls! Worth a visit!
Since noon yesterday, we've had 2.32 inches of rain; on top of the .55 inches we got the previous 24 hours, that's a lot of water!
At 10:30, it is 70.7 degrees and steady.
The barometer is 29.12 inches of mercury and steady. We now have blue skies, 'though it was raining hard as recently as 9 am.
Damp and dripping in the woods today!

Fire danger back to NONE!

...but probably only for today!
Please forgive us if you went by earlier and we hadn't yet gotten the sign changed.The US Forest Service has put our fire danger for today back to NONE, due to last night's thunderstorms (which we hope you got a chance to enjoy!). Here at the Lodge, we got 0.31 inches of rain in total from the storm.
Not enough to get Cascades Brook running again, so it remains in its usual August rocky state.
At 11 am, it is 75 degrees and steady under clear blue skies.
The barometer is at 29.26 inches of mercury and steady

Damp

The thunderstorms came through for us last night, and we are consequently soggy this morning ('though if you're caring for a garden, I give you no less of an authority than Paul Rogers in telling you that you probably still need to water). It was not enough rain to get the Cascades going again; here at the Lodge, we recorded 0.04 inches after midnight, which is when much of the rain came through.

At ten am, it is 77 degrees and steady.
The barometer stands at 28.88 inches of mercury and falling under cloudy skies.
Periodic gusts of wind of up to 4 mph largely coming from the east.
We are bumping the fire danger back down to MODERATE today.

Incoming!

It's only overcast now, but look what's headed our way.

(And yes, that is a tornado watch down by Wilkes Barre!)

Still sticky...but no rain yet

We've got a forecast of mostly cloudy with scattered showers, but haven't had a drop of rain here yet. We've also got a steady barometer and mostly clear radar. Keep in mind that there is a flash flood watch in effect for tonight with possible thunderstorms.

At 10:30, it is 77.5 degrees and steady
50% humidity and falling
Currently, we're measuring no wind, 'though there is a light breeze.
The barometer is at 29.29 and steady.
The brook is dry.

Nice now...

...but the National Weather Service has a hazardous weather watch up for this evening, with thunderstorms coming in. If you want to get something outside into your day, you'd want to do that earlier rather than later!
At 9 am, it is 58.8 degrees and steady
50% humidity and steady
29.32 inches of mercury and steady
We've had no rain since midnight, and the stream level has fallen to 4 inches.
No wind.
The fire danger level is LOW.

Another scorcher

It's supposed to be another hot one today with thunderstorms rolling in this afternoon. I've seen a lot of people out getting their walks in this morning.
At 9 am, it is 76 degrees and rising
44% humidity and rising
The barometer is 29.18 and steady
We have 1 mph of wind right now
The fire danger is LOW
The stream is down to 4 inches even.

Clear until it wasn't

The thunder and rain just came rolling in at 2:30 pm!
At 10 am, we had 76.1 degrees and rising (we're back to falling now that the rain is here).
85% humidity and falling
29.15 inches on the barometer and steady (it's still the same)
The fire danger is NONE

The light breeze continues. Up until yesterday, we hadn't experienced one of the nicer things about living in the Lodge in the summer, which is the changing breeze direction. Due to temperature differences, in the morning, we get a breeze coming up from Cook's Pond towards the front of the Lodge. In the evening, we get a breeze coming down the hill (from the Cascades) towards the back. It has to be warm enough in the valley to make the air move, 'though, and it hasn't been until yesterday!

Is there rain? A tornado?

There's a weather system sitting off to our west this morning: we've got a forecast ("Hazardous Weather") of incoming thunderstorms, but no sign of them yet, even on the barometer.

At 9am, it is 68.9 degrees and rising
95% humidity and steady
29.85 inches and steady under slightly cloudy skies
The stream is at 4.6 inches

And here's the relevant passage from the weather warning:

IF ENOUGH INSTABILITY DEVELOPS...
ISOLATED WIND DAMAGE OR AN ISOLATED TORNADO WOULD BE POSSIBLE ACROSS
NORTHERN CONNECTICUT AND ADJACENT AREAS OF MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE
ISLAND.

Storms coming in

Good chance of thunderstorms coming in this afternoon. If you want to get out, do it now.
(And come see the falls tomorrow!)

Last night's rain gave us .39 inches of rain. I don't know if you caught Paul Roger's column this morning, but he said we've gotten as much rain in four days as we usually get for all of July!

At 2 pm, it is 81 degrees and still rising
78% humidity (which explains those thunderstorms) and falling
Barometer is at 29.59 and steady
Fire danger, thanks to the rain, remains LOW

Summertime...

and we are entirely failing at keeping this up to date in the rush of things happening around here!

This week, the parks crew are out in Bovenzi Park, up on the north end of town, clearing and marking trails, and generally making that a useable space up there.
The constant stream of thunderstorms has the falls running.
Last night, we got another .08 inches of rain, on top of the 1.14 inches we got over the 24 hours of Sunday.

At 2pm, it is a very pleasant 80 degrees.
59% humidity (which is why it feels so pleasant!)
Barometer is 29.80 inches and steady
Fire danger is LOW

A group of hikers that came through just used one of our cairns as a photo backdrop!

this just in from the Natinal Weather Service

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH DAMAGING WINDS ARE POSSIBLE IN INTERIOR
SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...

THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP ACROSS INTERIOR SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND THIS
AFTERNOON AND EVENING. SOME OF THESE THUNDERSTORMS MAY PRODUCE
DAMAGING WINDS AND LOCALLY HEAVY DOWNPOURS.

THE MOST LIKELY LOCATION FOR THE DAMAGING STORMS WILL BE IN SOUTHWEST
NEW HAMPSHIRE AND WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS. THE MOST LIKELY TIME WILL BE
FROM 3 TO 7 PM. DAMAGING WINDS ARE THE MOST LIKELY THREAT...WITH
LOCALLY HEAVY DOWNPOURS ADDING A RISK OF URBAN AND POOR DRAINAGE
FLOODING.

More overcast drizzle, with a chance of T-storms!

Well, life here in the Temperate Rainforest continues to be wet.

98% humidity at the Lodge,
98% humidity up by the Meadow,
98% humidity seems to best characterize where we are at.

Yesterday at the Lodge we had 0.20" of rain.
This morning we have trace amounts, 0.04".

But the sky is dark, and wet is where we are at.

As 8am the weather is as follows:
LODGE: 30.00" Hg and steady, 64.4 degrees F and steady, 98% humidity and steady.
MEADOW: 29.97" Hg and steady, 63.1 degrees F and steady, 98% humidity and steady.

The Cascades have a low but constant flow and are really beautiful.
We spent some time last night up at the bridge and the wet rock, the green vegetation, the water cascading, and the sound of falling water is just perfect.

Enjoy it now

Thunderstorms coming in this afternoon again. Does anyone else feel rather tropical with these sunny mornings and afternoon thundershowers? We had a string of three of them here yesterday (and at the same time as a picnic; quite exciting!).

At 8 am, it is 62 degrees
Humidity is 98% (water gets trapped under the trees)
Barometer is steady at 29.85 inches
Brook is running!

cooler

At 10:30, it is still only 72 degrees
90% humidity under the trees
Fire danger is LOW

The storms that blew through yesterday did cool things off, and, I suspect, take some of the humidity out of the air (if you aren't under trees!). We got 0.28 inches of rain yesterday and 0.08 inches after midnight last night.

Barometer here is holding steady at 29.71 pounds of pressure.
Two of the rose bushes here at the Lodge are in bloom.


The Cascades and the brook will be sending through all of that rain today!

It's booming

The thunder is rolling out there, and the great echo off the cliff is in effect!

At 10:30 am, it is 64 degrees
98% humidity and actively raining
This morning we have already gotten 1.06 inches of rain (that's HUGE!)
Consequently, there is NO fire danger!

This is a line of storms coming through for the next few days, so we'll keep an eye on the Cascades. With all the rain today, even tomorrow they should be impressive!

UPDATE: at 1 pm, we've now had 1.93 inches of rain! Crazy. We've also cleared out the culvert behind the Lodge, lest it overflow and force an evacuation!

Hike at noon today!

No rain yet today, but the skies promise some later.
At 10:30, it is 61 degrees
98% humidity
Bartometer holding steady so far

The Heart Association is holding a hike at noon here today. If you're free, come join us!

Just in from the National Weather Service

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE LIKELY MONDAY...ESPECIALLY IN THE
AFTERNOON AND EVENING. SOME OF THE STORMS MAY PRODUCE DAMAGING WIND
GUSTS AND LARGE HAIL...MAINLY IN THE INTERIOR.

THERE IS ALSO A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL ON TUESDAY.

Late Spring Perfection for National Trails Day

The previous day's rains have passed.
The sun is out.
There is a breeze.

Out in the sun it is quite hot.
Here under the canopy it is cooler, darker, and humid (and not at all in a bad way.)

Yesterday we received 0.47" of rain,
and when you combine that with the rain earlier in the week you get about 0.63 inches.
This rain has recharged the wetlands up at the top of the Cascades and there is flow over the top.

At this point, any additional rains would channel right straight for the Cascades and come down.
A good deluge in a thunderstorm, of which there is a chance this evening, would get us cooking!

Presently, at 3 pm, it is 84.6 degrees and steady.
69% humidity under the trees and there's an air quality alert on for this afternoon through tomorrow.


THANKS to all who came out to Nick's Wood this morning for National Trails Day! We got most of the other car out, trails cleared, trails blazed, a rock bridge across the stream mostly built...well done, folks!