Another lovely day!

Beautiful from the start today.
At 8 am, it is 63.5 degrees and rising.
The humidity is 49% and rising.
The barometer is 29.97 inches of mercury and steady under clear blue skies.
We have no measurable wind.
The fire danger is back down to MODERATE this morning.

The National Weather Service in Taunton has this for the forecast:
Increasing clouds, with a high near 80. Light and variable wind becoming east 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.

March blowing in!

Don't know if you heard the wind last night, but it was shaking the Lodge! We don't have as much this morning: varying from nothing up to 4 mph in the observed period.
At 7 am, it is 20.7 degrees and rising. Back to wintery cold!
Humidity is at 43% and steady.
The barometer reads 29.65 inches of Hg and steady under clear skies with the sun just coming over the hills.
The two stream channels are open and running.
The whole hill of the Cascade remains snow covered.

The National Weather Service forecast for today is:

Sunny, with a high near 29. Blustery, with a northwest wind 14 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 46 mph.

Frigid

No school in Worcester today, due to windchills as low as -29!

At 9 am, it is 4.8 degrees and (finally) rising.
The humidity is 43% and steady.
The barometer is 30.09 inches of mercury and rising still, under clear blue skies.
Because we're somewhat sheltered by trees, we don't get quite the winds of elsewhere. Currently, we're seeing a fairly steady wind of somewhere between 2 and 3 MPH, with higher gusts.

The usual Thursday afternoon work project for GWLT is cancelled due to the cold. If you are venturing out, do bundle up in layers, and expose as little skin as possible. With windchills like this, exposed skin can get frostbite in very little time. And remember: frostbite doesn't hurt!
Stay safe!

Snow log 1030.02092013 (10:30 Saturday morning)

The skies are lightening!
It is currently 21.2 degrees and RISING!
The humidity is 72% and steady.
The pressure is 29.23 and RISING!
We might be getting through this!
Wind is constantly at least 6-8 mph with gusts of 20 mph.
Now measuring 16 inches of snow here at the Lodge

Storm log 830.02092013 (Saturday morning, 8:30)

It remains 17.2 degrees and steady.
83% humidity and steady
The barometer is 29.18 Hg and steady
Wind is ranging between 2 and 5 mph

Snow totals coming up! We currently have about 15 inches. There is some drifting, but nowhere is it deeper than close to 2 feet.

Snow log 730.02092013 (7:30 Saturday morning)

We'll get someone out with a ruler shortly, but there has been a lot of drifting, so accurate measures are going to be hard. The official Worcester measurement according to NWS is 27.5 inches; it looks as though we have less than that here.
Still steadily snowing.
Currently, it is 17.6 degrees and steady.
85% humidity and steady.
The barometer is 29.15 and steady (good news!).
Wind is between 4 and 6 mph.
Note that MEMA has announced this morning that the statewide travel ban continues. We just had a plow go up and down Olean, keeping the road to the water treatment plant open.

Storm log 1930.02082013

Update after dark here:
Top wind of 36.5 mph (and remember, we're at the bottom of the hill. That's huge for here.)
Temperature 20.3 and steady
Humidity 81% and steady
Pressure is 29.26 Hg and falling
As for snow, we now are up to 2 and 5/8ths inches.

Storm Log 1730.02082013 (or 5:30 Friday night)

The barometer is now down to 29.32 inches and is still falling.
We now have 1 and 3/4 inches, but it's now blowing around so much that depth is going to be increasingly sketchy to measure.
The temperature is 21.4 degrees and steady.
The humidity is up to 78%.
As the sun goes down, the wind has dropped a bit, as we're now looking at wind between 8-14 mph.

Storm log 1330.02082013 (or 1:30 Friday afternoon)

Still coming down! We now have 3/4 inch of snow!
It is now 24.3 degrees and steady.
Humidity is now 73% and steady
The barometer is 29.53 inches of mercury and still falling.
The wind has picked up a bit; we've seen a top speed of 34 mph in the last hour, and while it is still sometimes dropping to 3 mph, it's much higher for much longer: right now I'm seeing 22 mph (and remember, the Lodge is protected by a cliff on one side).
We've seen some hikers go through over the course of the afternoon, and it's now looking as though that's the only way to travel, as Governor Patrick has signed an executive order to get all traffic off the roads as of 4 pm.

Storm log 1230.02082013 (or 12:30 Friday afternoon)

We've gained a quarter inch! Now up to 1/2 inch of snow and still falling rapidly.
It is now 25.7 degrees Fahrenheit and falling.
The humidity remains at 71% and steady.
The barometer is down to 29.59 inches of mercury and still falling.
And we've now got some wind! Ranging up to 12 mph and down to 3 mph, fairly constant.

Storm log 1130.02082013 (or 11:30 am Friday)

It's building up! We're now measuring 1/4 inch of snow here at the Lodge.
It's now up to 27.9 degrees and steady.
71% humidity and steady
The barometer is now at 29.62 inches of mercury and is continuing to fall.
Still measuring no wind

Storm log 1040.02082013 (or 10:40 am Friday)

We've just gone out to measure accumulation, after about an hour of snow. We now have 1/16 of an inch. It's a very light snow, falling fast.
It is 27.1 degrees Fahrenheit and steady.
It's 70% humidity and steady
The barometer reads 29.68 inches of mercury and falling.
Currently registering no wind.
The Cascades Brook has frozen up around our measuring stick, but it's flowing under the ice at about 3 inches.

4:30 Update: Hurricane Sandy

Cascades Brook is now running at 4 inches.
We've now gotten a total of 1.1 inches of rain.
A one minute interval has the wind topping out at 27 mph.
The barometer is at 29.06 Hg and still falling.
It is 57.7 degrees and rising.
98% humidity with rain coming in from the east.

2:30 pm Monday update

At 2:30 pm, we've been doing some trenchwork, as the soil has now become so saturated that the water is either standing on top or running across. We have now received 3/4 of an inch of rain.The stream, within the last half hour, has gone from 2.2 inches to 2.4 inches, and the secondary channel is now running.
Over the preceeding ten minutes, we've seen wind ranging from 11 mph to a high of 41 mph.
The humidity is at 98% with rain driving in from the east.
It is 56 degrees F.
The barometer is at 29.15 Hg and falling.

Falling leaves

Fall is really here!

The rain has cleared out, 'though we still are seeing some cloudy skies here. The barometer is at 28.97 and steady.

We've got a brisk wind right now--the latest gust was up to 16 mph. The fire danger for this morning is NONE, but we're watching it closely, as that wind is going to dry things right out. We'll probably be back up to LOW by this afternoon.

At 9 am the temperature is 55 degrees and rising, 'though slowly.

The brook is running, as are the Cascades! 

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.

Rainy

When we checked last night, we had only a 30% chance of showers, but this morning it appears that the 30 is what we got. We're at what the radar map is showing as the tail end of a band of showers here this morning.
At eleven am, it is 73.9 degrees and steady.
90% humidity, raining on and off
29.29 inches of mercury under cloudy skies
We've got wind of 4.5 mph

We put the fire danger up to HIGH over the weekend; we'll reassess that once the rain moves out. We really haven't (for the high humidity) gotten that much water falling from the skies!

The stream is rapidly drying up, as a result.

RED FLAG WARNING

Note that the National Weather Service has issued a RED FLAG WARNING for Central Massachusetts. Due to high winds and very dry conditions, the danger of fire spreading is extreme.

Gorgeous

Really nice (if complete unseasonal) day out there today: As the hiker who just came through, sat down on a rock and turned his face to the sun: get out and enjoy it!
At 11 am, we are just about to break 50 degrees F (49.6 and rising).
We currently have 78% humidity, though with a wind of about 11 mph, that is falling.
The barometer is steady at 29.15 inches of mercury under blue skies.
The brook is running between and under banks of snow. Trails that have been active will be a bit slippery, and by this afternoon, the edges will be mud.

65 mph!

That last gust measured 65 mph here!