Backwards Weather pattern

[peakbagger]

Since I moved into the area in 1987 I have developed various ways of figuring out what the days and upcoming weather will be doing with some seasonality baked in. Normally the conservative approach in summer is keep an eye on the Vermont forecast and particularly the Northeast kingdom forecast out of the Fairbanks Museum. I usually discount the various Maine and NH news forecasts as they are focused on the coastal media market. For the last few days my "weather eye" is not working very well with the stuck low pressure down near the southern Maine coast. The weather is coming from the east and heading west.

For an example I always look west for a potential thunderstorm weather on Nexrad. When I looked at the static Nexrad this morning I saw heavy rain to the east and thought to myself that I was set as it was east of me. I then flipped the animate function on to see a few hours of shots and then realized the weather was building up to the east and I was in for a wall of water as it moved west. Its now an hour later and the wall of water has hit. Its definitely "gully washer grade rain going on in Gorham right now. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the forest service roads get washed out.

 

[hikerbrian]

Been strange here in MA as well - storms have been coming from the NW to NE, when normally they approach from the SW. There seems to be more local rotation from these storms than I'm used to seeing this time of year. Definite counter-clockwise spinning around a low sitting on southern ME coast, as you say. More like a nor'easter pattern.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

This has not escaped my notice either - both from a mountain and sea-faring perspective. Nor'easter or hurricaine remnants both come to mind. I watched yesterday while the rain fell all around the greater Manchester NH area, but it barely rained on me until bed time...

Tim

 

[dug]

This has not escaped my notice either - both from a mountain and sea-faring perspective. Nor'easter or hurricaine remnants both come to mind. I watched yesterday while the rain fell all around the greater Manchester NH area, but it barely rained on me until bed time...

Tim

Dang Tim...want to come get some of mine? Any water seemed to part over my house until Sunday night, but it's been parked here since....

 

[ChrisB]

This has not escaped my notice either - both from a mountain and sea-faring perspective. Nor'easter or hurricaine remnants both come to mind. I watched yesterday while the rain fell all around the greater Manchester NH area, but it barely rained on me until bed time...

Tim

Blocking low in Gulf o Maine is just CCW spinning rain into NE .

I’m a big fan of Matt Noyes forecasts on NECN. He’s the early morning guy and covers northern New England as well as Boston metro. Very scientific guy. He’s predicting hotter than normal July.

 

[skiguy]

Blocking low in Gulf o Maine is just CCW spinning rain into NE .

I’m a big fan of Matt Noyes forecasts on NECN. He’s the early morning guy and covers northern New England as well as Boston metro. Very scientific guy. He’s predicting hotter than normal July.

Matt does a nice job. I also like Keith Carson from WCSH out of Portland. I don't find anything backwards about this pattern at all. Imagine if it were January.

 

[DayTrip]

This has not escaped my notice either - both from a mountain and sea-faring perspective. Nor'easter or hurricaine remnants both come to mind. I watched yesterday while the rain fell all around the greater Manchester NH area, but it barely rained on me until bed time...

Tim

That was my observation as well and funny everyone has noticed. Here in CT the storms have been rolling almost straight down out of the North heading South over. us. I recall this happening before for a single front or day but not for so many consecutive days. It is indeed almost as if a huge unconsolidated hurricane has been drifting slowly away from the coast, only no wind at all really. Been hot, humid and unstable.

The only thing missing in everyone's forecast models is that my wife is on vacation this week, so this weather is not unexpected.

 

[NHClimber]

Seemed like similar to a Nor'easter to me. Was wild watching it on the radar.

 

[jniehof]

My girlfriend was making the same observation as we were sitting outside watching thunderheads build...that we've been sitting in sort of a nor'easter pattern.

 

[peakbagger]

I agree that the weather pattern was similar to a Nor'easter. In the winter it normally means I will get less snow than forecasted and the Conway area will get more as the Wildcat Ridge and Mt Washington tends to cause the moisture to fall out out of the clouds upslope. For a non skier and someone who has to clear a long driveway that is plus to me but probably a minus to local skiers.

This rain/snow shadow effect is quite noticeable in Northwest where the wet weather patterns are almost always from the pacific. It can be rain forest on one side of the ridge but downslope on the east side its close to desert.

 

[NorthShore]

I'm normally pretty good at getting the big picture about weather and occasionally even making my own "tweaks" to facilitate hike planning. The last three weeks have been a disaster in that regard. One consolation is that the pros haven't done much better. My misses were on the conservative side, so no one got hurt (except me; I'm a guide).

 

[Mike P.]

Upper level cut-off low, I'm used to seeing them in April, hence, April showers. While the official CT measurements are at the airport and we were in a drought, there and here, I think we got caught up in three days.

 

[egilbe]

I was caretaking up at Stratton Brook Hut for the week. The rain gauge on their weather station said .47 inches of rain in the last 9 days When we got there on Saturday, the 27th. After Wednesday, it was 4.27 inches of rain in the last 9 days. We were looking at the side of the Bigelows, and we could see, what we think was the trail to Horns Pond campsite, was a waterfall.