Wild and woolly weather for Christmas

Happy Holidays to all our Head in the Clouds followers out there. It won’t exactly be a lovely, serene “white Christmas” this year, but Mother Nature will be making her presence known. A strong storm system is descending upon Southern New England today and tomorrow, bringing wind, rain, and rising temperatures. Christmas morning will find temps in the mid-50s. Coastal areas of New England are under wind advisories at the moment, but even here in Amherst it will be breezy, with flooding possible through Thursday morning. Temps stay mild until around Monday, because of course, what would First Night be without below-freezing temperatures?!

Desperately seeking 2015 Head in the Clouds Amherst calendars?

Thanks to several Head in Clouds Amherst fans who were desperately seeking calendars last week, we have learned that both Amherst Books and Hastings are completely sold out. (Kind of a good news/bad news scenario.) However, you can still order our 2015 wall calendar through paypal for 2-3 day mail delivery by clinking this link. Or for faster, next day delivery locally (in Amherst) simply email Sharon - cloudsamherst [@] gmail [dot] com - with information about how many you want and where you want them delivered. If you order by December 23rd, we can hand deliver in the Amherst area in time for Christmas.

The [at] and [dot] are done to keep email addresses from being collected by spammers and harvesting robots. You just have to replace them for [@] and [.] when you write your e-mail.

Adirondacks in Winter

Just added a new photo, sent to us by Sarah Revesz, to our "Through the Lens" page. You won't be surprised to learn that it was taken on Thanksgiving Day this year, in Salisbury, Connecticut. Now we need to have this exact same perspective, only taken at the height of summer. Thanks, Sarah - and keep those pictures coming, everyone!

"Adirondacks in Winter" (Salisbury, CT)
Photo by Sarah Revesz, taken on Thanksgiving 2014

The ice morning cometh

Actually, to be accurate, the ice morning isn't coming anymore, it's here.

The Amherst/Pelham schools declared a 2-hour delay this morning. It's going to be interesting to see how that works out. Right now it's 31 degrees out, and we've got light precipitation in the form of freezing drizzle/rain. (The forecast says it's snowing lightly, but that is not the case on the east/south side of town anyway - we never did get snow from what I can tell.) Our front porch and walkway looks simply wet, but it's actually a sheet of ice - and our cars are also encased in ice. Temps are expected to slowly rise above freezing - to a high of about 39 degrees - by early afternoon. And, remember, even as the temps rise above freezing, the ground is still cold and frozen, so ice won't melt as quickly as the temp rises. Untreated surfaces are icy, so if you have to go out, take it slow out there.

Snow Sky

This afternoon's snow sky, 12/8/2014

If you were out at all this afternoon or evening, it should come as no surprise that forecasts now have higher and lower elevations of Western Massachusetts (including Amherst) feeling the effects overnight and tomorrow morning of our approaching nor'easter. We can expect 2-4 inches of snow around here overnight, along with sleet and freezing rain - a true mixed bag of messiness. Oh, what fun. Precipitation will start betwen 10 pm-1 am tonight, gathering steam around daybreak. By 10am-noon tomorrow, the temperature should rise well above freezing, so it's still all rain later tomorrow.

So this shouldn't really be a surprise for anyone. It feels like snow. It's cold outside (still in the low to mid-20s), and the sky this afternoon was a snow sky if ever there was one. I'm all for science and computer weather models, but sometimes it makes sense to just go outside and look up. You know, get your head in the clouds.

This Week's Looming Nor'easter

"Winter is begun here, now, I suppose. It blew part of the 

hair off the dog yesterday & got the rest this morning." 

Mark Twain, Letter to Chatto and Windus, October 21, 1892.

Talk about wild weather in the forecast! The next few days - starting late tonight through Thursday - promise to bring some interesting weather to our area. Just how interesting will depend entirely on where you are located.

The forecast here in Amherst is extremely tricky to decipher, as the track of this week's looming Nor'easter has shifted slightly east since yesterday, which means the possibility of significant heavy wet snow accumulation (over 6 inches) plus a trace amount of ice in the higher elevations of northern and western parts of Massachusetts, including Franklin, Northern Worcester, Hampshire and Western Hampden Counties. (This being an Amherst-centric page, I won't go into detail on the rest of the region, but suffice it to say that ski areas in VT are going to hit the snow jackpot, and it's going to be extremely windy with heavy rain on the coast).

So what will happen here in Amherst? The computer models at this time are showing that precipitation will start out late tonight, possibly as snow with some pockets of freezing rain or drizzle. We could get a trace to a few inches of snow overnight through Tuesday morning (though the lower amount is more likely here, in the Valley's lower elevations). Whatever snow does fall will be heavy and wet - where more than 4 inches falls, power outages are likely. Expect heavy rain through Tuesday, before things quiet down by Wednesday. At that point it gets colder again, a new front moves over us, and we are likely to get a few more inches of snow through Thursday.

And all that being said, there is a high level of unpredictability in the computer models, and you should be prepared for anything. Depending on the track of this storm and any shift in the rain/snow line, we could see much worse conditions. Not likely, but possible.

Through the Lens

"Where did Buddha go?"
Photo by Jill Paul

Have you checked out THIS page of our blog yet: Through the Lens ?

It features a changing selection of seasonal photos by a variety of Head in the Clouds correspondents, readers, and friends. If you've taken a photo you'd be happy to see posted here, send it our way (our email can be found on the bottom of the "About Us" page of our blog). Send along the photo's title and how you'd like the photographer (you) to be credited. Looking forward to seeing what you see!

Icy Morning v. Typhoon

Satellite view of Typhoon Hagupit, near Phillipines (photo from BBC report)

Icy start to our morning, with temps (happily) warming up over the day. There is a possibility of a major snowstorm Tuesday/ Wednesday (depends entirely on the storm track), so keep an eye on that. But the major weather story this morning is taking place about 8,000 miles away from Amherst, as Typhoon Hagupit is poised to make landfall in the Philippines, near the Eastern and Northern Samar provinces and the city of Tacloban, where thousands were killed by Typhoon Haiyan a year ago. It has weakened slightly - was downgraded yesterday from its previous "super typhoon status" - but gusts are still peaking at 195km/h (120mph). A massive evacuation is currently underway. 

And that kind of makes our little icy morning a lot less daunting, right?

After Black Friday and Cyber Monday - it's "Mid-Week Madness"!

What's left after Black Friday and Cyber Monday are but a distant memory??? MID-WEEK MADNESS, of course! That's where you reflect on the wild weather we're having and then decide to buy a few Head in the Clouds Amherst wall calendars to round out your holiday shopping. Best of all, for the next two days, right through Thursday (that's the mid-week madness part), we've dropped our price by 25% to $10/calendar. All purchases through Thursday will be mailed off (priority mail) by Friday - and you'll have them in hand early next week, well ahead of Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and, yes, even Emily Dickinson's birthday. And once you have our calendar, you'll be on top of all those dates, as well as the anniversaries of more than 50 notable New England weather events from 1660 to 2014. I mean can you really go on not knowing when a thunderstorm passed through North Amherst and destroyed "Factory Hollow?" It's all just a click away.

Read on for more about our 2015 calendar . . .

(Click on photo to enlarge)
Actual calendar photos and daily entries are high resolution, much sharper than the images shown here)

After such an enthusiastic reception last year, we are delighted to release our new Head in the Clouds Amherst 2015 Wall Calendar. Once again, the calendar features 12 of your favorite nature photos from our blog, all taken in Amherst and the surrounding area. And new this year, we've added photo titles and location captions so you can easily identify where each photo was taken. Printed on high quality, glossy paper, this calendar notes major holidays, as well as astronomical events visible from Amherst with the naked eye (full moon, new moon, meteor showers, and more). Our calendar also documents nearly 50 major weather events that occurred in Amherst and New England between 1660 and 2014. A perfect gift for friends and family, this calendar will delight and surprise month after month. Full size when open is 17" high and 11" wide. 

Price is $13.50 $10.00 per calendar until midnight on Thursday, December 4 through this website. After December 4th, the price will go back to $13.50/calendar. (Sale is not available at local retail stores.)

Buy here for delivery by mail, or purchase at Amherst Books or Hastings. Amherst Books is located at the center of downtown Amherst at 8 Main Street. Hastings is also downtown, at 45 South Pleasant Street on the Common. 

January: Snowing at South Beach - Puffer's Pond

February: Ski Trails - Kevin Flood Accessible Trail

March: Twilight Sky - Cushman Brook

April: Sunset - Puffer's Pond

May: Cumulus Mirrored - Atkins Reservoir

June: Summer Solstice at Stonehenge -
UMass Sunwheel (also known as "Stonehenge")

July: Path to Amherst - Looking towards Amherst from
South Maple Street, Hadley

August: Common Fog - Amherst Town Common

September: "Where the place called morning lies" -
The Homestead (birthplace and home of Emily Dickinson)

October: Traveling through Fall - Pulpit Hill Road,
 adjacent to Cherry Hill Golf Course

November: Nightfall over Simple Gifts Farm -
Pine Street, North Amherst

December: Snow in the Valley - Hadley/North Amherst