Wenatchee, Washington to Bangor, Maine
Posted by Ryan
Are your ready for an extraordinarily long road trip? We're covering 3153 miles over 6 days! That's an average of 516 miles a day at a pace of 64.5 mph. Let's not delay and get this road Trip underway!
DAY ONE
There is a system hung up in the Pacific Northwest which will be hung up, unfortunately, right along our route. Driving through low elevation, such as in the valleys of Washington and northern Idaho, we have a chance at being dry, if rather cloudy. When we hit the Montana Rockies, expect sparks and snowflakes to fly. It should be snowing it's hardest as we pass between Missoula and Butte, with some flurries hanging with us until we arrive in Livingstone, Montana, our destination for Wednesday night.
DAY TWO
We will be headed through some snowy High Plains as we depart Livingstone. The snow will accumulate pretty extensively across the state of Montana, unfortunately for our drive, but by the time we reach eastern Montana, they should be ahead of it with their Montana DOT plows. We will duck into Wyoming and South Dakota just in time, as the heavier precipitation will be in North Dakota Thursday evening. It will be unseasonably warm when we stop for the night in the interior of South Dakota in Interior, South Dakota.
DAY THREE
Temperatures will be chilly in the morning in Interior, and they will be for the duration of our drive. Expect a few flurries after we hit Sioux Falls do to moisture wrapping around the area of low pressure, which at this point will be well ahead of where we are in our drive. The lingering flurries will be our companion, as will some stratus clouds, all the way to St. Charles, Minnesota, in the southeast corner of the state.
DAY FOUR
The system that we have been riding east will continue it's rapid northeastward pace, and won't be an issue any longer as we continue our trek. We may contend with a brief spit of snow in northern Indiana thanks to Lake Michigan, but things are looking up for us and our drive. We will end the day in Columbia, Ohio, which is just over the border from Indiana.
DAY FIVE
Now that the initial system has lifted north and out of our route, it has opened the door for a deep trough to dig into the middle of the country. A warm front is expected to develop the Ohio Valley and lift north right at us, Expect some snow to start falling as we leave at our designated 10AM from Columbia. It should be with us (though not terribly heavy) as far east as Sandusky, but by Cleveland, we will outpace the precipitation. Count our blessings, because as we arrive in the eastern Syracuse metro area at the end of the day Sunday, we will be snow free.
DAY SIX
The system will be one of those bundles of energy that draws moisture in towards it's center, rather than advecting different air masses with spiraling bands of moisture. For anyone driving through New England next Monday, this is good news, as it appears the drive will be dry, though cool. If we over sleep, however, a blustery, wintry mix will move slowly into southern New York from Syracuse to Albany by the end of the day. Maybe set the alarm early. After all, the day will end in Bangor, Maine! Bangor, Maine everybody!
Two disparate forecasts, both very wrong
Posted by Ryan
There were two schools of thought on the forecast in Bangor. One said that things would warm up on Sunday after a warm front passed though and some stout southerly flow picked up. Another said the temperature would drop off precipitously on Sunday as clouds and drizzle rolled in. The forecasts could not have been more different. As it happens, they were both wrong. Extremely wrong. The temperature was able to climb to near 80 both days of the weekend, and the lows were also much warmer than expected. On top of that, the rain that was supposed to come on Sunday never came, and instead we looked at some isolated drizzle on Saturday. We could say that The Weather Channel was the winner in Bangor, but the truth is, there was no winner. Well, except for the people of Bangor, who saw such excellent weather.
Actuals: Saturday - rain reported, not measured, High 79, Low 45
Sunday - High 79, Low 55
Grade: D (very close to an F)
Bangor, Maine to Kingsport, Tennessee
Posted by Ryan
Usually when we do these road trips, I break them into 8 hour days, and if there is any left over time (according to Mapquest), I add an extra day if there is more than 2 hours. Today's trip from Maine to Tennessee is 18 hours and 1 minute's worth of driving. Awesome. it's a 1073 mile trek through the busiest corridor in the United States, I-95, so we'll go at the relatively slow pace of 59.6mph, and cover 476 miles on those first two days, leaving about 120 miles for the third day. I think that will be manageable.
DAY ONE
By the time we are in Parsippany, New Jersey, the first stop for today's journey, we will have covered 35 of our route's turns, according to Mapquest. Amazing. The drive through Boston and New York will be mostly agreeable in terms of weather, though hot, humid conditions will build, necessitating the use of air conditioning or a rolled down window in order to hear the denizens of New York calling you a moron. Not that you are, of course. A boundary shifting towards the east, kind of a cold front associated with a low over eastern Canada and kind of a warm front associated with the strong system in the Mid-Mississippi Valley will mean a threat for some isolated sprinkles after Hartford and until we reach Parsippany.
DAY TWO
Our second day of travel will be considerably wetter, as we drive right along the east-west oriented part of our cold front/warm front combo, from Parisppany to to about Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In that line, there is a good chance we will see very heavy rain and some isolated thunderstorms. There may be a break in the action when we get south of Chambersburg, because after passing through the 34 combined miles of Maryland and West Virginia, we will be on the lee side of the Appalachians, which will help stamp out the thunderstorms for a while. Sure, there will be a few showers as we approach Dublin and Newbern, Virginia. Pick one of those cities, and that's our destination on Monday.
DAY THREE
Hey, good thing we waited to finish this trip! The front will be through, and clearing, cooler conditions will be taking hold of the Smokeys when we arrive. Instead of torrential downpours, we will arrive in Kingsport in style, with pleasant weather all around us.
Bangor, Maine
Posted by Ryan
We're headed off to Maine for today's forecast. I think we only do this forecast whenever it's raw and nasty up in Maine, so I wonder what it will be like with an early May forecast.
At 1153AM, ET, Bangor was reporting a temperature of 62 degrees with partly cloudy. The entire East Coast was enjoying a pleasant midday, with an area of low pressure centered over the Great Lakes that extended a tongue of high clouds into central New England, though there was little by way of surface forcing. A separate low over southeastern Canada was generating a gusty off shore flow.
A broad trough is running over the western part of the country, and the northerly component is shifting east. Bangor will be dry and pleasant for the next 36 hours or so. The low over the Great Lakes will occlude, and the occluded front will push into Downstate Maine overnight Saturday into Sunday. Expect some chilly rain to take the weekend out after a rather pleasant beginning to the weekend. Cloudy skies are anticipated when rain is not seen on Sunday, but the lifting warm front and passing occlusion will make things warmer.
Tomorrow - Sunny and warm, High 64, Low 40
Sunday - Rain begins early, cloudy, High 75, Low 48
TWC: Tomorrow- Mostly sunny skies (showers after 10pm). High 69, Low 40
Sunday - Few showers. High 74, Low 48
AW: Tomorrow - Warmer with times of clouds and sun High 73, Low 37
Sunday - Rather cloudy and warm; a shower in the afternoon High 74, Low 48
NWS: Tomorrow - Rather cloudy and warm; a shower in the afternoon High 76, Low 36
Sunday - A chance of showers high 65, Low 50
WB: Tomorrow - Sunny. High 77, Low 35
Sunday - Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers in the afternoon High 66, Low 50
This is a stunning change in philosophy between two forecasting camps. Three forecasters have temperatures climbing from Saturday to Sunday, two have them dropping precipitously. Stunningly variant. We'll see how this goes. The satellite is seen below.
