[at-l] What I hope to be a prompting for further research...

[RoksnRoots@aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

In a message dated 6/14/2002 10:47:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
saunterer@jimbullard.org writes:


> R&R:
> >You have to be careful here. I'm sure the Maine records are taken at the 
> >capitol or Portland at a very low altitude
> 
> moi:
> That's an assumption unless you have evidence.  I presented the evidence I 
> found in my research.  Discounting evidence with assumptions is not 
> furthering anything.  Even if that's true the charts compare weather data 
> from 1936 to weather data up through the present.  How often is it true 
> that there is snow on most the AT in June that is drifted and requires 
> breaking trail?


     ~~~ Even if the 34* state mean temperature is an accumulated average 
from various recording stations, the mountain mean where the AT is was 
probably 10* below that. What I'm saying is that this record does not 
necessarily reflect a snow negative condition on the actual Trail route and 
could even assist Gordon's statement. It isn't really an "assumption" to say 
that 3000 ft ridges will be much colder than the spot where those 
temperatures were recorded. What is record "warm" for March in Maine can be 
downright freezing. It is also possible for floods to originate down away 
from the ridgetops where the rains managed to reach and melt the snowpack 
down there. Above that, from say 2000 feet and up there's absolutely no 
reason to doubt that heavy snow was falling during the same period. In this 
case, it would be possible to have a deep snowpack on the Trail while having 
severe snowmelt below. This deep wet snow could then have frozen hard in the 
below average April and made a long lasting hardened base. I suggest that 
this mountain snow load perhaps lead to the mention you noted of the winter 
of 1936 being a heavy snow year. The nominal snow record you quoted was 
probably from Augusta.  As for Max, well nearly sixty years later, he could 
only remember these extraordinary mountain snowpacks on the Tail as being 
continuous. After all, they would have been for every peak above 3000 feet in 
those circumstances. He was a 15 year old city boy. It could have been a new 
and daunting experience that lead to enlarged memories of prolonged 
slogging...
      I do believe that lingering ridgetop snow bases are common for a bad 
snow year into June. These base accumulations piled up into crevices could 
appear like "drifts" to an inexperienced Bronx boy. Rafe's example shows 
this, and his experience was 250 miles south. I'm sure there are anecdotes 
about this from many of the Maine listers...  


> 
> R&R:
> >Besides that, a mean temperature of 34 degrees means it got down to 24 at 
> >night, in the mountains maybe even 7 degrees.
> 
> moi:
> True, the temperatures undoubtedly were colder at night but they also had 
> to be warmer during the day.  When the mean temperature is above freezing 
> snow melts, it does not accumulate.
> 


     ~~~ The mountain effect only needed to subtract 2 degrees from that 
average to have a snow stable mean. I'm convinced that Maine average mean 
temperature for March 1936 was not measured up by the AT. Additionally, April 
was abnormally cold! If I'm not mistaken, you could be proving his case...


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---