Monthly Archives: March 2018

We’re seeing lots of smiling faces around Plymouth’s campus lately! Despite the fact that a lot of Plymouth’s student body likes to ski, I think we were all very ready for spring! Meteorological spring began on March 1st but it wasn’t until astronomical spring (March 21st) where Plymouth began experiencing some actual spring-like weather. This past week we’ve felt very mild, 50 degree temperatures along with warm sun to wash away our winter blues. Studies show that people who live in the northern latitudes tend to be very vitamin D deprived because they receive much less solar radiation than  midlatitudes. The sun is the greatest natural source of vitamin D, which is a vitamin that has been proven to boost serotonin levels in the brain and elevate mood!

It’s so nice to finally have most of the snow gone and see grass again–a thing that, after a long winter of nor’easters, seems so foreign. People have been breaking out the longboards and roller blades around campus and are taking advantage of the nice weather. It’s wonderful to see people out of their dorms and enjoying being outside again. The overall vibe of the campus seems a lot brighter and happier. Hopefully the mild temperatures stick around!

Here is a link to check out our long-range forecast yourself:

https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/nh/plymouth?cm_ven=localwx_10day

A photo I took of Boyd Science Center yesterday when we experienced sun and a high of 55

Posted by krb1038 in Significant events

Welcome! I’m an undergraduate Meteorology major at Plymouth State University and in this blog I’ll be talking all about the weather we experience here in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Today I’ll be discussing the nor’easter that we endured last Tuesday, March 13th. This was the third nor’easter to strike the northeast, and it brought blizzard conditions to much of New England, especially the coast. Here in Plymouth we were under a winter storm warning and meteorologists were predicting that we could’ve seen anywhere from ten to fifteen inches of powder. Well, while many New Hampshire counties did experience hefty snowfall amounts, the university did not. PSU took action and heeded the warnings by cancelling all classes for the 13th and calling a snow day. However, the road conditions outside and around campus seemed up to par throughout the entirety of the day. It turns out we only received about five inches of snow.

So, why did this happen? A Meteorology grad student explained to me that it had to do with the weather phenomenon called “down sloping.” A lot of snow  fall forecasts don’t take the valleys into account. Because PSU is surrounded by so many mountains, the flakes are huge a couple thousand feet up, but evaporate by the time they reach us. So, we ended up having pretty small snowflakes throughout the entirety of the storm, which resulted in much lower snowfall amounts than predicted. But, it’s good that the university always stays on the safe side by heeding winter storm warnings. Aside from Winter Storm Skylar, it looks as though Plymouth could experience yet another nor’easter next week!

Here is a photo of the map wall in the Plymouth State Weather Center on the day of Winter Storm Skylar. The link to our weather center website is http://vortex.plymouth.edu/ 

Posted by krb1038 in Significant events