Here are some links that I have found useful while peakbagging in New England. Since I do most of my hiking in New Hampshire there are far more links for that state than for the others.
Reference Material
The National Weather Service (NWS) has put together Jetstream – An Online School for Weather which has lots of information about weather and about the NWS products. Two sections that I found particularly useful are the descriptions of the Forecast-at-a-Glance page and the Doppler radar system.
You can use the following form to check for weather in any location the NWS system knows, using either City,St or zip code.
Another excellent resource is the book Practical Mountain Weather A Guide for Hikers, Climbers and Skiers by Dr. John Papineau, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Anchorage, Alaska.
New Hampshire
-
The National Weather Service forecasting office for New Hampshire and
Maine is the Gray/Portland
office, which offers a variety of services. The links I use most
often follow, there is much more information available on the main
page.
- Standard radar map and loop; storm total rainfall; enhanced map and loop. A wider area can be seen in the (enhanced) radar mosaic of the Northeast Sector. (See NWS Doppler on the web for a discussion of standard and enhanced versions of the radar maps.)
- Standard forecasts (point based) for Woodstock, Twin Mountain, Bretton Woods, Jackson, Gorham and Center Sandwich.
- Graphic forecasts (county based) for Northern Grafton, Northern Carroll, Southern Coos and Southern Carroll counties.
- Recreation Report for New Hampshire and Western Maine gives a two day forecast for higher elevations (separate forecasts for elevations of 2,500 to 4,000 feet and for above 4,000 feet).
- Current conditions: Mt. Washington, Berlin, Whitefield, Laconia and Plymouth, PSU and NWS
- Daily Streamflow Conditions, NH, very useful for assessing water levels for hikes with stream crossings.
- WMUR (NH) Weather, with a discussion of what is driving the forecast, the current forecast for north country and a northeast radar map
- Mt. Washington Observatory, which has a valley forecast, Higher Summits Forecast (for two days), the avalanche report (seasonal), a Summit Weather Archive and Webcams
- Randolph Mountain Club conditions in the Northern Presidentials for winter conditions in the area of their camps.
- Eye on the Sky forecast for the VT, NH and adjacent NY areas.
- I use Accuweather mainly for their hourly forecasts: Campton, Lincoln, Randolph, Twin Mountain, Bretton Woods, Jackson and Center Sandwich.
- Plymouth State College Weather Center and NH Zone forecasts (text only)
- New Hampshire Road Conditions (DOT), which cover all of Vermont and much of Maine. There is a similar site for all of Maine. All are part of the Northern New England Traffic and Travel Info system, available on the web or by dialing 511. The NH DOT has a description of the system.
Other Northeastern States
- Massachusetts forecasts; standard radar map and loop; enhanced map and loop; Boston forecast and current conditions. Also from Boston Channel (WCVB).
- Burlington, VT, includes Keene, NY (for the Adirondacks).
- Caribou Office forecasts, includes Millinocket.
- Albany Office (New York and Western New England)
US or Regional
- National Weather Service home page, forecast offices, Snow Information, Current Conditions and Hurricane Center.
- Accuweather and their wide area radar map covering NY, PA and much of NJ as well as New England.
- INTELLICAST
- Weather Underground
- The Weather Channel