Don't put the summer clothes away yet!
Update #414
Good morning! A bit nippy out there again. Montgomery has dipped to 34, Monticello 34, and Poughkeepsie 35 — just 2 degrees above the record low.
Some Hudson Valley communities observed their first frost on Saturday morning and with low temperatures in the middle 30s during the next two nights, patchy frost will be possible.
But don’t put the summer clothes away just yet. A substantial warming trend is expected this week, with the mercury again reaching toward 80 degrees from Thursday onward.
The smoke from the wildfires in California and Oregon sat high in the Hudson Valley sky earlier this week. For the upcoming week, some minor amounts of smoke could pass over the region later on Tuesday and again Thursday, but it doesn’t look as significant as what we experienced previously.
The working week
Both Monday and Tuesday morning will be crisp. You’ll want to have a sweater or sweatshirt if you head out the door early. The afternoons will be very pleasant, with Tuesday the warmer day of the two.
From Tuesday into Wednesday, Hurricane Teddy is expected to pass well to the east of the region, most likely making landfall in Nova Scotia. The only noticeable impact for the Hudson Valley will be an uptick in winds on Wednesday, which will come with temperatures well into the 70s.
Teddy could have some grisly impacts in Nova Scotia on Tuesday-Wednesday
After a mostly sunny start to the week, some clouds will advance into the region on Thursday. Nevertheless, warm and dry conditions are expected.
Friday will see the weather turn warmer yet as a ridge of high pressure begins to build near the eastern seaboard, allowing for the development of a southerly air flow.
The weekend
The weekend will see the southerly air flow continue along with warmer than average temperatures. At this point, dry weather is favored for Saturday.
Sunday might also be dry, although a front looks to slowly approach from the west from the late weekend into the early part of the following week. Heads up for some unsettled weather if you have plans around that time, from about the 27th to the 30th.
Overall, the week of the 28th could come with a proper fall chill following this week’s warmth.
Greetings from New Zealand’s South Island
My fiancée, Kate, and I have been road-tripping around and I wanted to share a few photos with you. We visited one of the country’s most picturesque places, Aoraki/Mt Cook, and the views were nothing short of stunning — movies are commonly filmed here and it isn’t hard to understand why.
So much going on in this first shot! The freshly snow-capped mountains, an unreal “pancake” stack of lenticular clouds, the blue Tasman Lake, and a melting glacier off in the distance (left). Decades ago, this lake actually didn’t exist. It has been growing larger over time as the glacier melts amid our warming world. One day, the glacier will be gone and only the lake will be left. Beautiful but sad at the same time.
This next photo was captured on the path to Mt Cook. The whole walk isn’t this easy, I promise! We were lashed by icy sleet showers on the route and witnessed an avalanche off in the distance, but as you’ll see, the view at the end is worth it.
At the end of the track, another glacial lake and New Zealand’s tallest mountain (Mt Cook, at center, 12,300 ft) 😍
The track includes multiple swing bridges, which sway in the wind and bounce when you walk on them.
Now for some aerial shots! I scoped this spot out on maps before the trip — it’s the point at which the beautiful glacial Lake Tekapo meets a series of rivers. The trip is about 30 miles on unpaved roads to get to this spot, followed by an off-road path to the edge of the lake. In other words, this isn’t a common destination, which, for me, added to its allure.
A question I frequently get: Why are New Zealand's lakes so blue?
Over the last 250,000 years, the advance and retreat of glaciers left "rock flour", equivalent to the sawdust of mountain rock (also called glacial silt), suspended in some lakes. It's so fine that it becomes suspended in the water rather than sinking to the bottom, reflecting greens and blues to our eyes! That’s what generates the turquoise color in a nutshell.
Here’s the spot in the middle of the lake bed where I launched the drone. Because winter was very dry in these parts, I was able to walk way out into the valley. In a rainy year, this spot would be inaccessible on foot.
Hope you enjoyed this virtual journey to New Zealand! Perhaps these photos will bump the far-flung country up your destination list when international travel becomes less restricted.
For those wondering, the aerial photos were taken with a DJI Spark drone. The rest were taken with a GoPro HERO 7 Black or iPhone 11.
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