The System Works

So today a simple winter snowstorm came through New Brunswick. It was clear this morning and the sky lowered and dumped about 15 cm of snow on the province. The key I think was that the humidity and temperature were both low and the snow was not sticking or melting. This meant that the cameras had a chance to collect images without snow or ice accumulation.

That meant that the cameras could be used as a reasonably accurate and current indication of both local weather and road conditions. The images at supper time were clear and useful like this one ...

From HWY171208

And this one ...

From HWY171208

The only problems I saw were The Cope Loop Road ...

From HWY171208

and Moncton - Dieppe

From HWY171208

So the system worked pretty much the way it was supposed to. And this is what the rest of the province looked like at suppertime.

What a Difference a Day Makes

From HWY081208

The storm was not as bad as expected, the worst was in the middle of the province near Fredericton. The snow came down wet and then the temperature dropped meaning that the snow froze. That made the roads trecherous.

The light was good this afternoon and the cameras were picking up details you don't normally see like the sea smoke in the harbour at Saint John.

From HWY081208

Or the river in behind the church in Durham Bridge.

From HWY081208

All in all the small amount of snow did make the province look "better". A couple of web cameras are down or obscured by the snow but it was not as bad as last time.

And this is what the rest of the province looked like:

A Quiet Waiting

From HWY051208

It seems that the province is quietly waiting for winter to come. We had our Remembrance Day storm and the snow from that system still lingers in many parts of the province.

From HWY051208

Some more than others.

From HWY051208

All in all the province has had a pretty mild fortnight since the last significant snow and the accumulated snow has pretty much melted away. That said, the province is expected to get a snow storm this weekend even though the extended forecast for this winter is mild and wet. We shall see.

Moncton continues to have its cameras blink off and on and are sticking to the dynamic image. MRDC Salisbury went fuzzy after the last snow storm and never came back to a crisp image. The traffic cameras proved to be less than totally useful in the last snow storm with the image lost to accumulated snow for many of the cameras. If the purpose of these cameras is to inform the travelling public what the current conditions are you would think that the cameras would be located with the following criteria:
1) accessible for maintenance (and the assumption of maintenance)
2) unobstructed view of the roadway
3) field of view such that an extended view of the roadway from near to far is observed.
4) orientation so that the rising or setting sun does not obscure the image
5) reasonably rapid change in image to reflect current conditions.

And yet many of the cameras seem to violate these simple ideals.

This is what the province looked like today:

The First Snow of the Season

There have been minor snow squalls around northern NB in the past little while but nothing that stands out and nothing that stayed on the ground.

Until yesterday. It would appear that the ground temperature was finally low enough to allow the snow to accumulate. The heaviest snow was in the south east to north east of the province from Moncton to Glenwood.

From HWY201108

From HWY201108

From HWY201108

Moncton is still fooling around with its cameras and has changed to a Flash image that is near real time. It makes image capture a bit of a hassle but they also had their cameras pointed directly into the snow storm as well.

From HWY201108

All in all I just liked this image ...

From HWY201108

And this is what the rest of the province looked like today ...

A Turn of the Season

The season has turned here in New Brunswick. Autumn was beautiful and mostly dry with some absolutely spectacular foliage. A couple of late wind / rain storms stripped the trees bare in less than a week and all that is left now are some isolated trees holding on for just a bit longer.

Your faithless blogger has been onto other things and only recently taken to knitting up the 'ravelled sleeve of care. I saw that the highway cameras have returned to their 20 min interval images and thought to take a set. I did capture the odd web camera photo over the past few months but really the low readership and my own interests have gone elsewhere.

I would note that Moncton has gone web camera in a big way with new views of Main Street looking both East and West, Centennial Park and the construction of the new stadium. They obviously took their cue from Fredericton's EZone cameras. Moncton has played around a bit and for a long time they had an uninformative view of a corner of the City Hall property. Just like the Fred Ezone cameras though they have a continual up-date that makes the images a bit more dynamic. I do like the almost calendar image that the Centennial Park camera gives.

Really otherwise the web cameras reveal New Brunswick to be a quiet place with little regular traffic. The CBC Saint John Harbour camera will catch the odd cruise ship.

And this is what the web cameras in New Brunswick revealed today ...

Green and Blue with no Tourists

From the stats this blog is not being read by anyone. Naturally since it is only updated monthly now. I will keep it alive at this minimal level for a while. The province as seen through the web cameras is mostly green and buggy. What is interesting is the low numbers of vehicles on the highways.

It would appear that the cost of fuel has had a strong effect on the people travelling within and through the province. The last few days there have been few (less than 5) times that I have seen a mobile home or trailer on the highway. This will not be good for the provinces tourism industry.

The Fred E-zone cameras caught the changing of the guard in from of City Hall today ...

And yesterday the Meductic camera died and faded to grey ...

But other than that it has been pretty much routine in the web cameras of NB. We shall see what this month brings.

And this is what the province looked like today:

The Green Planet Wakes Up

The defining colour of New Brunswick has gone from Winter white to Spring Brown to Freshet Blue and now Spring Green. The webcamera's have recorded the changes and are now mostly covered in bush green and sky blue with the occasional rain grey and cloud white.





I liked these images from this afternoon ...




And this one from this morning on the Aroostook



And this is what the province looked like this month.