GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Chance of showers first thing, clouds eventually yielding to sun, windy. The front that came through last night is bringing cold air behind it, so while we're going to see clouds clearing slowly over the course of the day, today's high will be in the low 40s, with temps starting drop early this afternoon to hit the low 20s overnight. We also get wind gusts in the 20-30 mph range today."Love is in the air." Naomi Hartov came up with the perfect tagline for her photo of the sky above the River Valley Club in Lebanon the other day.VT extends debris-burning ban for Windsor, Windham, Bennington, and Rutland counties. With fire danger rated as high in all four counties (as well as a good swath of Orange and Washington counties), the state Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation yesterday announced that a burn ban due to expire yesterday has been extended until next Monday in the state's four southern counties. "The continued dry weather outlook and the abundance of dry leaves and other fuels in Vermont’s forests, has increased the potential for wildfires to spread rapidly," the agency wrote. The winds aren't helping, either.
Here's the fire danger map for Vermont. In NH, the state rated fire danger yesterday as moderate.
The northern reaches of both states are rated as "abnormally dry" by the US Drought Monitor, while southern areas are in moderate drought. Here's the map for Vermont, and here's the map for New Hampshire.
You know how your brain sometimes takes a holiday? That work I mentioned yesterday on I-89 southbound over the Connecticut is scheduled for
next week
and one day the week after. Apologies to everyone. I'll post a reminder next Tuesday, when the work is scheduled to begin (there'll be no Daybreak next Monday.) Thank you to all you sharp-eyed readers out there.
SPONSORED: The soft light and snuggly weather of late autumn are superb for family photography! Book a family portrait session with Britton Mann and you'll come away joyful, with images perfect for holiday cards, mantelpieces, and albums. If you've never done a photo shoot like this, don't be intimidated—Britton has a knack for crafting carefree photo sessions for everyone involved. Sponsored by Britton Mann Photography.Want to guess how "putrescine" gets its name? Imagine being a scientist studying the corpse flower. It blooms once every five to seven years, and when it does, it's brief. "We only get a small window to study these phenomena," Dartmouth bio prof—and horror fiction writer—Eric Schaller tells Dartmouth News' Harini Barath. Schaller led a team that collected tissue samples from Morphy, the college's 21-year-old corpse flower, at bloom time. In a new study, they report on the genes behind the plant's ability to heat itself up just before blooming—and on the molecules behind the plant's stench.Last independent nursing home in the Upper Valley sold to Connecticut pair. The Woodlawn Care Center in Newport, NH serves 53 residents—about half the size of the average nursing home in the country, reports Clare Shanahan in the Valley News—and is "like Main Street Newport," its administrator says. Chris Martin, who's owned the home since 2010, tells Shanahan he sold it Nov. 1 to a pair of nursing home managers from Waterbury, CT, because “it’s hard to be an independent.” He adds, "I feel good about the transition and the new owners taking over.”SPONSORED: Strafford general store seeks soul mate. The Strafford Community Trust is searching for the perfect match to run our town’s general store. Are you ready to fall in love with your new business? If you have retail experience, love small towns, and want to become an integral part of a close-knit, welcoming community, we have the place for you! Learn more at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by the Strafford Community Trust. Hunting coyotes may have helped them thrive. The question that confronted a team at UNH looking at data from over 4,500 camera traps set up across the country was why they were seeing more coyotes in places where hunting was allowed. Their conclusion: "Intensive coyote removal can obviously reduce populations in the short-term," says life sciences prof Remington Moll, "but removal can also result in younger coyote populations with higher reproduction and immigration rates." Black bears and pumas seem to reduce coyote numbers; on the other hand, coyotes do quite well in suburban fringe areas.UNH institute lands $24 million to create space weather sensors. And they're not just any sensors, reports NHPR's Mara Hoplamazian. The Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (you might remember reading about it last week) will work with NASA, NOAA, and a Johns Hopkins team to build two sensors that will fly at 1 percent of the distance from the earth to the sun, watching for dangerous solar winds—like coronal mass ejections—that can harm satellites, electronics, and other modern conveniences vulnerable to electromagnetic disruption.On-duty Shelburne VT police officer strikes, kills bicyclist in South Burlington. It happened around 2:45 am yesterday, the VT State Police say in their press release: The officer "was headed south on U.S. Route 7 (Shelburne Road)...[when] the cruiser struck a southbound cyclist pulling a trailer. It was raining and dark, and the road was wet at the time of the crash." The 38-year-old cyclist was pronounced dead at the scene. South Burlington police yesterday asked the VSP to take over the lead in the investigation.UVM program aims to place mental health grad students in rural VT schools. The program's modeled on a similar effort in Montana, and was brought to the state by counseling prof Anna Elliott. “Vermont mental health needs are pervasive and complex and they’re currently underserved and this is a way to reach them,” she tells VTDigger intern Klara Bauters. The program is aimed both at training mental health professionals so they're prepared for the rural areas they serve, and then to give them an incentive to stay on.Neither snow, nor rain... But a glut of packages? That's a problem for the USPS. As a Northeastern U prof argues to Burgess Brown in a new episode of VT Public's Brave Little State, the postal service was key to early free speech in the US. But as Brown's episode on everything ailing the USPS in Vermont these days makes clear, that was long ago. On his tour, Brown gets pointers from Caitlin Hopkins, who grew up in Pomfret and now runs the state postal workers union. In brief, she says, high package volume, cost-cutting measures from on high, and a tough workplace culture are all cutting into the workforce.Why, Jupiter, you look stunning! Seriously. There's a new crop of photos from NASA's Juno mission—its 66th "perijove", or close approach of the planet, which happened late last month. PetaPixel's got a bunch, processed by community contributors who processed the raw data from JunoCam. Here's NASA's page of images from various perijoves.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
We may be the middle of nowhere to everyone else in VT and NH, but
we
know what's good! Strong Rabbit's Morgan Brophy has come up with the perfect design for "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Plus you'll find the Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, as well as sweatshirts, tees, a fleece hoodie, and, as always, the fits-every-hand-perfectly Daybreak mug. Check it all out at the link!
As part of this year's election series, the Rockefeller Center is hosting
New Yorker
writer and Harvard Law School prof Jeannie Suk Gersen and Yale Law School's Keith Whittington for a conversation about recent Supreme Court decisions, their effect on the 2024 elections, and what lies ahead. They'll be talking with Dartmouth political scientists Herschel Nachlis and Sonu Bedi. 5 pm in Filene Auditorium and online.
Lots of powder, lots of chutes, snowboarders and skiers doing stuff the rest of us can only gape at, from Canada, Finland, Japan, and Austria to Colorado, California, Utah, Alaska, and... New Jersey. 7 pm.
The Tuesday poem.
Some people like to relaxand kick back with their friendsjust talking and having a drink which is obviouslyhighly pleasurable. Some people like to be entertainedby music or a movie;some people like to make some jokeswith people they like,maybe at a baror at someone’s house... But sometimes people like to thrust themselvesinto the howling wind and snow,arms tied behind their backs. I prefer to open my mouth wide open knowing what will happenif I’m just holding my mouth open, ready to respond or yell or whatever seems appropriate. You know, I keep my mouth at the ready to make a lot of noise. And sometimes it becomes filledwith hard packed snow or with sand, sand being more of a problem,since, you know,it won’t melt.—
From
by
.
See you tomorrow.
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers, writers, and librarians who think you should read. this. book. now!
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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