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NNE Spring 2012


ctsnowstorm628

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Montpelier now at 73, already 19 degrees above their previous record max for today. I find it hard to believe the max record was only 54 however.

http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=BTV&issuedby=BTV&product=RER&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1&highlight=off

MPV (KNAPP STATE AIRPORT IN MONTPELIER VT)...66F CURRENTLY WITH PREVIOUS

RECORD OF 54F IN 2003.

MPV records only go back to 1948 which is half of the record period that Burlington and St J have. Still they are beating anything in the past 60 years by 10-20F daily. That's amazing.

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This is pretty incredible. Last night was the coolest in a few days, 38, some cool valley fog this morning. We made it to 80 too. Things are really taking off, iris's are up, croci :) , garlic has popped up, even have peepers, WTF!

IMG_2910.jpg

The morning sunrises have been amazing all week. I am reminded of N. ME sometimes here in the NEK.

IMG_2913.jpg

One of our Maples is leafing out. this really can't be good so early.

IMG_2914.jpg

still heard the pump for one of the sugarhouses going this morning, I think things are winding down though, word is it has run like mad this week, but for a bunch of places quantity has been down 50+%

Pretty unreal stretch of weather.

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I noticed one species of tree that was leafing out up at the ski resort and I gotta think green on trees at 1500ft on the east side of one of the snowiest mountains in the northeast in mid/late March is something we won't see again for a long time. I wonder what the west side looks like which gets the afternoon sun!

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Yeah sh*t is gonna hit the fan if we get a significant snowfall at lower elevations in like mid April or something. I fully expect leaf out here at lower elevations by late April.

I'll post some pics later of 2010 but the same exact thing happened...record warmth in late March and early April (low of 60F on April 3 at ski area after high of 84) caused early leaf out, then we got a storm that will be hard to beat on April 29th.... 6" at BTV in the valley bottom, I had 8" at 330ft in Jonesville, and above 800ft had 12-24".... Mansfield ended up with a couple feet.

We had snow cover on May 1st because of that two years ago. Tree damage wasn't that too bad though.

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I'll post some pics later of 2010 but the same exact thing happened...record warmth in late March and early April (low of 60F on April 3 at ski area after high of 84) caused early leaf out, then we got a storm that will be hard to beat on April 29th.... 6" at BTV in the valley bottom, I had 8" at 330ft in Jonesville, and above 800ft had 18"+.... Mansfield ended up with a couple feet.

We had snow cover on May 1st because of that two years ago. Tree damage wasn't that too bad though.

Yeah I've seen the time lapse from LSC on the 29th, and they got 12" but 80% of it melted by the 30th. Plus leaf out wasn't done by that time (at least thats what it looked like).

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Warmest day here so far--76 for a high, back down to 74 now.

Just got home after leaving the house closed up this morning. 12 degrees cooler in the house than out. ;)

Dropped back to 68 now outside, still 78.9 inside :axe:

Have every window in the house open now after being closed during peak heating today. Pretty nice little breeze coming through. High ended up being 84.6, when I ran down to the gas station this afternoon, the car thermometer read an 86 degree ambient air temp. Wonder if tomorrow will indeed top today's temps here, although it looks to be a near lock for five days in a row of temps in the 80's.

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I'll post some pics later of 2010 but the same exact thing happened...record warmth in late March and early April (low of 60F on April 3 at ski area after high of 84) caused early leaf out, then we got a storm that will be hard to beat on April 29th.... 6" at BTV in the valley bottom, I had 8" at 330ft in Jonesville, and above 800ft had 12-24".... Mansfield ended up with a couple feet.

We had snow cover on May 1st because of that two years ago. Tree damage wasn't that too bad though.

I posted about the 2010 storm on the original absurd warmth thread a few days back. Great pic's in the old Eastern WX thread.

Only two years ago in 2010, we had a hot Easter weekend and we got to 82 all the way up here in Peacham on Saturday the 3rd.. We actually had a wading pool out to play in during the afternoon. On the 17th we had a couple of inches of snow and then on the 27th/28th we had 14 inches of snow and much of northern Vermont got over a foot. I think the April 27, 28 storm is still the biggest snowfall i have gotten in our three winters in this house. Here is the old Eastern WX thread which covers the heat as well as the storm. I believe the storm photos and totals are at page 19, 20. My last post on it said 10 inches but we were not done with the snow yet and my memory is we topped out at 14 inches.

http://www.easternus...d/page__st__340

Here is the storm report

http://www.erh.noaa....ports/index.php

VERMONT

...ADDISON COUNTY...

SOUTH LINCOLN 12.0 623 PM 4/28 SPOTTER

CORNWALL 4.0 816 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

SALISBURY 2 N 4.0 400 PM 4/28 COOP

...CALEDONIA COUNTY...

WALDEN 20.0 300 PM 4/28 SPOTTER

WATERFORD 18.0 1033 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

HARDWICK 0.1 ENE 16.0 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

STANNARD 14.3 1059 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

WALDEN 13.6 700 AM 4/28 COOP

WATERFORD 13.0 1130 AM 4/28 PUBLIC

LYNDONVILLE 11.5 930 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

SUTTON 11.1 705 AM 4/28 COOP

SHEFFIELD 2.8 NNW 11.0 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

SAINT JOHNSBURY 10.2 400 PM 4/28 COOP

PEACHAM 10.0 635 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

LYNDONVILLE 1.1 W 8.5 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

GROTON 4.4 WSW 4.5 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

...CHITTENDEN COUNTY...

NASHVILLE 1 E 23.5 200 PM 4/28 NWS EMPLOYEE

NORTH UNDERHILL 23.5 317 PM 4/28 NWS EMPLOYEE

JERICHO 17.0 805 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

HUNTINGTON 1.1 E 14.8 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

WESTFORD 14.7 626 AM 4/28 NWS EMPLOYEE

HANKSVILLE 10.3 700 AM 4/28 COOP

WILLISTON VILLAGE 10.0 726 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

WILLISTON 8.5 821 AM 4/28 NWS EMPLOYEE

ESSEX JUNCTION 1 N 7.5 800 PM 4/28 COOP

ESSEX CENTER 7.0 940 AM 4/28 NWS EMPLOYEE

ESSEX CENTER 6.8 720 AM 4/28 NWS EMPLOYEE

SOUTH BURLINGTON 5.5 150 PM 4/28 NWS OFFICE

CHARLOTTE 2.9 NNE 2.7 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

...ESSEX COUNTY...

ISLAND POND 4.0 850 AM 4/28 COOP

...FRANKLIN COUNTY...

SHELDON SPRINGS 16.5 730 AM 4/28 AMATEUR RADIO

RICHFORD 14.5 730 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

SAINT ALBANS 13.0 541 AM 4/28 NWS EMPLOYEE

ENOSBURG FALLS 2 12.0 700 AM 4/28 COOP

HIGHGATE 10.0 650 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

SWANTON 6.1 700 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

...GRAND ISLE COUNTY...

ISLE LA MOTTE 3.5 625 PM 4/28 SPOTTER

SOUTH HERO 2.0 624 PM 4/28 SPOTTER

...LAMOILLE COUNTY...

JEFFERSONVILLE 24.3 148 PM 4/28 SPOTTER

EDEN 2 S 21.0 1240 PM 4/28 COOP

MOUNT MANSFIELD 21.0 400 PM 4/28 COOP

PLEASANT VALLEY 20.0 1135 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

JEFFERSONVILLE 19.0 832 AM 4/28 COOP

STOWE 0.2 SW 7.4 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

STOWE 6.5 830 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

...ORANGE COUNTY...

CHELSEA 2 NW 3.0 700 AM 4/28 COOP

CORINTH 1.3 700 AM 4/28 COOP

STRAFFORD 1.0 830 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

...ORLEANS COUNTY...

GREENSBORO BEND 15.2 632 PM 4/28 SPOTTER

BROWNINGTON 12.0 1212 PM 4/28 SPOTTER

BARTON 11.5 800 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

BARTON 3.0 ENE 10.5 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

DERBY CENTER 1.8 NW 10.0 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

WESTFIELD 0.7 WNW 8.5 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

NEWPORT 7.5 700 AM 4/28 COOP

MORGAN 6.7 SE 7.1 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

MORGAN 7.0 625 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

...RUTLAND COUNTY...

RUTLAND 1.4 700 AM 4/28 COOP

...WASHINGTON COUNTY...

CALAIS 19.0 1045 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

CABOT 3.9 ENE 18.5 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

NORTH CALAIS 16.0 945 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

MARSHFIELD 4.5 SW 11.5 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

WATERBURY CENTER 10.5 845 AM 4/28 SPOTTER

WATERBURY CENTER 9.0 730 AM 4/28 AMATEUR RADIO

NORTHFIELD 3 W 8.2 1110 AM 4/28 NWS EMPLOYEE

WATERBURY 4.6 NNE 8.1 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

PLAINFIELD 8.0 730 AM 4/28 COOP

WATERBURY 3.0 NW 6.1 700 AM 4/28 COCORAHS

WAITSFIELD 2 W 3.0 700 AM 4/28 COOP

NORTHFIELD 1.0 710 AM 4/28 COOP

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Well, topped out at 77 here yesterday after a morning low of 39.

It's 40 this morning, so maybe we'll make a run at 80 today with a higher launching pad. ;)

The ice on Lake Morey in Fairlee went out yesterday some time. I was at the lake two days ago and there was still ice but when I looked at the webcam yesterday evening, I saw nothing but water. A full three weeks early...

The ice (and open water) I saw a couple days ago:

6858213664_6622e17a9c.jpg

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Back down to upper 30s this morning, after yesterday's 79/33. One more chance to reach 80... On Long Pond (Belgrade) the ice has pulled 20' away from the shoreline and is shading toward black. Some years the April 1 opener finds a dozen anglers crowded into an acre or two of open water at the spillway; this year the whole pond will be ice-free.

Turkey gobbled from across the beaver pond as I walked out to the pickup at 6:10. I gobbled back (not very realistically) and a 2nd bird let loose from quite nearby and in the opposite direction. We're surrounded!

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The snow has finally melted out in the yard as of today, so March 21st will go down as the last day for this season’s continuous yard snowpack. Not surprisingly, this is well ahead of the average calculated from the data collected over the previous five seasons, which is April 15th ± 10 days. It’s a rather limited data set, but it suggests that this season is quite an aberration, coming in 2.5 standard deviations ahead of the mean value. Another note of interest is that the snow at the stake didn’t melt out until March 15th this season, just six days before the snow in the yard did. Usually, the gap between the stake going to zero and the yard melting out is more than two weeks, but with a stretch of roughly 80 F temperatures for days, it’s not surprising that the interval would be shortened. Some of the snowfall/snowpack numbers from this season have been quite impressive, and with only a six-season data set, they are certainly having an impact on the calculated averages; thus it could take a little while to pull things back toward what are likely to be more representative mean values. One potential “psychological” upside of that effect though, depending on one’s perspective on snow, is a chance to exceed average values more easily.

I’ve added a couple of similarly interesting observations from data sets below as well. The first comes from up above our location in the mountains at Bolton Valley, and it’s the table I’ve been generating that contains their snowfall numbers from the past six seasons. Prior to incorporation of this season’s data, the five year mean for snowfall was pretty close (a few percent below) the reported long-term value of 312”, with the most notable deviation being ‘09-‘10 at 18.6% below average. This season’s current snowfall of 159” produces a deviation of -49.0%, which is in an entirely different league, and I cannot recall seeing such a low number around here. Since Bolton is planning to close for the season after this coming weekend, the 159” number for total snowfall will likely stand, but I’ve colored it in blue for now:

BVsnowfalltable.jpg

It is interesting to note that just a few miles up the spine, the current deviation in Stowe’s reported snowfall (which I calculate at -38.4%) is not quite as great, but that’s not surprising as there were a few storms this season where the drop off in storm totals occurred between Bolton and Stowe, and the western slopes were not targeted with events quite as much as usual.

Continuing in the Stowe area, other data set I find interesting is the snowpack plot from the Mt. Mansfield Stake:

1112skivt-lmansfieldsnowpack.jpg

It’s amazing to see the dramatic combination of such a rapid climb above average snowpack depth, with the precipitous drop that has been taking place more recently. Typically, the snowpack should still be increasing at this point in the season, so that makes the drop even more notable. The plot is obviously not complete yet, but this season will certainly stand out when plotted among many of the others.

What also surprised me this season was how the skiing remained so good in the Northern Greens, despite the generally low snowfall and snowpack numbers. Obviously “good” is a subjective term, but I’d say I’m definitely on the fastidious end of the spectrum with regard to snow conditions, so if anything the analysis would be overly critical. Looking back at my detailed reports, we skied powder every weekend/holiday since early/mid December, with this past weekend being the first one without it. That’s not necessarily that unusual, but it’s more notable in such a low snowfall season. The storm at the end of February that catapulted snow depth to the above average level really helped boost the overall feel of the midwinter period, but even without that storm, somehow the quality of the skiing was quite good. It was probably just a combination of good storm timing, along with the Greens doing their usual thing of capturing enough snow after mixed precipitation events to provide a good snow surface. It’s quite surprising to say this, but I’d say that the typical on piste conditions we experienced at Stowe this season were actually better than what we experienced last season. Powderfreak has mentioned that lack of big rain events this season having an impact on the snow surfaces, and that likely has something to do with it. The biggest detractors from the season that I noted were the way it seemed to take forever for the base to build, and the way that it has now dropped off quickly, but that has the greatest effect on off piste skiing. Still, off piste skiing is most of what we like to do when we’re on the mountain, and somehow it felt pretty typical. This season won’t go down as an epic one, but in terms of our typical ski experience, I honestly have to put this season about average. That seems at the same time weird, but also comforting to realize that the mountains can get in the range of half of their normal snowfall and still produce a good season in terms of natural snow skiing.

On a related note, Bob Minsenberger mentioned that there was snow in the forecast when I heard his broadcast this morning, and I see it mentioned in the BTV NWS point forecasts for the local mountain and even valley locations, so that’s certainly a change of pace from the past 10 days or so.

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Turkey gobbled from across the beaver pond as I walked out to the pickup at 6:10. I gobbled back (not very realistically) and a 2nd bird let loose from quite nearby and in the opposite direction. We're surrounded!

Love it. Not hearing them by my house yet but I haven't had the bird feeders out. Been calling the last few mornings with no response. Can't wait to get the first answer.

Anyway, the ridiculous heat will be ending tonight but not before making some history. Info below is from CAR :

On Sunday, both Caribou and Bangor shattered records with Bangor's

76F being the earliest 70F+ reading on record, and Caribou's 64F

being the earliest 60F+ reading on record.

On Monday, Bangor also set a new record with a high temperature of

68F.

On Tuesday, Caribou and Bangor shattered records again with 73F and

78F respectively. Caribou's 73F Tuesday was the earliest 70F+

reading on record (previous record earliest was Mar 30). On Tuesday

Caribou broke the previous daily record high by 23F and bangor by

20F.

On Wednesday, Caribou got even warmer with 75F. This set a new

all-time record for the month of March.

On Wednesday and Thursday (as of 3pm Thu), Bangor hit 83F. This

also set a new all-time record for the month of March for Bangor and

was the earliest 80F+ reading on record (previous earliest 80F+ was

April 11). Caribou's high on Thursday was 73F, easily setting a

daily record.

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81F.

Have a few smaller trees here leafing out. Every bug imaginable seems to be out already.

My 6" soil temp is up to 46F and it may climb another degree or 2 this evening. For perspective here are the first days my soil temp hit 46F since I installed it...

2007: 4/20

2008: 4/17

2009: 4/10

2010: 4/1

2011: 4/12

2012: 3/22

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I pulled the snowstakes today.... a trace (patches) is left at the 1,500ft stake and 20-24" up at 3,000ft. I just can't really get to the 3,000ft stake anymore as there's running water everywhere. I had to cross two swiftly moving channels and broke through another snow bridge, filling my boots with water, haha. Took me a half hour to go 150 feet into the woods grab the gear and come back out... its usually a very easy traverse in and out.

IMG_3695_edited-1.jpg

Last visit to the snow study plot for the season... hopefully I can accumulate a lot more than 205" on the snow board next winter. Final visit of the season shows around two feet on the ground which has to be near some sort of record for 3,000ft on Mansfield at a time when the snowpack should still be rising or maxing out. It was 73" here at the beginning of the month. That's a 4 foot melt so far. The snow board is turned upside down because we found the porcupines like to eat the wood. There must be something in the treated wood that they like cause once the sun comes out they start eating that stuff like candy.

IMG_3700_edited-1.jpg

And as we say goodbye to the natural snow, here's a photo that pretty much sums up the week...

This is out on the trail by the snow stakes... natural snow is getting eaten away by running water. This isn't even a creek bed, there's just water pouring through the forests and trails. My last snow survey about 10 days ago showed over a foot of water in the snowpack up here, so that's a lot of water to get rid of in 5-7 days. Equivalent of like 14" of rainfall in a week.

IMG_3689_edited-1.jpg

Everywhere is incredibly undermined too... the woods are ridiculous with running water under everywhere. Just water pouring off the mountain. Like getting through the woods you end up hearing this rush of water but can't see anything. Look down and use the tree-wells to see to the ground and find swiftly flowing water around the base of every tree.

IMG_3732_edited-1.jpg

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I pulled the snowstakes today.... a trace (patches) is left at the 1,500ft stake and 20-24" up at 3,000ft. I just can't really get to the 3,000ft stake anymore as there's running water everywhere. I had to cross two swiftly moving channels and broke through another snow bridge, filling my boots with water, haha. Took me a half hour to go 150 feet into the woods grab the gear and come back out... its usually a very easy traverse in and out.

IMG_3695_edited-1.jpg

Last visit to the snow study plot for the season... hopefully I can accumulate a lot more than 205" on the snow board next winter. Final visit of the season shows around two feet on the ground which has to be near some sort of record for 3,000ft on Mansfield at a time when the snowpack should still be rising or maxing out. It was 73" here at the beginning of the month. That's a 4 foot melt so far. The snow board is turned upside down because we found the porcupines like to eat the wood. There must be something in the treated wood that they like cause once the sun comes out they start eating that stuff like candy.

IMG_3700_edited-1.jpg

And as we say goodbye to the natural snow, here's a photo that pretty much sums up the week...

This is out on the trail by the snow stakes... natural snow is getting eaten away by running water. This isn't even a creek bed, there's just water pouring through the forests and trails. My last snow survey about 10 days ago showed over a foot of water in the snowpack up here, so that's a lot of water to get rid of in 5-7 days. Equivalent of like 14" of rainfall in a week.

IMG_3689_edited-1.jpg

Everywhere is incredibly undermined too... the woods are ridiculous with running water under everywhere. Just water pouring off the mountain. Like getting through the woods you end up hearing this rush of water but can't see anything. Look down and use the tree-wells to see to the ground and find swiftly flowing water around the base of every tree.

IMG_3732_edited-1.jpg

Amazing and sad at the same time. Just ridiculous how fast the snow and ice is going.

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Yeah I've seen the time lapse from LSC on the 29th, and they got 12" but 80% of it melted by the 30th. Plus leaf out wasn't done by that time (at least thats what it looked like).

Yeah I don't know what it was like in the interior but I know west of the Spine there was at least some leaves on the trees...

These are my photos from the Jonesville/Richmond/West Bolton area where I lived at the time, 20-25 minutes outside of Burlington.

Early on in the storm...

IMG_0769_edited-1.jpg

Later...

IMG_0853_edited-1.jpg

IMG_0858_edited-1.jpg

IMG_0802_edited-1.jpg

The next couple days...

IMG_0984_edited-1.jpg

IMG_0994_edited-1.jpg

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