Fozz

Light snow!

I considered Elk. I'd like to check it out one day. But I think tomorrow I'll be at Whitetail. Meanwhile southern VT will be getting crushed so hope you enjoy that!

For me the appeal of Hunter is the fact that I have a pass, and it has 1600' vertical, and a major storm is practically a lock. Also considering Camelback but I don't have the pass for it. Big Boulder and Jack Frost are much less impressive and barely open.

Hunter mountain is about as far from my location as Snowshoe, and plenty of posters here are willing to drive to Snowshoe. Just sayin...

It’s a lot drier tho… and likely more realistic than past runs.

That storm was incredible, especially the upslope. I stayed in Accident and drove all the way to Timberline in some of the wildest blizzard conditions I’ve ever seen, and the skiing conditions felt so much like classic Northern New England. I think the final total was ~18”. I’d love for a repeat.

Good upslope requires a stronger surface low than what this storm is offering.

If this holds then I’m skinning all the way to the top of Whitetail even if they’re too bone-headed to reopen.

I bet 20 years ago it would've actually looked like that.

I wish I measured during that storm. It was probably similar in my location, I remember it really coming down hard in the early morning hours with a lot more snow than most were expecting. Then it changed to rain for some time. Then the overnight coastal. Probably the biggest December storm I’ve seen until 2009.

The sounding just has to be entirely left of the 0C line to be snow.

That was the storm that turned my elevation into a meme. Nearly 6” IMBY while the other side of town at 250’ had 2.5” of slop. And I was very annoying about it. I think it’s up in their air where that line will be this time. It could just as easily have a 2/3/2014 or Oct 2011 gradient.

Alta was incredible last January with multiple 20"+ storms. Couldn't have picked a better time.

I checked my iPhone weather app for my area, clicked on Saturday, selected Precipitation on the drop down, and wouldn't you know, it's calling for 13" of snow, nearly all of it before midnight Saturday night.

Usually only the really good winters have these kinds of sudden shifts for the better in the medium range. I can't say if this storm or this winter will be the same but it sure as hell isn't last year.

Just saw the GFS and GGEM... this must be too good to be true.

I think that’s also why many won’t just be happy with a 2-3” event, especially those who haven’t seen a warning-level storm in almost 8 years.

Yeah at this point cautious optimism is the way to go. A lot could change. It’s great to have a legit storm to track. And best of all if this doesn’t work IMBY there’s always ski country.

I would too, but I’m not sure I believe this map if it were to play out with those temp profiles.

Whitetail might be in store for Sunday if it’s any warmer than this…

So it sounds like it was at least 80% NS-driven, so might as well be considered a Miller B. That was probably the most intense snowstorm I've ever seen IMBY, with the way it just blew up at the perfect moment to clobber all of northern MD. Made even the other historic storms look very gentle, so I can see why a setup like that so rarely works out for us, whereas coastal New England is probably much more familiar with that type of system. I do remember many posters being nervous and skeptical of whether it would even work out, in spite of the perfect H5 vort passes that were modeled (probably due to the insane NAO), just because that type of Miller B screws us over nearly every other time.

The big ones rarely ever hit during midweek. I don't know why.

Was Feb 10, 2010 a purely NS-driven storm? Or did it phase with any STJ component?

As I recall it's rare to get a big one (10"+) before the 2nd half of January. Another reason to be cautious.

Taken verbatim, the GFS would give most of us a very scenic plastering.