PhineasC

Big wind and sideways rain/sleet. Fun stuff.

No AC at the house up here, so the humidity and upper 80s/90s stuff we got a lot of last summer really sucks. We plan to come back to Randolph this summer whenever the weather looks nice (the low to mid 70s and low humidity I was promised in the tourism brochure).

FL for part of April, and then DE in May.

I will be gone April and most of May.

Really breezy out there. Nasty.

I had a feeling I would get a bunch of rain and cold finally in April. Sucks.

It’ll never beat the mighty UKMET.

Nice try, it’s paved now!

Woo hoo flood watch!

Yeah, just never seemed to get going there this year. The lack of natural snow really hurt them, IMO. I don't think that fact can just be sugarcoated with some feel-good Northern Greens VT vibes this time. LOL They just plain didn't get enough snow to make up the delta. I watched it all season. They underperformed on the big synoptic events that gave Randolph a 30" base. In the mid-January event they were raining at the summit while I was heavy snow. Having spotty snowmaking would have really hurt this season given the above. I locked in my season passes there for next winter, so we are going to make Wildcat work either way.

If it’s not going to snow it may as well torch now. 30s are pointless with the ski hills all melted out.

My wife went by Wildcat today and said it appeared to be a disaster. Many open areas on the trails. They had bare spots in mid feb, so... not a big surprise.

Remember when they told us to stop being so pessimistic about this big snowstorm because it had so much model support? LOL

Looking to get one more week at BW and then packing it in for the season. The main trails with man-made seem to still be good to go.

The fact that tomorrow is another rainy cutter hurts much less now that my pack is gone and winter appears to be dead. Basically just a spring rainstorm. Good for the well and the trees.

All I have here now are plow piles. Some are still 3-4’ feet tall but I don’t consider that to be a “pack.”

LOL

Seems like yesterday was nail in the coffin for most natural stuff. Sunday will wipe out whatever is left of natural trails.

Just do what Cannon should do and tell people to pack both a life preserver and ice-tuned racing skis.

This all being said, I was very happy with the retention this year. It was actually amazing to me. It was also amazing how a light switch was flipped in mid-March and the snow started to melt on cue. A grade for retention in my spot, especially given the lack of meaningful snowfall for Feb and March and the fact that Grinch wiped out 10-15” on Christmas. If that hadn’t happened I would have had great depth all winter.

Well, that whole area is more shaded than my plot so he isn’t being totally deceptive, I suppose. If I measured for CoCoRaHS in my front yard above the septic drain field it wouldn’t be representative either. LOL I do think he found the weeniest spot and measures there, but his topography is much better for retention here in late season than my spot. Like I said, I tracked closely with him all winter until a couple weeks ago.

Through all of Jan, feb and most of mar, my snow depth obs were right on accurate with my neighbor. It wasn’t until this warm and rain spell started that the gap opened up and my snow melted out pretty quickly and he was still reporting a foot plus with “full coverage.” I definitely went up there a few times and was scratching my head about it. I guess you can observe melt patterns over the years and just stick your depth stake in that spot to take your measurements for CoCoRaHS. Makes me question many of the late season depth reports, especially at the ski places.

I go up to his place all the time. My take is that his numbers are a little inflated. For example, he was saying a couple days ago he still had nearly full coverage in the fields and woods. That was bullshit when I went up there. I found many bare areas, anywhere facing south. One thing to remember is my property is probably the most open and south-facing plot there is in all of Randolph Hill. The CoCoRaHS guy is in thick forest and his plot is flat instead of sloped towards the south. He has a huge barn in the middle of his wooded area with a field behind it, and that is apparently where he does his measurements. I could see that holding on to snow for a long time. There is still some snow there now. So the conclusion is he isn’t slant-sticking per se, but he is measuring in a nano-climate spot basically. Also, my south facing cam is not going to be a great judge of depth compared to even the other side of my house. It gets baked with solar every day.

Some light snow here now.

Yeah, looked really weird in the headlights at first with the mist and rain falling. Freaked us out a little. Kinda like an alien lumbering off into the woods. They have a strange gait, not really like a deer at all, IMO. Looked like a juvenile male to me but only got the best look at the back half as it took off quickly.