PhineasC

Measuring in many areas in NNE definitely requires a lot of diligence. I think that if you asked some random person who doesn't care much about the weather in his town how much snowfall he receives a season he'd say something like "100 inches or so." Unless you are counting every .5" of fluff before it blows away or sublimates you will lose quite a bit over the course of a season. The "stick a ruler in the pile every few days" method misses so much snow. You can see it pretty well in J. Spin's obs. His depth is still at 20" despite having a really solid month of snow. Just sticking a ruler in the pack every other day wouldn't capture most of what actually fell at his site in February.

It cracks me up how different it is from the v16 almost all the time. They are often hundreds of miles apart with a totally different evolution for events. Complete outliers from each other. Father and son hate each other.

The GFS has been totally off the rails on this event all along. It held onto the warm cutter idea the longest.

The models all have me in a pretty hellacious dry zone tomorrow, but this setup seems like it should be decent here. East or southeast winds when the precip is coming in. Another near miss would be annoying. It's like I turned into freaking Whitefield over here.

There have been some serious boring stretches this winter. Retention had been fantastic since Grinch, however, so even with the lack of bigger storms I still have nearly 30” OTG.

Haven’t had a snowfall over 2” since Feb 2.

Yeah, I was just poking fun. I used to believe that “fake snow” stuff when I lived in MD but now I know the real story.

LOL fake snow.

Yep, we are on the same page! I am definitely still in learning mode here, but the overall picture for the climo here is starting to emerge for me. The mid Jan storm was interesting as I mentioned because I managed to keep pace even with those lofty ski peaks in that particular event. That was a great setup for my area. I think my spot does a lot of things reasonably well without excelling in any one area (other than perhaps strong east flow events which have been lacking this winter and are fickle as you know). Clearly, the big 240” winters in Randolph feature a lot of wound-up coastal lows throwing oceanic moisture in here on east winds. Basically my version of blocked upslope flow. I can squeeze every last flake of snow out of a big coastal it seems, even as Bretton Woods is being downsloped and Wildcat has turned to sleet and rain. That’s why I have been begging for a big low to pass over SE Mass into the GOM. As I noted in a prior post, I think my site “keeps up” with the Northern Greens in upslope in the sense that we tend to be snowing generally around the same times and for the same basic reasons. But you have the clear edge on sustained snowfall and accumulations from upslope. But I still enjoy plenty of 1-3” refreshers here! Just received one today! Of course, weather is a very complex system and there will always be events that buck the averages. It will be neat to watch over the next few years as the averages shake out.

My wife and I were saying earlier how much we miss night skiing. I grew up on the stuff. My dad worked all day and then after school we’d jump in the car and head up to the local ice piles north of Baltimore to ski in the dark. There seems to be no night skiing up here in NNE right now. I remember BW having it when I was a kid but it’s shut down now I guess. Perhaps another victim of the damned virus. There is really something magical about night skiing under the lights.

Every single time I peek into this thread you are arguing with someone and trying to snuff out discussion. Has it ever occurred to you that you are the problem here?

Due S winds. I get crushed on E winds. I love those events. Not been enough of them this winter.

Yep, that was the early Feb good synoptic event. Solid E flow setup. It's been all refreshers since. Below average month, but great retention. Still about 30" out there. Been that same reading all month.

Really nice look for our areas. I always like to see that stripe of more precip extending from eastern NH northeast into ME.

Hmm, interesting data point. There was a storm earlier in the season (the October snow I think) where the west part of the town did quite a bit better than here. It's definitely noticeable if you are dealing with a cold front pushing west with the precip. I don't seem to do too well in those setups as the precip seems to race through but the cold front gets hung up. I will say just anecdotally when I drive down towards Jefferson the upslope seems to slacken from here, but I haven't done any really scientific observations. I know Alex has also observed that Jefferson is a bit of a hole for upslope but this other observer is further east. There are definitely some dud scenarios here but I feel like I have a really good combo of being able to do a little of everything here: synoptic, upslope, and retention. Fewer ways to get skunked than other places and the snow season is about as long as it can be in NNE. My snow depth is still near the top of the rankings across the area (outside the ski peaks) even though there hasn't been a storm over 2" since Feb 2.

Sounds like Wildcat. I think that place tries to cultivate a "natural" vibe but it just comes across as lazy to me.

LOL that explains a lot actually.

Thanks man! Will need to study this post further.

@CoastalWx @dendrite Stupid question. what level should I be looking at typically for wind direction to determine downsloping risk for here? It’s kinda complicated by the peaks in the way, sometimes the moisture flow seems more affected than other times.

It has been much busier this week than in prior weeks. We only ski midweek so can’t comment on the weekends. It seemed like NJ schools were on break this week? Lots of Jersey shore types out there.

We would have fun skiing. I am a firm and fast surface guy. Once it goes to mashed potatoes it’s less fun. I do some bumps and trees with the kids but I don’t find it that enjoyable.

The GYX snowfall map seems a tad bearish to me. They are overplaying the rain angle I think. The latest AFD is not inspiring, to say the least. More fog talk than anything. LOL

If there is a storm pumping big moisture on E or NE winds with cold temps, I would put my spot against any other inhabited place in NNE. I think it was PF who observed that is my version of a blocked upslope flow.

I don’t get the 7-10 in a day or two upslope stuff that NVT can get. After the mid Jan storm I racked up over a foot of upslope after the storm passed, over the course of a week. So a good setup can produce. Usually I get 1-3” refreshers with good regularity. There are definitely several synoptic setups where Randolph can stack up to any place in NNE. My totals kept up with the Northern Greens ski peaks in the mid-Jan storm for example. Just one winter here but my read is that I am in the game for basically everything from any direction but due south. I get downsloped from that direction. I lag behind a little in upslope (although I am fairly similar in totals to Alex most times) but have an edge over NVT with many synoptic setups and possibly retention (at the 1500 and below level). Obviously the ski peaks at 3000+ are a different beast).

LOL this is like me leaving Randolph to go to Ski Liberty in southern PA “for fun.”